Preparation day in Mendoza – organising gear, carbo loading and resting…

At Sao Paulo airport

We’ve landed in a rather chilly Mendoza and are on our way to the Executive hotel.  Everyone is in great spirits.

The team!

Looking fresh after 72 hours of transit

This pic is of my great friend Greg ‘Scud’ Greubel of Eiger Equipment. Greg went to the ends of the earth to hand deliver a brand new MSR reactor high altitude stove to me just before our international flight departed.  Thank you John Fontyn, Greg and Eiger Equipment for the world class service!

Sean […]

And they’re off.  The team are on their way to Mendoza, Argentina to climb the highest in South America (6962 m) and the second highest mountain of the Seven Summits.

From left to right – Sefiso, Thembi, Thagaran and Thebe

Karl and Alex

Today the trail continued to the base of the Stanley glacier.  After climbing onto the glacier and crossing the Stanley Plateau, they proceeded to the summit which took about 7 hours.   Sean said it was quite treacherous reaching the summit because of how much the glacier has melted due to climate change.

They descended through […]

From Bujuku hut, the trail climbs through a forest of giant groundsel, up a short metal ladder to ascend the Groundsel Gully as it ascends to Scott-Elliot pass.  Above the gully, a branch in the trail towards the right climbs directly to Elena Hut and Mt Stanley, while the trail on the left leads down […]

I’ve just heard from Sean and he sounded invigorated after today’s trek.  The weather has been great so far.  The route followed the Bujuku River, crossed the Lower Bigo Bog and after a steep climb, reached the Upper Bigo Bog.  Above the bog, after a long steady climb over glacial moraine, criss-crossing the river, they […]

Yesterday the group trekked for about 7 hours up to John Matte hut (named after the founding president of the mountain club of Uganda)  situated in a grove of giant heather.

The trail lead to the Kurt Shafer Bridge which crossed the Mubuku valley.  Beyond the river they climbed through bamboo forest and after a few […]

The climb began yesterday, after Friday’s rest day in Kasese. The group drove from Kasese on Saturday morning to the start of the route, Nyakalengija Gate (1615m) in the Rwenzori National Park, where they met their local guides and porters.

At first, the climbers followed the Mubuki River and then trekked for a long time through […]

Just in from Sean ‘We are in from the wild, wild West. We left Kisoro this morning and are in Kasese now which is fantastic.  We had a great drive through the day. It was a very interesting drive – we went through the Elizabeth crater which is slightly bigger than the average pothole.  Some […]