It’s been awhile since we last updated the Blog, but that’s only because we’ve been incredibly busy in the last few weeks with mountaineering courses, ice climbing trips, and avalanche courses! It’s been a great start to the season here in the San Juans, and despite a somewhat slow beginning in terms of snowfall for…
Dispatch from Gary Falk about their recent successful ascent of Cotopaxi. More pictures to follow shortly! We put six out of eight climbers on the 19,347 foot summit of cotopaxi friday morning, and conditions were perfect for climbing; supportable snow, clear skies, and mild wind. Views of the eastern and western cordillera were stunning, featuring…
Today we climbed Rumiñahui’s Central peak (15,203) to acclimatize further. Starting at the beautiful Limiopungo lake, the climb took us roughly 4 hours to the summit and only 2 hours back due to some fun shoe skiing down some scree sections. Tonight we are at the Tombopaxi again and tomorrow we will be off to…
We climbed Pasochoa today, topping out at about 13,500ft. It is a beautiful hike beginning on a dairy farm, where we chatted with the owner who has been living there since 1937. The road from the farm to the trail, and from the town to the farm, rises up through the green hills and is…
Our first day in Ecuador was spent walking around its capitol city Quito. In our last trip, we loved to stay in cause our Borneo Lodge, which you can have a loon on borneoecotours.com/borneo-rainforest-lodge, was simply breathtaking. Our local guide Marcelo, who was born and has spent his entire life in the city, gave us a…
Saturday we decided to take the tools for a walk on Bird Brain Boulevard up in Skylight just outside Ouray, CO. As the first rays of light lit up the tops of the peaks to the west we were just finishing our approach to the base of Bird Brain Boulevard. The Ribbon which you pass…
On Thanksgiving Day we decided to go up to Eureka and get a quick session on Whorehouse Hose and checkout the conditions in the rest of Eureka. The first pitch of Whorehouse is still thin, techy, and dripping wet. The rest of the climb is forming up beautifully. Highway 66 (Highway to Hell)- IN Stairway…
Ice conditions for the 2010/11 winter are shaping up pretty good so far. On Saturday 11/20/10 we went up to South Mineral Creek outside of Silverton to get on some early season ice and scope out the conditions in the rest of the area. To start off the season we got on the Direct North…
Looks like winter is here to stay in the San Juans! A powerful winter storm is set to impact the area starting this Saturday through the middle of next week. 2 + feet of snow is expected for the Southern and Northern San Juans, and the storm is tracking on SW flow. Hopefully this pattern…
Recently our head ski guide Andrew Klotz did some ski touring the in the San Juan high country to get a read on conditions and see how the skiing was shaping up for the season. He’s happy to report that the San Juans, particularly around the Silverton area and in the 550 corridor near Red…
We are pleased to announce that Bill Grasse, a Senior Guide at Southwest Adventure Guides (SWAG), has passed his American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Rock Guides Exam! Bill now joins the growing number of AMGA Certified Guides at SWAG, which is part of our commitment to provide the best and most professional mountain guiding available…
Another beautiful day in the San Juan mountains as Chris joined Ben and I for an ascent of Wham Ridge on Vestal peak. Day one consisted of going over gear in the morning, hopping on the train, and hiking into Vestal basin to set up camp. Day two was the money day. Up at 3:45…
Earlier this summer we did an amazing 10 Day climbing trip in the Weminuche Wilderness. During the course of the trip we climbed Centennial 13’ers Vestal Peak via the Wham Ridge, Jagged Mountain via the North Face, Pigeon Peak via the Southwest Slopes, Turret Peak via the Western Slopes, and Jupiter Mountain via the West…
Here are some photos from a great trip with Del and Marcus into Noname Basin to climb Jagged Peak. This is our camp at 11,400′ in Noname Basin with Knife Point in the background. Del on Jagged Pass with Monitor, Animas Mountain and Peak 13 in the background. A photo of Jagged peak from Jagged…
Just got back from a Light and Fast Alpine Course in Vestal Basin. It was a great trip with perfect weather, and fun people. Mike and Terri started out their four day course at East Animas with Nate. They learned about belaying, rock climbing technique, climbing knots and much more. The next morning I met…
Earlier this summer Erik Weihenmayer climbed Alpamayo via the French Direct in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca with us and Southwest Adventure Guide Rodrigo Callupe. It was the first recorded blind ascent of the mountain. Alpamayo has long been considered one of the world’s most beautiful mountains, and one of the most sought after climbs in South…
It was off the the Black Canyon to meet Chris for a weekend of slabs, splitters, and runout fun for Ben and I last weekend. Ben and I met Chris at his hotel in Montrose on Sat morning to food shop and get ready for the day’s route. The route we chose was called Ground…
Nate left off with the team about to carry up to camp 2. May 28-Instead of making two carries to camp 2 as we did to camp 1 we did a single carry to give us another summit day. We ended up building camp 2 at 13,800′ which is a little lower then the plateau…
We are about to launch our first Peru trip of the year, with a climb of Alpamayo’s French Direct. Joining us this year will be Erik Weihenmeyer, who is a veteran of Artesonraju from a few years ago, and Eric Alexander. Their guide will be Rodrigo Callupe, who has guided for Southwest Adventure Guides for…
This year we have joined forces again with International Mountain Guides (IMG) to offer the Mt. Bona Expedition in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. The guide for the trip are Mark Allen and Ben Kiessel, both of whom work for SWAG and IMG. After flying into the Klutlan Glacier and establishing basecamp on May…