The Guides of Ecuador and Aconcagua

Ecuador Moun­taineer­ing School on Cayambe

We are clos­ing in on the open­ing day of the Ecuador climb­ing sea­son! Our guides in South Amer­i­ca are excit­ed to pre­pare for a great sea­son atop the vol­ca­noes. We’ve got awe­some treks and climbs up peaks such as Cotopaxi, Cayambe, Chimb­o­ra­zo, Anti­sana and Illiniza. For those of you who missed out on the moun­taineer­ing cours­es in the North­west, there is an amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty abroad with our Ecuador Moun­taineer­ing School.

Gas­par Navarette

One of our guides in Ecuador, Gas­par Navar­rette, has been with Moun­tain Mad­ness for near­ly 10 years. His climb­ing routes come from the vol­ca­noes of Ecuador, where he began climb­ing at the ear­ly age of 12. Over the course of his climb­ing career, he has sum­mit­ed most of the Ecuado­ri­an vol­ca­noes, and even holds the record for first ascent of some of them. The most remark­able of first-ascents he accom­plished was the South Peak of Anti­sana dur­ing the course he taught in the 2005 Moun­tain Guides Train­ing when he was in charge of the Ecuado­ri­an Moun­tain Guides School.

In 1998, Gas­par was a mem­ber of the Ecuado­ri­an expe­di­tion to Bolivia, and he has returned every year since for more climb­ing expe­di­tions. Some of his first ascents include peaks in Bolivia while work­ing with the Bolivia Moun­tain Guide School in 2000.

South Sum­mit of Antisana

When not in the moun­tains, Gas­par’s attrac­tion to hors­es has land­ed him a job lead­ing horse­back rid­ing trips for the past three years. When Gas­par was 14, he moved to the coun­try­side of Ecuador in the Cotopaxi Province where he lived on a farm with his uncle’s fam­i­ly. There, his love for hors­es increased and have allowed him to remain out­side in the wilds when not on Moun­tain Mad­ness trips.

Anoth­er client favorite in the Ecuador moun­tains is Oswal­do Freire. Some of you may remem­ber his name from our pre­vi­ous blog posts this year, as he was our lead guide for three suc­cess­ful sum­mits of Mt. Elbrus sev­er­al months ago. Ossy is cur­rent­ly in Nepal, where he will be ascend­ing Pumori, mark­ing the last big climb­ing trip dur­ing what has been a whirl­wind big year for him.

Ossy lead­ing clients up the slopes of Mt. Elbrus

Ear­li­er this year, Ossy spent the 2010 win­ter sea­son in Ecuador. He led climbers on Aconcagua, includ­ing the ascent of the immense 9,000 foot South Face. From there, he head­ed to Cen­tral Asia to sum­mit the dif­fi­cult Khan-Ten­gri (7010m). This was his sec­ond 7000 meter peak of the five in the for­mer Sovi­et Union that lead to the cov­et­ed Snow Leop­ard sta­tus.

After Pumori, Ossy will head home for some R & R before he leads the Ecuador trips from Novem­ber to Jan­u­ary and Aconcagua in February.

Cotopaxi Crater

Join Ossy and Gas­par to hear their tales from on-high start­ing this Novem­ber. Call us to find out how you can join them in South America!