Ricky Munday is a humanitarian aid worker with the Canadian Red Cross in Haiti and team leader of the South America 3 Peaks Expedition. Ricky has been on previous missions to Kenya, Sudan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and mountaineering expeditions in the European Alps, Kyrgzstan, East Africa, New Guinea, Alaska and Mexico. He is joined by Carolina Morales Aragort of Venezuela, an ultrarunner and former competitive mountain biker.

The South America 3 Peaks Project is a 4-week expedition to the High Andes in Argentina & Chile to climb the 3 highest peaks in South America (Aconcagua, Ojos del Salado, Monte Pissis). This expedition is part of a long-term “Triple 7 Summits project” to climb the three highest peaks on each of the seven continents – a feat no one has accomplished before.

Ricky and Carolina have partnered with ASC to make more of their adventure. While climbing the three highest peaks in South America they will be collecting samples of microbes on rocks to help understand the way these mountain ecosystems function, snow and ice samples to help researchers understand the rate and extent of glacial thinning, and repeat photographs of glaciers to better understand and quantify glacial retreat. 

Here’s a video from Ricky collecting his first rock sample on Monte Pissis:

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