Vail Climber Launches Ash to Altitude for Antarctic Summit

Aspen —Nicole Otake stood on the muddy slope of Papua New Guinea’s Mount Giluwe, watching prehistoric-looking birds run through the highlands. She was 32 years old, wet to the bone, and staring at a landscape that felt like it had been frozen in time.

“It was like being back in time,” Otake told The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins. “It was super remote and super cool.”

Getting there was a logistical nightmare that would make most travelers weep. A driver picked her up at the airport, handed her off to another man and his son, who then connected them to a group of barefoot men carrying handmade spears. That crew led Otake and her partner on a two-day trek through the Western Highlands. It was grueling, muddy, and completely off the grid.

But for Otake, a resident of Vail, it was just another checkbox.

Giluwe is the highest volcano in Oceania at 14,327 feet. It ranks as the fourth stop on her personal checklist: the Seven Volcanic Summits, the highest volcanoes on each continent. Otake has climbed six of them. Only one remains: Mount Sidley in Antarctica.

If she makes it to the top of Sidley, she becomes the first American woman to complete the Seven Volcanic Summits.

The short version? It’s going to be expensive. Sidley is the most remote of the seven peaks and by far the costliest to reach. Otake knows this. She’s done the math.

She didn’t start with a spreadsheet, though. She started because she liked challenges she could quantify. Otake is analytical. She likes lists. The Seven Volcanic Summits gave her a target, but the mountains quickly rewrote her rules. From one summit, she’d look across a valley and spot another peak — unlisted, unknown, rarely climbed.

“Now there are so many mountains that aren’t on any of these lists that are so much higher on my list,” she said.

That shift changed her perspective. She saw how expensive mountaineering really is. She saw how much knowledge it takes to navigate the mountains without paying a premium for someone else’s expertise. And she saw that the sport is still overwhelmingly male, leaving many women without the mentorship or resources they need.

So she built a solution. This year, after losing her remote leadership job that had financed her climbs, Otake launched Ash to Altitude. It’s a small logistics company designed to help people plan their own expeditions without the luxury price tag.

“I really believe people need access to these mountains,” she said.

Make no mistake, this isn’t a charity. It’s a business born from necessity and frustration. Otake is trying to democratize access to high-altitude climbing, a space that has traditionally been gated behind wealth and connections.

The final piece of her puzzle is Antarctica. Mount Sidley sits on the Antarctic Peninsula, a place that requires icebreaker ships, specialized gear, and a budget that makes most locals wince. It is the ultimate test of her philosophy: can you get to a remote peak without breaking the bank?

Otake has spent years proving that logistics are solvable. She’s navigated handoffs in Papua New Guinea and treks through remote highlands. Now she has to navigate the ice.

The community here in Vail knows Otake as a local who spends more time on rock and ice than at home. She’s not a celebrity athlete, but she’s a neighbor with a plan and a spreadsheet to match.

When Otake stands on the summit of Sidley, she won’t just be checking a box. She’ll be proving that the mountains are still open to those willing to do the work.

She’s already packed her bags. The rest is just weather.