Nicole Otake has one mountain left on a seven-continent checklist. Reaching it presents a challenge long before she puts on her climbing gear.
The Vail mountaineer has climbed six of the Seven Volcanic Summits, according to Betsy Welch’s October 8 reporting for The Colorado Sun. The remaining peak is Mount Sidley in Antarctica.
The Sun reports that reaching Sidley can cost roughly $75,000 per person. Otake is seeking sponsors to help make the expedition possible.
But her story is about more than finishing a list. The planning skills she developed along the way have become the foundation of a business intended to help other climbers navigate the costs and complications of their own ambitions.
A Goal That Grew Beyond the Checklist
The Seven Volcanic Summits challenge involves climbing the highest volcano on each continent. It is a different objective from the traditional Seven Summits, which concerns each continent’s highest mountain.
Welch reports that Otake climbed Kilimanjaro in March 2023. The volcanic-summit goal gave her a clear framework: a list to research, expeditions to organize and progress she could measure.
Over time, the list became a starting point rather than the whole purpose.
As Otake and her husband, Rocco, took on more expeditions, they became interested in mountains beyond the famous checklists. Planning routes, transportation and time at altitude became part of the appeal.
The experience was building another skill alongside climbing: knowing how to make a complicated trip happen.
Turning Expedition Planning Into a Business
Otake’s company, Ash to Altitude, focuses on expedition planning and logistics.
Its website describes a model built around working directly with local operators, preparing itineraries and helping climbers get ready. It identifies Nicole and Rocco as the founders and says guiding and expedition operations are carried out by licensed local operators.
That distinction matters. Organizing an expedition and guiding someone on a mountain are different responsibilities.
The company presents its approach as a way to reduce overhead and expand access, particularly for women and underrepresented communities. Those are its stated aims, rather than independently verified guarantees about price or outcomes.
Explore Ash to Altitude’s description of its approach.
The Barriers Start Before the Mountain
Welch’s reporting describes Otake’s growing awareness of the obstacles facing newcomers: equipment costs, travel, time for training, complicated logistics and difficulty finding experienced people to learn from.
Otake wants to make what she has learned more accessible, particularly to women entering the sport.
That does not make a remote expedition simple. Lower costs do not remove the need for preparation, appropriate experience or sound decisions about conditions.
What her business seeks to offer is help with the questions that come before departure—questions that can otherwise keep an ambitious goal out of reach.
What Happens Next?
For Otake, Mount Sidley remains unfinished business.
The Colorado Sun describes her as pursuing the distinction of becoming the first American woman to complete the Seven Volcanic Summits. ECL has not independently verified that record claim, and she has not yet completed the final climb.
Her immediate challenge is securing the resources to reach Antarctica. Meanwhile, the knowledge gained from six volcanic summits is already shaping work beyond her own climbing goals.
For readers in the Vail Valley, that is the local connection: a mountaineer is turning experience gained far from home into a business designed to help others find their way into the mountains.
Read Betsy Welch’s full profile in The Colorado Sun.
Prepared from The Colorado Sun’s October 8, 2026 profile and Ash to Altitude’s published company information. ECL did not interview Otake. The reported expedition cost is an estimate, not a current booking
