Ecuador was actually Matt's vacation pick (as opposed to everyone else we've been, where I just dragged Matt along) and one of his major objectives was to climb a big peak. Ecuador has a ton of big peaks that are pretty accessible and not overly technical. We spent some time deciding which one to do and ended up settling on one of the easi(er) ones because a) it had many more clear days than the others, so better chance of summiting b) was not-difficult enough that we didn't need to spend the whole trip acclimatizing/training so hard that we were exhausted (see Peru/Bolivia trip where we did exactly that).
Cotopaxi is 19,347ft tall and is usually done in two days. We had a bit (ok a major) snafu in terms of who our guide was going to be, but we ended up with Veloz Expidiciones out of Riobamba and were extremely happy with them. Ivo (owner) and our other guide Paul we super friendly and fun, and more importantly: very experienced and knowledgeable. They also played a little trick on me where they didn't tell me they spoke English for the first eight hours. So I suffered through with my terrible Spanish, translating for the others, etc. Hardy-har.
We met up with them in Riobamba, got our gear together, and then made the drive out to the mountain. Day 1 was easy, we had a 1 hour hike up to the refuge, which was at right about 17k ft.Once at the hut, we set about the arduous tasks of acclimatizing (sitting) and hydrating (pounding coca tea). Ivo and Paul cooked up an amazing feast for dinner and by 6 it was time to head to bed to attempt a few hours of rest (sleep being impossible in a 40 person bunk room at 6pm at 17000 ft).
That’s when the fun really began – the sky brightened quickly and we could suddenly see the surrounding mountains, the ice formations, the snow drifting, the scary but beautiful serac and crevasse. I’ll let the pictures do the talking from here, but it was a gorgeous descent that we thoroughly enjoyed.
Cotopaxi is 19,347ft tall and is usually done in two days. We had a bit (ok a major) snafu in terms of who our guide was going to be, but we ended up with Veloz Expidiciones out of Riobamba and were extremely happy with them. Ivo (owner) and our other guide Paul we super friendly and fun, and more importantly: very experienced and knowledgeable. They also played a little trick on me where they didn't tell me they spoke English for the first eight hours. So I suffered through with my terrible Spanish, translating for the others, etc. Hardy-har.
We met up with them in Riobamba, got our gear together, and then made the drive out to the mountain. Day 1 was easy, we had a 1 hour hike up to the refuge, which was at right about 17k ft.Once at the hut, we set about the arduous tasks of acclimatizing (sitting) and hydrating (pounding coca tea). Ivo and Paul cooked up an amazing feast for dinner and by 6 it was time to head to bed to attempt a few hours of rest (sleep being impossible in a 40 person bunk room at 6pm at 17000 ft).
Our group intended to get a midnight start and Ivo had pegged us at a 6 hours to summit pace, meaning we would have gotten there around sunrise at 7am (an hour to gear up). Unfortunately, some other folks were starting at 11 and there was no hope for sleep so after some bread and tea, we donned everything we owned (3 layers on bottom, 4 on top, hat, 2 pair socks, plastic mountaineering boots, crampons, ice axe, harness, helmet), roped up to each other, and hit the mountain at midnight. It was pitch black, the stars were shining, and there was nothing to see except strings of headlights ahead and behind.
We climbed slowly but steadily for hours, taking a few breaks but mainly just putting one foot in front of the other, on steep to steeper to not as steep ice. It was frigid, and got windier as we neared the top, so everyone was motivated to keep moving. Eventually the tubes to our drinking water froze, but we were near enough to done that it was ok. Matt’s headlight stopped working (froze, we think, since it later revived) but it was near enough to dawn that he just followed in my footsteps. All three (five) of us made it to the top with no drama, sickness, or real issues. Unfortunately, we had killed our estimate and it took us only 5 hours to summit, so the edge of the horizon was just beginning to brighten as we arrived. We could see Quito in the distance, and a bare outline of some other mountains, but we were coated in frost, too cold to smile, and the camera refused to function for the first 10 minutes due to cold. We spent 15 happy but frigid minutes on top and then turned downward.
That’s when the fun really began – the sky brightened quickly and we could suddenly see the surrounding mountains, the ice formations, the snow drifting, the scary but beautiful serac and crevasse. I’ll let the pictures do the talking from here, but it was a gorgeous descent that we thoroughly enjoyed.
too cold - flash isn't happy
frozen faces
finally some light
??
And that was it – we re-packed at the hut, made the crappy final descent on dirt in plastic boots, and made our way back to Quito. We were
beyond lucky to have such a gorgeous clear day, great health and fitness, and
awesome guides. These days always make the training worth it and remind us how
awesome it is to be on top of these huge mountains. Cheers, Ecuador.
