Letters from an Ecuadorian Expedition: Cotopaxi

Early Saturday morning, after an excellent breakfast at La Estacion, our driver Pablo picked us up with his 4WD. We had a quick stop in the cowboy town of El Machachi to get some food supplies for our Cotopaxi climb. The ride to the refuge is really fascinating as you start in the forested lower elevations all the way to the high deserted alpine plateau of Cotopaxi. It took us about 2 hours to reach the parking lot where we asked Pablo to return in 24 hours to pick us up. It was sunny with foggy patches allowing us to see glimpses of the beautiful volcano. It was really fascinating how white the mountain was and that the glacier started at an elevation of 5000m. We hiked for 40 min to the very popular Juan Rivas hut. The refuge is huge and can lodge up to 120 climbers. We each took one of the tiny beds and locked our gear in one of the hut lockers. We had arrived around 14:00 so we had a bit of time to kill. I was feeling a mild headache so I boiled several liters of water to make tea. Hydration was the key to feeling better at this altitude of 4800m. We took the afternoon to chat with other climbers and gave tips about the other 2 big mountains we had just climbed. At around 17:00, we had our astronaut food and then headed to bed. Outside the weather was really bad, it had snowed a lot and it was extremely foggy. After 2 sleeping pills, I collapsed and started dreaming of the Cotopaxi summit. At 23:30, the buzzer of my alarm woke me up and I got out of bed to prepare some breakfast. The refuge was hustling and bustling as everyone was getting ready for the ascent. Because of the altitude, the boiling took forever. We only managed to get started around 1:00. We were following a large group of climbers, it seems that little amount of people were attempting the climb that night, no more than 50 (compared to the usual 100). We lucked out on the weather, it was a clear night now with almost a full moon. The beginning of the climb was an easy snowfield, this allowed us to pass most groups as we were only 2 and well acclimatized. Besides a team of young american girls, we were the only ones without a guide. We quickly made it to the glacier where we roped up. Suddenly, we were the highest team on the mountain. I was breaking trail for all the other teams. When I was looking back, there was a long line of shiny lights following me. This meant that I would probably be the first one to go through a snowbridge. The ascent started to steepen and our ice axes became necessary. We arrived at a plateau with a gigantic crevasse on our left. Because uncertain of the route I let a guided team take the lead. We traversed on a steep slope above the crevasses. Protecting the route was not necessary as the snow was soft ant allowed deep stabs with ice axes. I thought I had seen big crevasses but what appeared next was unbelievable. A gigantic crevasse that was at least a 100 meters wide. Our only option was to downclimb the beast and climb out the other side. Because of our ice climbing experience, going into the crevasse was a lot of fun, it was only 10 meters deeps so was quickly done. We then walked in a maze of ice all the way to the other side. Climbing out was steep but fairly straight forward. We were then on the side of an enormous glacier overlooked by Yanasacha, a giant rock face covered with ice. We steadily climbed the glacier with a few detours around gigantic crevasses. The moon was reflecting on giant ice falls witch gave an amazing ambiance to the climb. At about 5:00 we were above an ocean of clouds and we could see the moon set with an orange color. I think this was my first moon set ever since it was cloudless and still dark. Our steps were slow and the wind had risen. It was getting cold and my toes were starting to get numb. A glow started on the other side. This was actually bad news as I knew that the summit would get foggy as soon as the sun was out. The last technical step to the summit was a steep ice gully requiring us to hit hard with the axes and to front point with our crampons. After this section it was a slow, very slow walk to the summit crater. It took us 10 minutes to do the last 100 meters. We finally arrived at the top, 5865m, we were on the summit of the highest active volcano in the world. Unfortunately we could not see the crater as it was all fogged up. We enjoyed our success, took some pictured and videos and headed back down. We were the only unguided group that had made it tot he summit that day. On our way down, we met the team of american girls that had turned around just a 100 m under the summit. They had hit their headwall and felt that turning around was there safest option, they were very wise. As we descended some views cleared up and we got to see the Illinizas and another big mountain, El Antisanal. The descent was fast but also offered the opportunity of many pictures. By 9:30 we were back at the hut ready to pack. Pablo was waiting for us at the parking lot where he drove us back to Quito. We are now relaxing in Quito, traveling to nearby towns to discover the Andean culture. This Thursday, at 8:30, our driver Pablo will pick us up to drive to Chimborazo refuge where will attempt to ascend the volcano in the night, our grand climbing finally. At 6310 meters, this will be our most challenging climb. Although technically easy, we will have to be in perfect shape to make it to the summit. We will be back Friday afternoon, hopefully with another summit success...