Cotopaxi

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Cotopaxi sits in Central Ecuador in the Avenue of Volcanoes. It's the highest snow-capped active Volcano in the world, at 5897m. Taking out preparation a bit too seriously, we attended a vulcanology lecture in Quito and were informed that a large volcanic explosion was due on Cotopaxi within the next two years. In fact by 'due', it is 70% likely to be this year. This put us off the idea a little bit as the vulcanologist presenting the lecture was a bit of a doom merchant. The title of the lecture was 'Everyone in Quito will die this year'. Well not word for word but that was the gist.

The altitude is a significant worry when attempting a climb like this. Supposedly only 1 in 10 make it for reasons including the cold (it drops to minus 15 c), altitude sickness, fear (you climb at night through crevasse fields and up steep slopes of ice and rock) and lack of fitness. Needless to say the last factor was not going to effect us!

We hired a guide to climb Illiniza Norte (5126m) the previous day as a warm up and to help acclimatise. Breathing up there is tough and while the guide jumped from rock to rock singing Bon Jovi (so really it was from rock to rock to rock) we struggled for air and pressed up to the summit. We got there and scree skied down in just under two hours.

Our guides for Cotopaxi were Washington and Pato. They're combined total of 50 years guiding instilled confidence but the discovery that they had equipped me with faulty crampons and two right gloves did not. They fixed the crampons with a bit of shoe lace in the end - state of the art in Ecuador.

We left at 01:00 hours (army) and trudged up in the snow and ice on what should have been a 5 hour climb intending to arrive at the summit for sunrise. We wore headlamps (so as to be able to miss all the crevasses that we were previously told didn't exist), harnesses (so as to not fall in the crevasses), and crampons (so as not to slip into a crevasse). If that hasn´t made it clear, I'm a bit concerned about crevasses having read a few books on Everest ascents. On Cotopaxi some of them are as deep as 100m and just a couple of metres wide. I can tell you that pitch black conditions are not best suited to navigating crevasse fields and we were silent as we concentrated on every foot placement.

At over 5200m Lindsay (who hadn't slept in 24 hours) started feeling nauseous due to the high altitude and was told that she had to go down. She didn´t want to but the guides insisted. She descended, but, naturally, she decided after an hour or so sleep to get back out on the ice and have another go! She again got to 5200m and met us on our descent. In effect, she was doing hill reps on Cotopaxi. I continued with Pato and we stumbled on and on up numerous brown trousers moments until finally at 6:30 we reached the top and found ourselves enjoying sunrise above the clouds with the peaks of Ecuador's other great Volcanoes poking through. It was equally amazing to peep into the crater and see fumaroles rising into the sky.

What a climb. Lindsay was annoyed that mother nature had stopped her but happy that she had equaled our total ascent during her training session. The photos tell the story much better so please take a look at your convenience and let me know what you think. I think they're inspirational!

In two days time we head for the Amazon. Day one is a 9 hour bus journey to a small indigenous town followed by a 7 hour canoe ride along the Rio Napo, a tributary of the Amazon river . We then share a tent with all those nasty things you see on ´I'm a celebrity´. I have purchased an all in one mosquito net which will guard every inch of skin, organ and orifice from those nasty little things. We're going with two 20 year old Aussies who, on our first meeting, asked us if we would be interested in trying Ayauasca, the Huaorani people's hallucinogen and similar in its effects to LSD. It could be interesting.

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Photos

Lindsay and I on Illiniza Norte
The Summit (5126m)

Cotopaxi at 5500m
Looking up at the summit from 400m below.

Comments

[Linda, Philip, Dave and Louise]

Wow
We've just all seen the entry together here - brilliant! Well done - look forward to the next instalment. PLEASE take care on your jungle trip......Love from us all

[Scott Thistleton]

AMAZING
Fantastic pictures and truly impressive achievement - particularly impressed by the vulcanology lecture! I wasn't jealous until now...Linz I can just imagine you telling the guides where to go when they insisted you descend!

[Sandra & Bill]

breathless
you have no idea how envious we are. keep writing.

[Kevin]

Awesome
George and Linz these are awesome. I am so proud of you and understand the feelings from your photos. Great job. My daughter used Ayauasca while in Peru and from her experience, remember it is an all day/night sometimes three day experience where you will be guided. If you don't trust your guides don't do it. Did you use any coca leaves for altitude? Great job.