Cotopaxi Summit in Ecuador

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Cotopaxi Summit
Avenue of volcanoes 5823 metres High (2 days)

I stayed at the Secret Garden hostel in the Cotopaxi national park 2 hours south of Quito, Cotopaxi Mountain is 5823 metres high, it is even a few metres higher than Kilimanjaro, So our climb started on a Tuesday afternoon in August with my friend from England Richard a journalist working in Asia, We was driven by 4by4 to 4500 metres to where we would stay in the refuge for one night, The first day all we would do is walk from the car park to our accommodation 600metres in heavy windy conditions with all our equipment good practice for the next day, Then unpack have lunch and prepare for the night climb to the summit which would involve our guide teaching us different techniques when walking with crampons going up and down with our equipment.

We ate lunch at 5pm and met the other groups then bed at 6pm until midnight where our guide would wake us for breakfast in order to leave for 1am into the clouds of darkness, I didn’t sleep that well the beds were uncomfortable and the wind you could hear against the windows oh my god I thought!! It’s going to be cold up there, so prepared myself I did, I put on 8 layers on top, 3 pairs of socks and we took a small drop of Whisky to drink on the Summit.

So 1 am arrived and we would start our ascent of another 1423 metres to the summit, the further up we climbed the more regular the breaks were, my friend Richard suffered a little Altitude sickness and I was getting more an more tired in my lower legs because of the incline of the climbing involved, we had to jump over few crevasses gaps in the glacier, you wanted to make sure you made it because the fall would be deadly fortunately we were all roped up together.

We arrived to the summit in 5 and a half hours just as the sun started to rise so for us it was great timing, I remember that I didn’t have the energy to even take pictures so Richard took them all and as you can see me collapsed on the summit it took every ounce of energy out of me. So we didn’t end up drinking the whisky we quickly made it down for our waiting breakfast,

I really enjoyed the challenge of completing the hike up to the summit one of the best things I have done and the hardest physical activity I’ve had to do, and not for the enjoyment factor but for not giving up when it seamed like you just didn’t have the energy to make it, I would advise anyone who wants to attempt a hike like this to prepare in advance and do some training especially in the lower legs and adjust to the acclimatization.
Good Luck!!!

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