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Published: April 29th 2013
With my family winging their way back to the UK, my attention now turned to trying to summit arguably Ecuador's most famous peak – the perfect cone of the Cotopaxi volcano topping out at 5,897metres (for reference Kilamanjaro is a fraction smaller at 5,895m). Given that on my previous travels I had summitted a higher peak (Huayana Potosi at 6,092m) and therefore could appreciate just how tough the summit attempt would be, I prepared as well as I could – eschewing alcohol in the ten days leading up to the summit attempt and climbing three preparatory peaks in the days beforehand.
Unfortunately, the weather during the preparation stages meant that each preparatory summit was shrouded in cloud – so I now have a rather nice collection of photos of me surrounded by a skyline reminiscent of a November lunchtime back in Blighty to mark my achievements!
First up was the 4,696m Rucu Pichincha, on the outskirts of Quito. The first stage of the climb is pretty easy, given that it is done by cable car!! The route then follows a lovely ridge walk approaching the peak, with great views over both Quito on one side and the surrounding valleys
Its a long way up...!!
Photo taken by other guests on the morning I was at the summit. I think if you look really really closely...you still won't be able to see me!!on the other. By the time we had reached the final push to the summit the weather had fully closed in, leaving no real view to the summit. Given the near zero visibility I was slightly unfortunate in picking a route to the summit which was a scramble and climb along a rocky ridge line with a slightly pant-soiling drop into an abyss on my right hand side!! It was only when I reached the summit, and the cloud parted for an instant, that I could see a much safer route back down, which concluded in a scree run that was great fun!
Leaving Quito I returned to the Secret Garden hostel in Cotopaxi, using it as a base for the conclusion of my preparation. First step was to summit Ruminahui at 4,712m. This turned out to be an almost identical hike to Pichincha – following a superb ridge walk up towards the peak, with the weather closing in when we started the final climb to the summit to give me cloudy summit photo number two!
My final preparation was to head up to Cotopaxi itself, and to climb to to highest point that isn't covered in snow
– between 5,150m and 5,200m depending on the weather! This time the weather was even worse than previous days, with no views during the entire trip – just cloud, rain and freezing cold winds! I guess it was good training for what might be in store on the actual summit attempt! We made it up to the glacier, and although it wasn't a very interesting walk it had been very useful as part of my training as I had now made it up to these 3 significant heights without any real issues from the altitude and I was feeling fit and ready to take on the real deal!
Day one of the two day assault on the summit saw my guide turn up promptly with seemingly good quality equipment that mercifully all fitted! It was then a short hike up from the end of the 4WD track (luckily my guide was a better mountaineer than driver as we nearly didn't made it up the track!!) to the refuge at 4,800m where we would be spending the night. That night there were only 6 climbers in a refuge that was designed to cope with up to 60 (another “benefit” of
looking to climb in the rainy season!) so after a hearty 2 course dinner it was bed time at 6p.m, and the lack of bodies meant I was able to “borrow” a second mattress from the bed next to me to ensure a pretty good rest!
We were up around midnight to have breakfast and complete our final preparations. I had a hearty appetite which I took to be a good sign!! Having done this type of thing before (its now the fourth peak of 5,500m or more that I'd be looking to climb) I knew the key was a slow steady pace that was quick enough to keep you warm, but slow enough that you didn't get out of breath or sweat (there would be plenty of time for breathlessness at the higher altitudes!!)
The walk up to the glacier was quite reasonable, and we soon had the crampons on and the ice axes out (although admittedly at this stage I was using mine more as a walking stick than as any sort of macho climbing tool!!). The introduction to the glacier was tough and steep – we seem to be walking straight up the side of
Heading back down
The views across the glacier that I had spent all night slogging my guts out to climb! the volcano (this was definitely a marked difference from Huayana Potosi, where the route took us on a “gentler” 270 degree spiral around the mountain before a brutally tough last section as we used the ice axes to climb from 5,900m to 6,092m). In addition to the brutal steepness of the route up the flank of Cotopaxi, there were also a couple of technical sections where my guide had to rope me up to ice screws in case I fell, and the ice axe and crampons became essential tools rather than handy looking accessories as we climbed 4 – 6 metre high steps! It was certainly good fun to have a bit of this involved in the climb!
We had a rest break at 5,600 metres in a nice sheltered snow cave and I was still feeling good, although at that point we were still in thick, freezing cloud – ably illustrated by the ice forming on the outside of my jacket and in my drinks bottles!! We broached 5,700m and got ourselves above the weather, so we soon had the first rays of an Andean dawn for company which certainly lifted the spirits!! However, shortly after the altitude
Rucu Pichincha summit
The cloud cleared just enough to read the sign! started to become problematic and the last hour and a half or so of climbing was a tough, tough battle to make progress - in between longer and longer rest breaks which saw me hunched over my ice axe desperately trying to coax every last bit of oxygen into my lungs to allow me to continue!! Although it was brutally tough, I never at any stage felt like I was going to have to turn back, although I was almost disbelieving when we make the summit crater and I could finally stop and enjoy the absolutely superb views!!
As always the feeling of elation on reaching the summit was a magical experience that made all the pain that went before worthwhile!! We had also got very lucky with the weather, in that this was to prove by far the best of the 7 or so days that I had spent in Cotopaxi!! After wandering around the summit (which we had completely to ourselves having been the fastest of the groups to the peak), revelling in the achievement, and taking the obligatory summit photos, the start of the walk down was equally breathtaking with amazing views of the glacier and
across to the other high mountain peaks that were poking through the cloud. However, after enjoying the first hour of the descent, exhaustion well and truly kicked in and the rest of the descent was really tough – just a case of putting one foot in front of the other and knowing that an ice cold beer was waiting for me back at the lodge!
Despite Juan's (my guide) best attempts to kill us on the drive down (we ended up out of control in a full 360 degree spin before the ensuing argument led to a much slower conclusion to the journey completed in silence!), that afternoon the beer did taste just as sweet as I'd been hoping!!
I don't think I'll ever be a true Alpinist – in the bad weather things just get too cold for my frail body to make it enjoyable – but the feeling of elation that I get when reaching these big peaks is certainly something that will probably keep me coming back for more, and I'm really pleased to have added such an iconic volcano to my small but growing collection of successful summits!!
Prior to my climb of
Summit of Ruminahui (4,712m)
Could be anywhere - but honestly its the top of a big scary mountain!! Cotopaxi I had spent two weeks studying Spanish in Quito – and slightly counter intuitively, private lessons (with an independent tutor) turned out to be cheaper than signing up for group classes in a language school. My tutor was very friendly, and a great teacher, and the one to one aspects really helped – especially as being 20 hours of one to one lessons per week, they were more intense than I had ever studied previously. I really enjoyed the relaxed style of just being able to talk with Jacqui and zero in on my areas of weakness, and as in my previous schools through Jacqui I was able to secure a local family to live with to complete my experience and continue the improvement of my Spanish.
Quito is a city that I've now probably arrived at, left and returned to more times than any other over a period of 6 weeks or so! It has a reasonable ex-pat community who seem to really enjoy the Quito lifestyle, but although Quito seemed to offer all the attributes that I would like – surrounded by mountains, historic centre and bohemian areas with live music, the city never really captivated
me!! Having left it I can only muse that it was a nice enough place to visit – but wouldn't be somewhere I could live!!
Outside the language school I took a weekend trip to the picturesque village of Mindo, a few hours north west of the capital. Here I managed to find a group tour for tubing on the local river. Based on my previous experiences in Asia I expected it to be a leisurely pootle on a tractor tyre inner enjoying the scenery and the ebb and flow of the waters. However, tubing Ecuador-style was no pleasure cruise, and the other 3 “victims” and I were cast adrift in a set of lashed together inner tubes being bumped up, down, around and over some absolutely huge rocks. It was like an extremely unsafe and less fun version of white water rafting, in freezing cold water which meant my hands were like claws afterwards having maintained a “death grip” on the small bits of rope which constituted our “lifelines”. Looking back I'm feeling lucky I didn't opt for the much longer half day trip!
I've also continued my winning streak in the pub quizzes that I've been
Mindo
Apparently this vegetation is the aptly named "cloud forest" attending. One of the well publicised ex-pat events in Quito is the Tuesday night quiz in the local Irish bar. Turns out that being a little more “worldy”, and having slightly more “water under the bridge” like my good-self, means its surprisingly easy to beat a bunch of slightly naïve (and slightly drunk!!) people in their early 20's!! Therefore after winning (admittedly squeaking home by half a point!!) we took the top prize of $50 of booze vouchers for behind the bar – which obviously made sure the night continued in top form and that language classes the next morning were tougher than usual!
When I returned the following week to defend the crown, I had cunningly made sure that just in case lightning did strike twice, I only had afternoon lessons the following day. Needless to say this time we actually romped home and because we had a smaller team the $50 bounty went even further!!
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