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Cotopaxi
The volcanic craterSo with Caroline gone, we decided there was only one thing for it, thats right we decided to go and climb the worlds largest active volcano....Cotopaxi!! (you can see how the two are linked!) Cotopaxi presents a tricky challenge and Paul who runs the Secret Garden travel agency, Carpe DM, has attempted it three times already, only to be cruelly turned away from the summit like Oliver asking for more food at the orphanage. Well not exactly like Oliver, infact it was due to fatigue and poor weather not a nasty old man, so really I guess it was nothing like that...damn and I thought that analogy made me sound so smart too! But seriously he actually made it 300metres from the top once, only to be turned back by bad weather!
We booked up a three day excursion to give us time to acclimatise, because at 5897 metres above sea level, altitude can have a serious impact on not only your fatigue but also your mental state. So already in Quito, the worlds second highest capital city, we had acclimatised to 2100m, but none the less we opted to do a climb the day before attempting the summit. First
Ready for Action!
Who's a sexy boy! things first we head to the agency to try on our clothing, the equipment was good but none exactly colour co-ordinated.....it soon became clear we were'nt going to be the most fashionable men on the mountain.
And so it begins.....
We get picked up around 9am on day one by our guide Gustavo and his mate Byron and make our way towards Pasachoa, which will be our acclimatisation climb. At only 4225 metres its a good height for adjusting but not too strenuous. We set off and blast ahead of the guides, though to be fair we were only walking our normal rate, halfway in Gustavo looks knackered and tells us to slow down a bit as on Cotopaxi we wont be able to sustain this rate, we apologise and take his advice on board before virtually running to the summit and leaving him in our wake! He eventually catches up with us at the top and tells us inbetween his breaths that 1 hour 40minutes is the fastest he has ever climbed this in, apparantly his previous best is 2 hours! "Shit Chris, we'd btter not tire him out too much, we are relying on this man
The shadows!
now where is Cliff?! to get us up the mountain!" The views at the top arent too bad, except for the mist coming in at the south which denies us our first close up look of Cotopaxi.
Next stop is the hostel at.....I use this term very loosely, it's basically two log cabins with beds and candles...and no matches! Fortunately I remembered my Ray Mears training on how to start a fire, rule number 1: before using the bow and drill technique, always check in the restaurant next door to see if they have matches....and they did! Good old Ray, that bushcraft book has never let me down! Infact I remember one time I was camping and ran out of bog roll, that book came in bloody handy then too!
The whole hostel, restaurant was deserted and it turns out that Gustavo was our chef for the night too...so cooking by headtorch, he knocked us up a great soup and rice/salad dish before we all turned in back at the cabin, at 8pm no less! Well there was nothing else to do and at this altitude it was bloody cold! Fortunately I had my thermal long johns that I bought when I
was trekking in New Zealand one time! (see Frau Uden, told you they would come in handy one day!)
After 12-13 hours sleep, Gustavo wakes us up and we get kitted up in our rather fetching waterproof trousers, climbing boots and jackets. Soon after we are wisked away to the Jose Ribas Refuge, which is a cabin based at 4800 metres one one side of Cotopaxi, Base camp if you will. It's a 1km walk to the refuge from the car park and not an easy one either. The route is steep in places and almost entirely on gravel, which means for each three steps you take, you take one sliding one back! It's also not aided by fact that the sleet is coming down hard and that we are carrying our proper back packs, which although we have shed of all unecessary gear, still contains our crampons, clothes, day packs inside, water and ice axes. On arrival its a wet and cold start to the day and the cabin isn't exactly the Hilton! So when the rest of Team Carpe DM arrive (they did a slightly different acclimatisation program to us) we cant wait to tuck into some
What lies ahead!
Cotopaxi in all its glory! hot food, to warm our cockles! (you know what, as I wrote that last statement, I could feel the nearly 30 cogs grinding that one tooth nearer!...remember people as of this year I am counting back down, cant wait for my 28th birthday in November!)
Once lunch was out of the way, we had a briefing on the route and some training on the use of crampons (the spikes that go on your boots) and ice axes, mainly how to walk in them and how to use your axe incase you start to slide down the mountain. Then at around 5pm it was time to get to bed in anticipation of a midnight wake up, to head for the summit. Im pretty sure nobody slept that night as the girl in bed next to me (well not my bed, they are just really close!) had a bad cough and the one Israeli guy, Jeron, snored very loudly...between them and the combination of me farting in my sleep and uttering satanic verses, it made for an uncomfortable 5 hours, hence when the call did come at midnight, it came as no surprise.
And so it was time to go
Cloud View 1
At daybreak! to work! (god I felt like Stallone in Over the Top where he turns his hat backwards before arm wrestling!) Only we lit our headtorches and made sure we had a final wee before putting the harnesses on. Cris, Gustavo and I are the last to leave the lodge and outside there is a mixture of excitement and anticipation in the air of the task that lies ahead. A half moon illuminates part of the route up until amist moves quickly in to leave us solely at the mercy of our headtorches. The initial walk is a controlled pace on muddy scree, before we reach the glacier, where we put on our crampons and rope up, with Gustavo at the front, then me and finally Chris. Initially we traverse the bottom of the mountain in a zig zag serpent like fashion, which is not too difficult until we reach our first proper incline. The 45 degree incline is slow and I can already feel the stinging bite of the cold in my toes. The snow had obviously softened in the afternoon sunfrom the previous day, and walking on it became difficult as with each footstep, your foot plunged into the
Cloud View
oooh moody! snow, meaning you were relying on your other foor and ice axe to pull you out. We actually enjoyed this bit, but you could hear alot of the others moaning about the difficulties they were having. Gradually the snow became firmer and the angle decreased somewhat to about 36 degrees. This part of the climb was pretty exposed however and a cutting wind was followed by a driving rain. The only girl in team Carpe DM was stopped on the trail ahead of us trying to decide wether she wanted to go on, but she was shivering hard and her lips were blue, bloody blue I tell you! We wished her good luck and pressed on doubting we would see her again. As daylight started to break, we could see some of the unusual and beautiful formations the weather had carved out in the ice.
1 hour and 30 minutes from the summit, daylight is now fully upon us and you can see the 50 degree incline that awaits us, followed by a narrow traverse and finally a 55-60 degree steep incline. JOY.
The first ascent is slow going as we are all following the same path and
Nice Balaclava!
Told you ww were trend setters! after 5 & 1/2 hours of climbing people are starting to tire. When we reach the traverse, thats when things get really tricky, the air becomes thinner with each breath and Gustavo advises us to keep the rope taught as one slip here, especially if you build up momentum from the three metres of loose rope and we could all be heading for a big fall! At this point it becomes mind over pain, particularly when I turn to talk to Chris and he tells me my face has gone yellow in places! My lungs and legs are screaming out for some respite and i've given up on any feeling in my feet!
The final ascent proves to be just sheer determination with us planting the axe, grabbing the snow with your one free hand and literally just dragging yourself up, but no way are we giving up now!
We reach the top and the happiness, joy, relief and pride we feel soon erases all thoughts of aches and pains! The views are literally awe inspiring and as the mist shifts we can see down on the crater at the volcano's peak! Even better every member of Team
Celebrations at the Summit!
Gustavo in the middle sleeping on the job! Carpe DM succeeds in making the summit, even an overjoyed Paul who does it on his fourth attemp and the girl with the blue lips! After a moment of celebration that we are stood at 5987metres/19'642 feet (thats two thirds of the height commercial jets fly at!) we stumble and slide our way back down the mountain, and in places its a lot more dangerous than gong up!
Back at the Secret Garden Hostel in Quito, we find the room we have booked is occupied (Apparantly the couple booked 1 night but just thought they could stay til they decided otherwise!) So very tired and in need of some sleep, but nowhere to go, we celebrate with afew beers and another pizza hut! The manager Colin eventually kicks the door in and Chris heads off to bed, whilst I decide to bravely stay up and defend last weeks pub quiz victory! (well I had no choice, Colin said I should and even introduced me as the reigning champ!) Well im not one to back down from pressure as this story shows and so not only did I defend it, but with a brave Scotsman called Dave and a fellow
Doctor Sam Beckett.....
stepped into the quantum leap accelerator and vanished! brave Mancunian called Andy we bloody well won it!! Cue a second bottle of Ron Del Rio rum in as many weeks and a bloody great celebration piss up!!
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barrygahan
Barry
Cotopaxi sounds fantastic
We're hoping to climb it as well in a week or two. Would you recommend the agency you used? Which one was it? Thanks, Barry