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Published: November 25th 2008
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El Altar is an extinct volcano on the western side of the Sangay National Park, 170 km south of Quito. The Spanish named it as such as it resembled a huge cathedral to them. The
indigenas call it Capac-Urcu, which means "Great Mountain" in Quechua. El Altar is one of the most challenging mountains in Ecuador and has a total of nine summits, all of which have church-related names. El Obispo, with 5319 m the highest peak, was the first one to be climbed, in July 1963 by an Italian team.
I never aimed to summit any of the peaks, as they are all too dificult for my capabilities. My goal was to reach Laguna Amarilla, the crater lake from which there supposedly is a great view onto the summits - that is, if the day is clear.
From Riobamba I took a bus to the village of Candelaria. I stayed the night in
Hacienda Releche, at the very end of the village. I was the only guest at the time. While it's a beautiful old hacienda, it was a bit run-down at the time and somewhat overpriced. The hacienda's guide was already up on the mountain with some
clients, so I decided to go by myself once again. Everybody re-assured me the path was very easy to find and there was no risk of getting lost. I should meet Sergio, the guide on his way down when he would be handing me the keys to the refugio at the
Collantes Plain. They also advised me to rent rubber boots. Which was indeed a valuable advise. Guess why??? Yes, right: lodo, lodo, lodo (= mud, for those of you haven't learned that word yet from my previous posts....;-)), more than ever.
I did indeed meet Sergio and his guests, a Dutch couple, on the way. He handed me the keys to the refugio. When I reached the refugio, I put my big backpack into the kitchen and then headed on as I was hoping to reach the
Laguna Amarilla the same day. Sergio had told me to always stay on the left after the refugio and to never cross the river, then to head up a ridge. So I walked along the left hand side of the
Collantes Plain until its end where I searched for the path. As Sergio had told me not to cross the river
I followed some cow paths on the very left hand side. While they were initially easily to follow, it got steeper and steeper until I finally realized at underneath a waterfall and steep rock walls that this could not have been the correct path. At the same time I saw a group of three coming down the ridge to my left. We waved at each other and met a while later at the bottom of the ridge. It turned out that two of the girls were scientists working at Sangay park who had come here for the weekend, together with a friend from Riobamba. They had been up to Laguna Amarilla. Apparently one had to cross some of the smaller rivers to get to the correct path, just not the main river. We walked together back through the plain to the place where they had left their tent. They told me they did realize that tourists were missing maps and better sign-posting in the park, and they were planning to set up basic sing-posting, but the park just had very little financial means - not like Parque Nacional Cajas which is much better cared for. The group set up their
tent rapidly as it was already getting dark. I ran down towards the refugio and also reached it in darkness. I now had to find the hut in which I was supposed to sleep. I went with the key from hut to hut, but none of them would open...I went for a second round - again none of the doors opened... The idea of sleeping in the kitchen didn't appeal too much to me...and it was cold, very cold and dark, very dark....I tried one last time, and finally one of the doors opened with difficulty...I was relieved...
The next morning I got up early, just to find heavy rain pouring down and everything a little higher up covered in snow. Anyway, weather can't stop me any more and so I headed back across the Collantes plain, and this time towards the correct ridge. When I passed my friends from yesterday's tent, I shouted a merry 'Buenos dias' and after a while the sleepy face of the guy came out of the tent. He told me that the - after seeing the weather -the group had decided to have a sleep in, and then to head down. I made
my way up the ridge and it got colder and colder and soon I was in the middle of heavy snow fall. My feet in my rubber boots got freezing. While the path should normally not be too difficult, there were some steep rocky parts where it was a bit difficult to climb up on the snow. Anyway, I reached the Laguna Amarilla - which was quite impressive. However, there was no view at all of the summits, as it continued snowing heavily. So I rather soon turned back and headed down. As I was so cold I was thinking all the time of a hot bath, and finally decided to change my plans and not to head to the Inca Trail the next day, as originally planned, but to have a break in BaƱos.
I had a quick lunch break at the refugio, then packed my stuff and headed down through the now extremely heavy and deep mud - hour after long hour until I reached late at night the Hacienda Releche.
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