Pasochoa The Third

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At the third attempt I finally managed to climb the four summits of Pasochoa. The trick is to deviate to the left about 100m before the wall at which I failed the last time. There are some faint traces of a path leading into a witch forest (i.e. Polylepsis trees) just below the rocks. Its pretty steep and the path partially difficult to see through the forest, but it's the only way to bypass the wall. After that there are a few meters through rock, but its not more than a grade I climbing.

As I ascended towards the third summit, fog started creeping up from the inside of the crater. However, the thunderstorm (how could Pasochoa be without a thunderstorm?) started only when I was hiking down on the other side of the mountain. This meant that again the trip was not without an adventure. My plan was to hike to the hydroelectrical plant which is a common way of descending from Pasochoa. However, the description I had was only for hiking up, and it was unclear in which direction to go down. So I took a path which seemed to leed down into the valley. Unfortunately after some kilometers the path ended in a pasture of wild black bulls which meant that I had to flee rapdily across soeme wire fences and ended up climbing up a fair bit again, across a number of further fences. By the time I had found another way down, it was getting dark. Obviously I always have a torch with me. However, the way was long, very long, very, very long, as after a while of going down there was only a road which went around the mountain at the same altitude for miles and miles. Well, to cut a long hike short: I finally arrived at a village called Rumipampa at 23:00 and everybody was fast asleep. There was no public phone and no transport and all houses were dark. I knocked at one house after the other, shouting at the same time that I am an innocent, lost tourist. However, nobody would open. It was raining heavily and only the various dogs were keeping me company. While initially they were barking ferociously, within an hour I had made friends with some of them and they were cuddling up to me. I was trying to phone up some people from my cell phone, but there was no signal. I was finally getting somewhat desperate, not feeling like spending the night in this aguacero (downpur). So I insisted with my knocking at one house, and finally a tiny limping man opened suspiciously. I explained my situation several times and asked whether I could make a phone call from his house. He said he had no phone, and everybody else was sleeping. I repeatedly asked if he had any idea what I could do now. As he did not seem to get the hint, I finally just asked bluntly whether I could sleep in his house. He did not seem to be too pleased, but finally let me sleep on a blanket on the floor of his attic. It was a very poor little house, just filled with some junk. Me appearing there must have been the strangest event the man had in his live. Anyway, I was happy to sleep in the dryness of the attic and with my bivac on top of the blanket I was not too uncomfortable. Early the next morning I made my way back to Quito, not before having presented the man with a postcard of Schloss Neuschwanstein and 10 USD.

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