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Published: August 5th 2007
In effect, this was the crown jewel of the trip... the objective... the dream. In the month or so leading up to the climb I said to family, friends, and people I met at the hostel that I was going to try to summit Cotopaxi... "try" being the key word. The main problem in climbing Cotopaxi is the altitude (5,897 meters; 19,347 ft) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotopaxi. I did not want to get my hopes up too high, nor anyone else's.
Well, I summited Cotopaxi in about 6.5 hours. 😉 I think it is the most difficult thing, at least physically, that I have ever done. When I was praying, I had this sense that it would be quite the trial... one of the most difficult things in my life to this point... but I kind of discarded it... at the time I had very little idea of what it would require from me to reach the summit... if I really knew then like I do now, I probably would have given up early on or even before we began the trek.
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My guide (Byron) and driver (Gustavo), along with Gustavo's daughter (Fatima), picked me up at the Secret
Dawn
Notice the crescent moon.Garden around 9 AM and headed to Cotopaxi National Park. Along the way we stopped to pick up fruit and have a hearty Ecuadorian lunch in a small town.
We arrived at the park in the afternoon and hiked up to el refugio. We took a rest, had a bite to eat, and then went and practiced necessary treking/climbing techniques (walking on ice and snow with the crampons, breathing, keeping the rope tight, how to use the ice axe, etc.).
The refuge itself is a spacious two-floor building... the top floor contains dozens of bunk beds and storage areas for backpacks and equipment. Downstairs is mainly for socializing, cooking, and eating. I don't think the refuge is heated as it became very cold in there once the sun went down... and people kept leaving the front door wide open when they would go out to use the restroom (a separate little building adjacent to the refuge).
We then had dinner (soup, spaghetti, chocolate, and some herbal/coca leaf tea... yeah, I did say coca leaf... it is supposed to help reduce the effects of the altitude) and headed to bed for about three hours (though I only dozed
From Which We Came
Look close and you can see the trail. off for a few minutes and spent the rest of the time tossing and turning).
There were maybe 25 to 30 other people at the refuge... a few of them were staffing the place... but most were there to climb. I noticed a Japanese group and various groups with European accents and an Ecuadorian guide with most of them.
At 11 PM, we got up and readied to go... headlamps, backpacks, harnesses, boots, ice axes, and everything. I had a little bit of a headache and was feeling a little nauseous... I refused most of the snack food and just nibbled a little bit on a granola bar. I thought about not going up... but decided that if it got worse I would come back down. And, really, though, I did not want to sleep even at 4,800 meters... I thought that by staying awake I could keep my breathing rate up and not get sick or a headache.
So, we set out. The stars looked amazing... absolutely beautiful... maybe the clearest I have ever seen the night sky. The patio outside the refuge had been lightly glazed over with ice in the few hours we were
inside... and snow was lightly blowing around from the wind.
Byron (wearing a pin saying ¨Soldier of Christ¨ in Spanish and a hat saying ¨Todo Bien¨) said a prayer before we began the trek... in the very cold weather we made steady progress. The soil is made up of volcanic ash and rocks... red, black, white, and grey. At night with only our headlamps to light the way (the moon was not out), it felt like we were on some kind of Mars expedition.
Once we reached the glacier, we roped up and put on our crampons. The glacier was very steep. We could see the little headlamps of others in front of us and behind us floating in the blackness like fireflies. We all went slowly and said little. For awhile almost all we could see in any direction was the steep, uniform, glacier slope were climbing... fading into blackness ahead and behind us. In the distance was Quito... flowing and wrapping around its valley home for miles...lighting up the night sky with the outline of Pichincha towering over it.
I was breathing heavily the whole time... it was like 6.5 hours of steady jogging. It
only got worse as we went higher... at times I was very cold... especially when we stopped for rests (a few times I just kind of balled up up on the snow with my back to the frigid wind).
At one point, I was feeling very sapped, tired, cold and unsure how much further I could make it... but I thought I saw the summit coming up soon... I pointed to it and asked Byron ¨Es esto el cumbre?¨, and he said ¨No... dos horas mas¨ or something like that. This was one of many, many points where I almost gave up.
At times, I was concerned I was going to fall over and die (not joking... but I thought, you know what? ... it happens sometime anyway... and I just prayed for God to help me reach the summit, get back down safely, and survive the whole thing). I kept breathing hard and focusing on the next step... infrequently looking backward and forward.
The uneasiness I felt before heading out, along with the headache, had largely subsided and only seemed to return when I slowed my breathing. When we stopped for even I few minutes, I
would begin to shiver pretty hard... most of my muscles including my derriere 😊. It was tough to eat anything, but I forced down a Pemmican bar midway and drank fluids (Gatorade and some hot herbal/coca-leaf tea Byron brought).
After climbing awhile more, once again, I thought I saw the summit, but I did not bother to ask Byron because, frankly, I did not want an answer... then when we got up higher and I saw a much bigger peak in the distance 😊. I just kind of cursed to myself, prayed to God, and pressed on.
At one point, I had a slight dizzy spell and thought about stopping right there and going back... but I kept my breathing up and told myself that if I had a few more or felt something worse... I would probably turn back... but I did not have another dizzy spell. And, of course, I did not want to confuse the symptoms for lack of sleep or exhaustion with altitude sickness, so I did not want to make any rash decisions.
Even when we did finally get in sight of the summit, I was breathing so hard and was so
Gear
The Germans gear. tired and so concerned that I was going to pass out and see my last... that I was unsure if I could make it... unsure how much more I could take. I pondering what lay before me and decided to continue putting one foot in front of the other. I kept breathing about as hard as I could... at times climbing up on all fours... and stopping every 10 to 20 meters to rest. Byron was encouraging.
Before making the final climb he asked if I wanted to go for it and I said ¨Yes¨. Then along the way he kept me going, saying ¨Vamos¨ often.
Near the top, a crescent moon was rising out of the horizon... the horizon began to brighten... turning red fading into blue... as dawn approached. Once the sun began to rise, it cast a shadow of Cotopaxi stretching for miles beyond the mountain (see photos).
I felt out of energy, my lungs hurt as I continued to ask nearly everything from them, my ankles and feet hurt, my legs and arms were tired, and then we finally made the summit... .. and it was beautiful. Making it to the top was
almost unbelievable in my mind and surreal after what I had been through.
We hugged and high-fived... We gazed into Cotopaxi's massive crater and watched hot gases emit from little fumaroles. Byron named off a bunch of the surrounding mountains, too, which seemed so close (but actually many miles away). We could also see clouds forming and rolling through valleys below. We chatted with a group of Germans that made it to the top just ahead of us. Byron then went to a different part of the summit and prayed.
Byron then had me lead the way down the mountain... which took three additional hours. We now were covered in the warm morning sunlight. The last hour was particularly trying as a whole different set of my muscles joined in the exhaustion of the ones used to climb the mountain. And my feet and ankles hurt even more in the stiff climbing boots.
By the end of the 9.5 hour trek I was feeling nauseous and extremely tired. We packed up our bags at el refugio and hiked down to meet the driver to go back to Quito. This time his son (Jefferson) was with him. We
then descended the switchback road leading into the lava field and out of the park.
Believe it or not... I slept in the car for, I think, about an hour on the way back... no pillow... and with the four-wheel drive SUV bouncing around a lot... I drifted into sleep.
When I think about it now, I smile. Though, when I was hiking up, I was cursing, praying, a little not all there (near the end, I was having trouble remembering how to say ¨Estoy cansado¨ in order to stop for a rest, even after saying it dozens of times), and in the early going wondering what I was thinking. I do not recall anything that I have ever done previously that required so much of all of me... the fortitude to keep going for so long and challenge it put me through physically.
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Augusta
non-member comment
Sounds like....
Your descriptions of the internal and physical trials you experienced sound very similar to my experience of labor. Likewise, your description of the strength you feel you gained from the experience applies to labor as well.