Cotopaxi (5897 m)

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With my guide, Jaime, I went to the Refugio Josè Ribas at 4800 m on Sunday, 27 January. One can actually drive up to only a couple of hundred meters below, and it's then just a hike of less than an hour. The refugio was pretty packed with people, some French and a large American group. Everybody went to bed at around 18.30, as wake up is at midnight in order to start the hike at 1:00. This is necessary, as only in the night the snow is hard enough to do the hike.

Just as last year, I found the hike pretty hard. It took us 5:45 hours to the summit which was slightly faster than last year (when I had climbed Cotopaxi during my vacation). We first walked for about 20 min to the foot of the glacier. There we put on the crampons and the rope. The first half hour or so in the snow is still quite ok, but then for the next three hours it's really steep climbing, and for most of that part you always have to go sideways and cross one foot over the other, which gets really tiring soon, especially with the thin air. You have to keep your rythm, and as Jaime had instructed me, I was always counting One (ice axe), Two (right foot), Three (left foot) and so you go for hours and hours. Higher up there are a couple of less steep parts, but then again it gets really steep.

Standing on the rim and looking down into the crater, and then over to all the other volcanoes (such as Cayambe, Chimborazo, Antizana etc.), however, makes you forget the exertion quickly and you just stand there and stare in awe.

Going down was of course a lot less difficult, but I got really, really tired towards the end and just stumbled through the snow.

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Comments

[barrygahan]

Lovely pics from Cotpaxi
We're hoping to climb it as well over the next few weeks. Hope we'll make it to the top too!