Chimborazo

 Into the fog of Chimborazo, the highest peak in Ecuador, the peak closest to the sun, which found out the hard way. Marco picked us up at 8:30 and took  us to church for a little while then we headed for Chimborazo, which I expected we will start climbing around 10:00 PM. But instead I am sitting at Casa Helbling with Ray Charles  AKA Spencer Ball. 

 Last night we were in  the emergency room with Spence,  we found out he had sunburned cornea, and was in agonies of pain.   We were in the clouds all day, but on a mountain that is closer to the sun than any place on earth.  

We saw Chimbarazo for a little while the day before yesterday,  but Marco talked us out of trying to climb it, he actually talked about it for an hour, thinking we might want to go ahead and try to climb it anyway.  

 So instead we got up at 4:00AM, got dressed, went downstairs in the refuge and drank hot chocolate and ate breakfast and talked with Marco about Incas and mountains for an hour.  It was very pleasurable, but by the time we went outside, there was no need for headlamps.  The clouds were low, but we could see Chimborazo in the morning light, the highest mountain in Ecuador, the summit is the furthest place from the equator. Below is the only view of Chimborazo yesterday, before it started snowing. 

 I was happy to be out hiking, we decided to go up another ridge where I was hoping to get a good view of the mountain and also check conditions.  The reason we were not going to attempt the summit was that there had been so much snow in the last couple weeks that  there was extreme danger of avalanche. So we walked, going for 3 or 4 hours up to about 18,500 feet, before the snow conditions were becoming too tenuous. The Marco expounded about the snow, dug a few holes but forgot to mention how close we were to the sun. But I was really happy to be so far up the mountains.   I love my crampons. The difficult part was going down, I had to find the way, and it had snowed so much that our tracks were being buried. 

Tambopaxi the Lodge

Tambopaxi lodge, really in the middle of nowhere, at about 12,000 feet it is a popular place to acclimatize for  nearby volcanoes. 

 this is a rest day including squash soup

 Under the majesty of the Cotopaxi Volcano and surrounded by five other volcanoes of the Cordillera de los Andes, lies Hosteria Tambopaxi. This hotel in Cotopaxi, Ecuador is the only ecolodge and acclimatization center situated at an altitude of 3750 meters above sea level, in the heart of the Cotopaxi National Park. Where the animals don’t graze the grass grows in clumps about two or three feet high.  There were lots of blueberries, on blueberry bushes when we drove in.  

My window looks out on the side of a hill and there are lots of brown rabbits hopping around and the weather goes from clear to cloudy to foggy which is what it is right now. 

 Mount Chimbarazo

6,263.47 m (20,549.4 ft)

Chimborazo tomorrow. Chimbarazo summit is the furthest point from the equator (the earth in not actually a sphere, it bulges at the equator)

Cotapaxi the Climb 19, 375

Cotapaxi, the most famous volcano in Ecuador. 

 It is Friday, I think.  We climbed Cotapaxi this morning, over 19,375 feet, a mountain famous for its beauty, but it has been erupting a lot, so only recently has been open to climbing. I trained yesterday by getting up at 4:00AM, then we drove for quite a while with Marco, our guide, who took us to the shelter at the base of the mountain.  It was really beautiful scenery, very open lots of large boulders from earlier eruptions.  The mountain itself is a strata volcano, on the edge of a much better underlying volcano.  This area is called the avenue of the volcanoes.

We got off to a bit of a late start, around 12:30 AM, my fault, I was trying to get maximum sleep (I went to bed around 4:00 PM), but I could have got up earlier.  Why does it take an hour to get dressed when I go to bed already dressed?  It was so beautiful climbing by night, and then seeing the sunrise, and seeing the steam coming out of the crater and seeing the lights of Quito in the distance.  

 The shadow of Cotapaxi at the sunrise, the plume of steam rising from the volcano indicates how recently it has been active.

The infamous Brighton Banner.  Note steaming volcanoe. 

Cotapaxi

 Cotopaxi is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains,  It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 5,897 m (19,347 ft). It is one of the world's highest volcanoes.

Since 1738, Cotopaxi has erupted more than 50 times, resulting in the creation of numerous valleys formed by l(mudflows) around the volcano. The last eruption lasted from August 2015 to January 2016. Cotopaxi had been officially closed for climbing by authorities until it reopened on October 7, 2017.

 Normally, Cotapaxi can be seen from Pichincha, but it has been too cloudy and rainy.