Ed's Cotopaxi ascent !

Soundtrack : Battlerock Galaxy - Super Mario Galaxy (cliquez sur Play)

So for the first time in 7 months of travelling, Elo and I went our seperate ways, giving me the opportunity to climb Cotopaxi - the highest active volcano in the world, at almost 5 900m.

The trip began at around 10am on Thursday, when I met my guide Fausto at the hostel.  Fausto didn't speak much English so I had to get by with my Spanish, which was a bit tricky, but I did manage to understand that he had 31 years of mountaineering experience...  So quite a lot then!  I thought I should at least be in safe hands.  There were 4 of us that left the hostel together, a German guy named Andre and his guide making up the small team.  We each took with us a lot of warm clothes, crampons, an ice axe each, gaitors, a headlamp, a good sleeping bag, and some snacks and energy drinks.

On the way to the car park - our first glimpse of the summit

We arrived at the refuge (4 800m) the same afternoon, where we were told to drink copious amounts of tea and rest our legs. The climb from the car park to the refuge was only 300m but I knew I would need all the energy I could get in order to have a chance to get to the summit.  So Andre and I sat around chatting for a few hours before having dinner at 6pm, and going to bed at 7pm.  The refuge was nearly empty apart from us 4 and a couple of american guys and their guide, which was fortunate because the refuge can house up to 60 people in peak season.

The sun setting on the Cotopaxi summit

View from the refuge over the clouds

I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before my alarm woke me up at midnight.  Time to have a spot of breakfast, then get kitted up to leave at around 1pm.  It was pitch black (obviously), so we only had our headlamps to see a couple of feet in front of us as we started to make our way up the volcano.  I was pleased that at that point I didn't have any signs of altitude sickness - no headache or nausea.  At the start I felt pretty good, after a few hundred metres ascent we fitted our crampons - the rest of the climb was going to be on snow and ice.  Soon after we overtook the american guys and their guide, who had left 15 minutes before us, and I thought that we could be at the top in record time.   But then I started to get tired, and my feet starting getting cold.  Stops became more frequent, and it became harder to catch my breath in between stops.

At 5 400m we reached a part of the volcano which is a permanent glacier, and the guides had warned us that, apart from the final 200m ascent, it was the most difficult part of climb.  But something was wrong, since the last time the guides went up, a crevasse in the glacier had widened due to a dry period and high winds.  Fausto tested out the route, and the verdict was that it was too difficult for us tourists to attempt.  I'll remember him almost swinging across the crevasse using his 2 ice-axes like spiderman...  There was an alternative route, but it would add a further 2 hours to our climb, and the risk of avalanches was high...

So, all of a sudden we were told we had to turn back, much to Andre's disappointment, and to my slight relief !

Night shot of the glacier, and feint image of Fausto grappling with the ice

I soon realised that going down was not going to be easy, my legs were already turning to jelly, and everyone seemed in a rush to reach to refuge.  There was still no sign of dawn as I reached the refuge, and although it was a disappointing end to the adventure, I realised just how tired I was - my legs couldn't have gone much higher anyway!

Maybe I'll try it again one day, but only with some serious preparation!

Bye-bye Cotopaxi


Elo dit : "Bravo à Ed pour cette ascension!"