July 2009

I went back and climbed Cotopaxi again. I climbed it just over 10 years ago. Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. I used to think it was the highest; however, according to Wikipedia it isn’t quite. It stands at 19,347 ft, Ecuador’s second highest peak and is breathtakingly beautiful from below.

My last experience climbing Cotopaxi was awful. We were the only team to summit on that particular day, amidst horrible weather. The guide lost his way on the way down, somewhat understandable given the visibility but still unacceptable. We did manage to reach the valley floor after something like 20 hours. I subsequently went snow blind for a week and had fairly bad exposure burns to my face.

The owner of Moggely Climbing offered me a free climb if I ever returned to Ecuador. I am a glutton for punishment, especially [apparently] if you offer me something for free. I guess I’m a bit of a masochist as well. Some of you may already know this. Not wanting to suffer this mountain alone again I thought I would share its beauty with Deeanne.

Cotopaxi apparently hates me (the feeling is mutual at this point). This time we had near gale winds and blowing ice. Of the 20 teams that set out 4 made it. Deeanne and I were the first team to summit. The entire climb I kept thinking to myself “I hate this mountain” along with a few more colorful expletives I won’t put to pen. This time though the mountain did at least award me with brief views of the Andes spread out below under the clouds. We summitted right at sunrise and it was breathtaking. The wind even died down just a touch. For a moment at the top I thought “Ahh this ain’t too bad”. Then we had to hike down.

Getting up mountains seems to be no problem at all, getting down on the other hand always seems to present some problem. The guide was amazing; first off he didn’t get lost on the way down, always a plus. The altitude sickness finally kicked in on the way down and Deeanne was feeling really ill and we were both extremely exhausted. The hike down seemed interminable, particularly because we had to wear our rented high-altitude glacier goggles; which, with their scratches, made it impossible to see more than 3 feet ahead. We managed to make it down however, without falling on any of the steeper sections of the glacier. We arrived at the lodge just before 9:00am a little over 8.5 hours after we had left, better than my last visit, but I don’t think I’m going to do it again.

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Last week I was looking at a blog of a fellow traveler, a man on a bike ride from Mexico to Bolivia, and when I saw his pictures of his journey across the Caribbean from Panama to Columbia I just drooled.  I told Garret at that moment that while I love Quito and all the mountains, I really am a “beach-person” at heart.  However, since we are in the mountains now, I am embracing all that they have to offer, which earlier today was the summit of Cotapaxi.

It’s a long story as to why we ended up climbing it; but when Garret was here almost 11 years ago, he climbed it and had a horrible near death experience with a climbing operation.  The owner (who had just started a few months earlier) felt horrible about the ordeal, and promised Garret that if he was ever in Ecuador again, he would like to give him a free climb up the mountain under better circumstances.  We thought about it for a couple of weeks after arriving in Quito, and then decided that we couldn’t resist the lure of the big mountain, so we stopped by his climbing agency one day after Spanish classes.  The owner remembered the unfortunate trip, and happily offered Garret a free climb.  Even though I swore I would never go above 19,000 feet again (uttered from Mt. Kilimanjaro 11 years ago as well) I signed up and even paid for the experience!

I’ve decided that big mountains are a lot like marathons.  No one really enjoys the actual event!  It’s fun to anticipate them, fun to prepare for them, and even more fun to relish the accomplishment.  But the actual event is really less than enjoyable.  There’s much more pain than pleasure.  Just like I have to do around mile 20 or 22 in the marathon; I have to remind myself that it is just a matter of time; a couple more hours.  And really, what are a few hours of pain in the long run?  At least that’s what I told myself twice this morning when I thought about turning around, as had 80% of the summit teams.  And so, we were able to see a beautiful sunrise over the summit this morning because we just kept walking.

For the background—we left Quito yesterday and drove to Cotopaxi National Park where we walked just about 30 minutes to the refugio.  About 30-40 climbers were there with their guides, and we all had an early dinner of pasta, and went to our bunks by 7 pm for some rest.  The climb begins about 11 pm, when we awoke (well really, who was actually sleeping?), packed our gear, had “breakfast” and began to walk.  The wind was howling outside, and it was really hard to walk sometimes.  Most teams turned around within 3 hours due to the gale force winds.  Garret and I thought about it seriously twice, and talked about it; but we were warm, weren’t suffering any symptoms of altitude sickness, and decided that we’d keep walking.  Our guide assured us the wind wasn’t a safety concern; so the three of us continued our way up the glacier, roped together putting one crampon in front of the other.  We were completely caked in windblown snow and ice; our jackets turned into armor, and all our water and Gatorade froze solid; but we arrived the first of four teams that would make the summit.

The altitude hit us a bit on the way down (or was it the night of no sleep followed by 9 hours of hard climbing… or the strawberry rice krispies and frosted flakes with hot milk at midnight…).  We both felt nauseous; but gained strength the more distance we put between ourselves and the summit.  We spent the afternoon sleeping, eating, and being lazy.  Oh, that’s one more similar mountaineering has with marathoning; the guiltless enjoyment of doing absolutely nothing afterward!

Enjoy more photos of Cotopaxi.

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