Cotopaxi national Park

The buses local and national buses in South America dont really have any official stops, except for the beginning and the end of the journey. Mostly you just wave then down, be it on a busy city street, the Pan American Highway (the road that goes vertically through most of South America) or along a remote dirt road. The trick is, firstly knowing if you are on the right bus and secondly knowing where to get off....It helps if you can speak the language.

So, I was pleased to be in the company of Julie who speaks pretty good Spanish and Cristian who is Spanish when we boarded the bus in Banos. We were heading to a point along the Pan American highway where we hoped to get a connecting bus to a tiny little village called El Chaupi near to the Cotopaxi National park. This meant trying to get the driver to understand where to drop us off.

I had been in touch with various tour companies trying to organise a guide for Cotopaxi and had had various responses and differing quotes. I eventually happened upon a local climber who runs a hostel in El Chaupi and is also responsible for 2 of the refugios in the Cotopaxi park. Always liking to cut out the middle man as far as possible, I contacted him directly and he said he could happily fix us up with accomodation, a guide, equipment, transport etc for much less than we had been quoted elsewhere.

The ridge up to the summit of Iliniza Norte

Eventually the bus we were on veered over to the side of the road, the drivers assistant beconning us to disembark quickly as he ran round to the back of the bus and threw our back packs out onto the verge of the highway. Then the bus was off and we were left standing pretty much in the middle of nowhere on the side of a dusty track that to our dismay was blocked off by rather large boulders. There was definitely no buses going down it. We crossed over the busy highway to where there were a couple of ladies sitting by the road. We eventually discovered that the buses for El chaupi did stop there, but then had to do a detour due to the road closeur. Phew!


Iliniza Sur

 About an hour later we arrived at the door of the hostel to be met by a rather effusive Bladimir (the hostel owner) in a brightly coloured chunky knit Christmas sweater. The hostel was quite cosy with big wood burning stoves and little hobbit like garett rooms. We told Bladimir that we wanted to climb Iliniza Norte the next day for acclimatising, then have a day off and then make an attempt on Cotopaxi. He said that was all fine, but suggested we take a guide for Iliniza Norte as well. Not having any maps and although the guide book said this was a fairly straight forward route, I felt that it would be better and safer to have a guide. Also because I had never walked with Cris before and didnt know how he would cope with the altitude.

The following day we set of bright and early, about 6am, for the start of the hike. It was about a 2 hour uphill sandy path to the refugio. There we stopped and put on our climbing harnesses and helmets. The views were really incredible. Across the valley we could see Cotopaxi, the summit visible through a skirt of cloud. Below us were rolling green hills. It looks alot like England, but the hills are much bigger, the landscape is just massive and because Ecuador is so much higher we are often above the clouds. It was at this point I realised that it was not just going to be a straightforward walk up. We were all feeling fine so after a quick snack we started up for the summit.

 The weather was great, I was feeling fantastic, really happy to be getting the mountain air in my lungs and the views were breathtaking. After an hour or so Cristian was getting increasingly unsteady on his feet. There was alot of scrambling up rock, and at first I though it was just because he is tall and perhaps unused to such activities. He was like a baby deer on ice. It was painful to watch and progress was really slow. It became apparent quite soon that the altitude was affecting him. He was really out of breath after just a few steps and starting to become disorientated. The decision was made to turn back. Our guide, Jamie, attached a short rope to Cris to lead him down by an easier route. I have to say I was really pissed off. I know I shouldnt have been. It was the right and only decision. Still once it was made it was fine. I was disappointed though, it was such a fun climb. I have thought about going back to it since, but now I am on my own again the cost would be too great, and apparently the scrambling gets much much harder, so it wouldnt be one to attempt solo.

  Anyway, buy the time we got back to the refugio Cris was an exhausted wreck. It took another hour and a half to get back to where the 4x4 was meeting us to take us back. There was no way he would be able to attempt Cotopaxi.
After some discussion, Julie and I decided we would attempt Cotopaxi the next day (night). Cris could either wait for us at the hostel or go back to Quito and wait for us there.
When we woke the next morning, Cris was already up and packed ready to go. "Im going to the airport", he said. "Im going back to Spain."
After a quick goodbye he piled into Bladimirs 4X4 to get a lift to the airport in Quito in the hope of getting an earlier flight. That was that then.
 Julie and I started packing all the gear and food we were going to need for our attempt on Cotopaxi. My pack was the biggest Ive ever had to carry any distance.
After lunch Bladimir drove us into the Cotopaxi national park. Most of the volcanoe was shrouded in cloud, but we could just see the summit and it somehow felt impossible to think we were going to hopefully be standing at the top in less than 24hours! We had a short hike up a really steep sandy slope to the refugio where we were going to spend the rest of the day and half the night.  The refugio is mainly a very overpriced cafe for the day trippers to the park, but upstairs it had 2 rooms full of bunkbeds with dusty plastic mattresses, and lockable cupboards where you can stow your sleeping bag and toothbrush when you attempt the summit. There were quite a few other groups of people there, all hoping to make it to the top. After an early dinner we got into our bags and tried for some sleep. Even with ear plugs and my sleeping bag done up tight to keep out the light, sleep was impossible. A mixture of high altitude, adrenelin and the thumping of other people in their heavy boots up and down the stairs really didnt help. Eventually at about 11.30pm people started to get up and gear up. It was all slightly surreal. Downstairs, we tried to force some midnight breakfast down. Groups started to leave, everyone was a bit subdued by the daunting task ahead. "Good luck, Goodluck"

Julie and I were about the 4th group to leave. As we stepped out onto the path, we could see little lines of headtorch lamps from the other groups, winding their way up the mountain ahead.  For the first couple of hours we were mainly on brown slippery volcanic soil until we reached the snow line, where we put on our crampons and roped up. From there on the climb got really, really steep. I knew we had atleast another four hours to go. All I could do was just count my steps, one to a hundred and then backwards again. I counted thousands. After a while I realised we were going a diffent way to some of the other groups. I asked why.
"This way is quicker", Jamie said as he took us into a massive crevasse. My heart almost stopped. We were in a sort of ice canyon, with pillers of ice inbetween us and an ice wall at the other side. I was near to panic, I hadnt expected this. This was not straightforward. Jamie had leaped across one of the crevasses and was standing on the other side telling me to jump. I froze, but I knew I just had to do it. With all I had in me I lept across, making the other side but falling flat on my face and scraping my chin on the ice. At first I thought Id knocked my teeth out. I was spitting blood, but eventually realised it was coming from the outside and not the inside. After hopping across a few more crevasses, we were faced with an almost vertical ice wall. Jamie picked his way up first and after securing the rope, Julie and I went up. From here we could see that we were the second group from the front. One German guy was ahead of us, who had gone the same way, but everyone else was miles behind. I knew were were going to make it.

The next three hours however were really hard. We just trudged, endlessly up really steep snow. Every so often we would have to stop, just to catch your breath. There is so little oxygen, all the muscles in your body are being pushed to their limit, your heart is beating so fast and it impossible to get enough oxygen in your lungs to feed them. Dawn had started to break. We were above the clouds now which were like an ocean below us spreading out to cover the land. The twin peaks of Iliniza North and south were visible their peaks protruding through.
On and on we went the summit somehow not seeming any closer. We couldnt actually see  it, just giant mushrooms of snow that once climbed just revealed more steep slopes and more mushroom like false peaks. Finally, we saw the sun, which had risen over the other side, coming up over the summit. The German guy was standing on the top having his photo taken. We had made it. As we took the last steps up we could suddenly see the views around us and it was truly breathtaking. The sun was shining and the visibility was crystal clear. We could see right down into the volcanoes crater and for miles around. It was worth every bit of the effort it took to reach the summit. Wow!!!