Before we came to Ecuador, I would say that I was a person who enjoyed hiking. I would walk out to Edgewood park in Woodside, go on a nice 4 mile hike around the park, listening to music and enjoying the sunshine. At Cal Poly, we started hiking the “mountains” that had gentle inclines for about two hours, we would have a happy summit, and descend to eat at a delicious Central Californian deli.
When we got our jobs here, we knew that Ecuador would be the place for more hiking, so we bought some new hiking boots and were excited to set out for some adventures. But, if you have talked to either of us over the past year, you would know that the hiking that happens in Ecuador is completely different than anything we had ever experienced before.
All throughout our first year, we learned how to climb volcanoes. We were doing it because we had friends training for a big mountain and with nothing else to do for our weekends, we decided to tag along. Every weekend, we were climbing a new volcano, each harder than the last, and we
slowly fell in love with this grueling sport. The altitude made breathing hard, so I had never taken slower steps. We realized the importance of hiking pools and legitimate backpacks with water bladders. We dialed in our snacks and our hiking clothes so that we could feel strong and comfortable throughout our hikes.
The mountain that they were training for is called Cotopaxi. It is an over 19,000 foot, glaciated volcano. This mountain requires an expert guide for every two people, specialized equipment including an ice ax, helmet, special boots, and crampons. When they first told us about this mountain, we thought to ourselves, “No way! No need to do anything like that.” But, we continued on with almost all of their training hikes and enjoyed each one more than the last. By the time that they were ready to hike Cotopaxi, they told us that we were basically ready as well. But, we were still hesitant. It sounded big and scary and we had only been doing this for a few months anyway. We gave them our best wishes as they headed off for their hike, and were overjoyed when they sent us the news that they had summited.
After hearing their stories of what an amazing experience it was for them, and thinking about how much fun it was going on all of their training hikes, we started considering doing it this year. And upon arrival, we almost immediately had a group of four other hikers who wanted to train with us! With a year of hiking under our belts, better equipment, and a great group of friends to do it with, we decided it was on.
While we wanted to hike Cotopaxi as it is the most famous volcano in Ecuador, we had to change our goal to Cayambe because Cotopaxi was erupting (giving off puffs of smoke every few minutes) and was unfortunately closed. We had friends who had hiked Cayambe before, and told us it was a similar mountain in difficulty and needed training.
At the beginning of the year, we created a schedule. Seven training mountains, with Cayambe to finish it off at the end. We were set to climb almost every single weekend, getting more difficult with each climb and finishing it off with some serious high altitude training. Here is a little overview of each mountain:
Volcan Corazon: 15,720 feet. We thought this one would be relatively easy because we had done most of it the year before but had turned back due to bad weather. It was relatively easy to that point but what we didn’t realize was that we had about an hour and half of fairly intense scrambling (read rock climbing) to get to the summit. It was a little out of our comfort zone, and we had some people stop where they were comfortable, but we were happy to summit our first beautiful peak of the year and make it back down safely.
Rucu Pichincha: 15,413 feet. This is usually our first mountain of the year but when we had arrived
the cable car that takes you to the top was closed. When it finally opened, we were so excited to get up there! This is what we would consider an “easy mountain.” The trail is highly trafficked, it isn’t too steep except for one very steep sandy bit, but it was a happy summit with some others who decided to join us for the gorgeous view overlooking Quito.
Volcan Tungurahua: 16,480 feet. Now, this one is going to take a bit more explaining. We obviously knew that we needed to keep mountain training up, but we also had a three day weekend in the Fall that we really wanted to take advantage of. So, we needed to find a volcano to climb in a cool place. “Lucky” for us, Volcan Tungurahua stands just outside of one of the most fun cities in Ecuador. Baños is known for its beautiful setting in a valley of waterfalls, its adventurous activities such as biking, hiking, paragliding, and bridge jumping, and an amazing nightlife scene. Perfect! We knew we needed a guide so we got one recommended from a friend, and we set off.
Now, we knew that it would be hard, we had read so online, but you know, how hard could it be? We were prepared, well trained, and optimistic! However, we knew pretty immediately that our guides were not well suited for us. We had heard that we needed to start early. Like 4 am early. Or, we could stay at a Refugio that was about 2 hours into the hike and start very early from there. Our guides wanted to pick us up at 7am. From Baños. Which was already an hour drive
from the bottom of the hike. We just went with what they said and got to the start around 8, where they almost immediately tried to start scamming us for money. But, we had little daylight and needed to get started so we headed up. The first part to the Refugio wasn’t too hard. The trail was steep but easy to follow and we moved quickly. But, once we passed the Refugio and started up the actual volcano, it became hard fast. Our guides were yelling at us to move more quickly and wouldn’t let us take breaks. They were telling people in our group that they were weak. They made us group up in ways we didn’t agree with. It was a bit of a mess. However, making it to the crater and then the summit were two of the most jaw dropping sights we have seen in Ecuador. The crater was still giving off heat from eruptions just a few years ago, and the view from the summit made it look like we were in an airplane. This summit marked the highest we had ever been while standing on the ground.
The way down was where things really started to go wrong. The guide had me go down first and kept yelling at me to find a trail that was close to nonexistent. Then, he had us take a route that was far away from where anyone else was and much scarier than the alternative. Our guide was yelling at us, we were yelling at him, tears were shed. At one point, Nolan had to jump out of the way of a basketball sized boulder that was bounding down the mountain that was kicked up from another group higher up than us. The sun was beginning to set and we still had at least 2 hours to go. We eventually got down to the Refugio and onto the easier portion of the trail and it was almost completely dark. We had headlamps and wanted to move as quickly as possible to just get off that horrible volcano.
About half way down this easy part was where I dislocated my knee. Luckily, it relocated quickly, and my friends helped me limp down the last part of the mountain. All in all, we were on the mountain for over 10 hours. At least 3 people cried, many people were angry and yelled at our guide, I dislocated my knee, it was a bit of a mess. But, this volcano taught us a lot. It taught us to trust our instincts when we have a bad feeling about a guide. It taught us that we needed to trust our own research with things like when we need to start. It taught us that we needed to trust each other and rely on each other when we were struggling. And it taught us not to run down a mountain in the dark because you can dislocate your knee.
Volcan Imbabura: 15,120 feet. This is one of our favorite volcanoes, one that we need to hike every year. Our favorite thing about this mountain is that we get to stay in San Clemente with a local family, one of our favorite places in Ecuador, and the amazing father and brother of this family are our guides. We were so excited because we knew that this would be a better guided experience. As the rest of the group continued on, I decided to take this week off to let my knee rest. Emily and I spent the day with the mom and sister of this wonderful family, cooking a meal for the hungry hikers upon their return from their successful summit.
Integral: 15,700 feet. While most of us were very tired at this point and needed a little bit of a break, Nolan and Maya decided to venture on and hiked Integral, a hike that takes you to four different peaks, ending with Rucu Pichincha. They had a very successful day while the rest of us hung out in a hostel hammock and let our legs rest.
Volcan Fuya Fuya: 13,986 feet. This volcano started our last two weeks before our summit. While this is an easier volcano, it is only about 3 hours to the top and an hour and a half back down, it is
great for high altitude training because we camped and slept at 12,000 feet. It also had some great scrambling (rock climbing) practice which we hadn’t practiced since Corazon. We finished the hike with a chilly jump in Laguna Mojanda to celebrate.
Volcan Illiniza Norte: 16,818 feet. After our experience on Tungurahua, we decided to take the lessons that we had learned and do better this time. We reached out to our official guides for Cayambe and had them pick guides for us to use for Illiniza Norte. We also insisted on sleeping at the Refugio that was two hours into the hike, shortening the hike the next day to give us more than enough time. The first part of the hike was pretty easy and we moved quickly, arriving at the Refugio around sunset. We hiked around a little and then had a funny and memorable dinner with the man who worked the Refugio and therefore lived away from any city or town, Gato. We settled into our sleeping bags on the many bunk beds that they had. While Nolan and I slept well, others in our group had some trouble as it can be pretty hard to sleep at high altitude. However, this time was well spent regardless because as we were sleeping, or trying to, our bodies were acclimatizing to the high altitude, making our climb the next day that much easier.
In the morning, our two guides met us bright and early, and we started to climb up. We had the most beautiful weather we had ever had on a mountain and the views were spectacular. We could see every single volcano in the area. This mountain had a lot of scrambling involved, but our guides were so easy to follow and encouraging. They kept telling us that we were the best group, that we were immensely capable of climbing this mountain, that they were impressed by our strength as individuals and as a group. It was such a 180 from the experience we had on Tungurahua. This mountain ended up being the favorite of the group, and my favorite mountain I have ever climbed. It was beautiful, fun to scramble, and such a positive experience with everyone in the group and the guides.
This concluded all of our training hikes, but we had one crucial piece left. At this point, we knew that our bodies were ready and capable of walking up Cayambe. The only part that we hadn’t had experience with was altitude above 17,000 feet. Cayambe is almost 19,000 feet tall! So we knew we had to do everything we could to help acclimitize. So, on the Tuesday and Wednesday after we climbed Illiniza Norte and before Cayambe, we decided to sleep at the Refugio at Guagua Pichincha, as it was the closest Refugio to Quito. This is what it looked like:
We went to school on Tuesday, then quickly went home to grab our sleeping bags and food, drove
for an hour and a half, the last half hour of which was up a 4x4 dirt road, slept at a cabin at 15,000 ft, then woke up at 4:30am in the snow to drive back to our apartments, get ready for school, and repeat for Wednesday. It was a fairly exhausting two days but we noticed even on the second day that we already had a bigger appetite and could fall asleep quicker, two wonderful signs of acclimatization.
After that, we spent the rest of the week having great nights of sleep and picking up our gear before we headed to Cayambe.
We met our guides at a restaurant before heading up the mountain. We got to know each other a little, they asked us about our training, and we talked about how the day would go. We followed them to the bottom of the volcano where we hopped in a few trucks that would drive us up to the Refugio. When we got there, we all grabbed a hot chocolate and talked more about our plan.
Our guides explained to us that the weather over the past week had been bad. There was a lot of snow on multiple different days that can lead to unsafe snow conditions and avalanches. Lucky for us, we had 3 of the most qualified guides in Ecuador. There was actually a poster of all the guides that were permitted in Ecuador, and two of our guides were in the second to top tier, and the other guide was in the top tier. They were the most well certified guides on the mountain that day.
They went on to explain that the safest time to climb the volcano would be in the middle of the night. This is when the weather conditions are the most stable and the snow is the most frozen. We would be hiking up the mountain starting at midnight, hoping to reach the summit by sunrise, and then turning back to the Refugio. The guides were ready with all of their gear to check the snow as we went to make sure we had good conditions to continue.
We had 3 guides and 3 couples in our group, so we each got assigned our own guide and he helped us to understand our gear. Our guide was named Fabio, he was the top certified guide in our group, and he was extremely helpful with explaining our gear. He showed us how to put on our cramp-ons and mountain climbing boots, and explained how to use the ice ax. I also told him about my knee dislocation on Tungurahua and showed him my brace so that he was aware. While everyone else would be climbing with one hiking pole and the ice ax, he recommended to me to use both of my poles for the added stability.
We had a big dinner, our most important meal for preparing for the hike, and found our sleeping bags and beds around 6pm to try to get some sleep before our alarms went off at 11pm. We actually did fall asleep quickly and got a few good hours of rest before waking up.
We all woke up with nervous and excited jitters. We layered on all of our clothing and packed up our bags. We ate a roll of bread and had a bit of tea. We filled our water bottles with warm sugar water as our guides said that this would keep us warm and give us added boosts of energy. We also packed up our snacks that we needed to eat about every hour. Once we were all geared up, we turned on our headlamps and headed out for the climb we had been preparing for for months.
The first hour of the hike, we were surprisingly hot. We had assumed that we would need a ton of layers because of the high altitude, and later we did, but at this beginning section we were all sweating. This made us nervous because we knew that lingering sweat could later chill our bodies down once we got higher up. We shed our layers and continued the climb. This first section had a bit of scrambling but it wasn’t too difficult. We stayed as a group of six and spent
our time talking and taking in the incredible views from the midnight almost-full moon. We could tell almost immediately that our guide would be a great fit for us. He made jokes and talked with us, but also took the scrambling sections very seriously. It took us about an hour before we made it to the glacier where we took our first break.
At this stop, we put on our crampons and harnesses, had a small snack and a sip of water, and got ready to start up into the snow. At this point, our guide Fabio, Nolan, and I roped our harnesses together with just about two meters between each of us. There were some crevasses to be aware of and the guide led us through them on paths that he knew well but was continually checking. From here on out, the hike fell mostly silent for the rest of the way. Our steps were slow, it was a step and then a breath, a step and then a breath. Our goal was to find a comfortable rhythm and pace that we could sustain over a long period of time. At the start of this section, we had about 4 or 5 groups in front of us. Nolan and I were feeling very strong, and our pace quickly led to us overtaking the groups in front of us. About an hour into this section, we were the leading group on the mountain. It felt surreal to look around the snowy landscape and just see headlamps linked together with ropes. It was silent and beautiful. In my head I repeated to myself over and over that this is what I have trained for. This is what I am ready for. I am strong enough to do this.
We hiked this way for about an hour and half before our next break. We stopped to have a bit of water and a bit of food, after having made it up so much of the mountain already. The weather
was calm and after about 10 minutes our friends arrived at our break stop as well. It was great to see them and check in, and at this point everyone was doing really well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop long because we got cold quickly, the best way to stay warm was just to keep going. We stood back up and continued on up a steeper section. I’ve always found that hiking is the hardest after a break because your mind can forget how hard it is to continue up the mountain. This section felt hard and steep, I felt more out of breath but still strong enough to continue. We found our rhythm and walked for the next 45 minutes up to the next break stop.
At this spot we needed to lengthen our ropes so that there were about 15 feet in between us. This made it safer to walk over the more frequent crevasses. While our guides were lengthening our ropes, we checked in with our friends. While everyone was okay, many of them had a loss of appetite, felt a bit woozy, or had a headache. These are all manageable but definite signs of the high altitude. Suddenly, we all heard a sound like sand falling through an hourglass, but fairly loud. The guides immediately looked at each other and located where it was coming, as this sound is evidence of an avalanche. It was coming from our right, not the way we were heading, but it put all of the guides on alert. We had just made it to 18,000 feet, with less than 1,000 feet and about an hour and a half to go.
We continued up the mountain, first in the line up. We walked with 15 feet of space between us for about 30 minutes until I heard a frantic shout from Fabio up ahead “Para Para!” He was shouting for us to stop because he had felt a shift in the snow, similar to the one we had heard before. He called back to me, asking if I had felt it as well but I hadn’t (I am not a highly trained mountain guide). Quickly, one of the other guides in our group ran up the hill with a shovel he had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. The two of them then dug a hole in the snow, about two feet by four feet and two feet deep. I could see them from where I was standing but had no idea what they were doing.
After about 5 minutes, the guides turned around and advised everyone to quickly start walking back down the mountain. Later, they showed us this picture of the snow where you can see about a foot of snow, and then a few inch gap, and then more densely packed snow. This came from the varied snowfall in the past few days, and if we continued, we could compress the snow into the gap and cause an avalanche. So, we quickly turned and started to descend.
A few of the other groups were unsure if this was the right call, we were so close to the top it seemed like it was right there. But, when they heard that Fabio had made the call, they all trusted him and turned around. Although it was disappointing not to summit, it felt good knowing that our guide, the one who we were roped to, was the voice of reason on that mountain. Everyone knew that he would make the right call.
About 30 minutes into our descent, the sun rose and we could finally see Cayambe in all of her glory. It is a wondrous volcano, blanketed in clean and crisp white snow, with only the
disturbances of our own footsteps. We took a break with our friends for some pictures, and then descended the rest of the way down the mountain.
The downhill was hard, especially with all of our gear making us awkward and heavy. It felt like forever until we saw the Refugio again, around 7:30 in the morning.
While we didn’t summit Cayambe, we did find great success in our journey. We were able to experience a vast majority of that mountain. Nolan and I were setting the pace, and it made us feel so strong and so capable. We knew that with the right conditions, we were ready to make it to the top. Through all of our training, I had become determined to be strong enough to climb that mountain. We climbed 8 grueling mountains and felt more ready and fit after each and every one. While I never thought I would become a volcano climber, it became such a rewarding sport over the course of the last two years. We climbed Cayambe, and we did it confidently. It felt so good knowing that.
Cotopaxi, we’ll see you next fall.
ความคิดเห็น