Thursday, December 20, 2012

In the Mountains

Antisana
These past five weeks I have been somewhat selfish with our time.  Amber does like the outdoors and likes to go hiking, but she knows from past experiences that she doesn't have much fun mountain climbing.  Thankfully, she's been very supportive and understands that I probably won't have an opportunity like this again, and so she has encouraged me to go on these climbs.
Illiniza Sur on the left and Norte on the right

Starting back on November 18th, I went to the Illinizas.  There two mountains here, Norte and Sur. I went to Norte.  People here give them a reputation for being dangerous, but I think it is mostly the difficulty of Sur overshadowing Norte.  Illiniza Sur requires ice climbing equipment and a lot of previous experience  but Norte in good weather, is only as complicated as hiking uphill.  The day started off completely clear, which is uncommon in this part of the Andes.  It didn't last however.  This was a really long day.  We started hiking at 7:00 a.m. and ended at 6:00 p.m.  We also changed 10,600 ft of elevation, start to finish.  The beginning of the hike was through a pretty forest along a river, then when we actually got to the mountain, it was a grueling hike up a wall of sand.  Sand is really frustrating to walk in, because every step slides back down a little.  The weather was nice though, and there was only a little snow at the top.  This was my first time being 5,000 meters above sea level.  

The next weekend wasn't really an organized climb.  Our new neighbors from Australia have been wanting to go up Rucu Pichincha, the mountain accessible from Quito, for a while and I said I'd go up with them.  I think this was my 5th time going up there.  We had good weather and good views.  Eugene made it to the top, but his girlfriend Nina's fear of heights kept her about 20 minutes below.

The following Sunday was a preparation weekend for the next two major climbs, Cotopaxi and Antisana.  This Sunday was a glacier class where they took us out to the base of Antisana's glacier and taught us how to walk on ice with crampons and use an ice ax and other important information.  Seeing how I had never even touched a glacier before this class, it seemed like it was pretty obligatory for me to attend if I wanted to go climbing the next two weekends.  This day was the clearest I have seen since we've been here.  I could see some mountains that were about 100 miles away.  Our group leader said it only gets that clear once or twice a year.  We broke off into 5 groups, each with a guide, and played around in the ice.  One of the people in my group was a 34 year-old girl named Anne from Germany who had been in Ecuador for 4 months.  She had previous experience in the Alps and seemed pretty confidant on the glacier.  She had also climbed several mountains in Ecuador and still had some more on her list.  Her intention was to go to Cotopaxi and Antisana with us, but sadly she did not make it.  The Friday before we went to Cotopaxi, she decided to climb RumiƱahui, a mountain near Cotopaxi, by herself and she slipped somewhere on the south peak and fell 120 meters.  The didn't find her body until Wednesday. Mom and Dad, I promise I will not go rock climbing alone.
Anne, in front, wouldn't make it to Cotopaxi

Finally the big weekend of Cotopaxi came.  Cotopaxi is the second highest mountain in Ecuador and the third highest active volcano in the world.  A typical climb up Cotopaxi starts in the climber's refuge at 4,800 meters.  The refuge has about 50 beds and it was filled up with around 80 people.  Me and my climbing partner Lionel got to the refuge first, so we had our choice of where to sleep.  We arrived there Saturday at 1:00 pm and intended to start hiking at midnight.  Climbs up the glaciated mountains in Ecuador all have to begin at or around midnight because the snow and ice warms up during the day and makes walking much harder and wetter.  Another group in the refuge with us was the Soldier to Summits organization.  The are a group of wounded veterans who go on yearly excursions to the mountains.  They were fun and enthusiastic, and it was good to hear some American accents again.  With them was a few very famous and respected mountaineers.  Several of their guides had been up Everest multiple times and one, Erik Weihenmayer, is the first and only blind person to climb Everest and the 7 summits.  I had seen his documentary Blindsight about a year ago, so it was like meeting a celebrity.
Me and Erik Weihenmayer
On top of Cotopaxi
At 5:00 pm we ate dinner and learned who our guides were.  Every two people gets one guide.  Jaime, the group leader, told me and Lionel that our guide was Francisco.  I turned and saw a squatty, overweight man who looked to be in his 50s.  My first reaction was, "great, can this guy even make it up the stairs?"  I then noticed that his face looked pretty weathered and leathery  so maybe he was more capable than I thought.  I couldn't have been any more wrong about him.  Apparently he has climbed Cotopaxi around 1,000 times and thinks it's a climb for kids.  At about 6:00 pm Saturday night, we all went to bed to get as much sleep as possible before having to wake up at 10:30 pm.  I slept maybe 15 minutes.  At that altitude, my heart races, so it's like trying to fall asleep immediately after sprinting 50 yards, minus being out of breath.  The strong wind blowing on the refuge didn't help either.  At 10:30, everyone got up, got all their gear on, and went down to eat breakfast.  We were supposed to leave around 11:30 pm, but many of the guides wanted to wait and see if the wind would die down.  At midnight all of us, about 50 people, headed out to see how bad the weather really was.  Our group of 3 left second to last, but because Francisco was unfazed by the wind or uphill climb, we eventually passed everyone and got in front.  The wind was incredibly strong and sometimes made standing or walking impossible.  Our group kept moving up the glacier and finally reached the top about 5 hours after starting.  We were all covered in a thick layer of ice, but we made it.  It wasn't until we started back down that we realized we were going to be the only people to get to the top that day.  Everyone else turned around because of the wind and ice.  We didn't get much of a view, partly from the clouds and partly because my eye was wind burnt, but I was happy we were lucky enough to make it up and back, because I don't know if I'll ever have another chance.        

Me and Francisco
Francisco jumping over a crevasse
After a week of recuperation it was time to go to Antisana.  Antisana is the fourth tallest mountain in Ecuador and is still an active volcano, but the last eruption was in 1802.  Antisana is located at the eastern edge of the Andes, where the land starts to descend into the Amazon rain forest.  Not many people climb it because it's not that easily accessible, and it is more difficult than Cotopaxi.  There is no climber's refuge on Antisana.  Everything must be hiked in about 3 hours up to the sandy, rocky moraine area at the base of the glacier.   With a 50 pound pack, this was very tiring.  We got to camp at 5:00 pm, set up our tents, ate rice, beans and hot dogs, and then tried to get some sleep.  I slept a little better here, but still only got about 30 minutes of sleep before it was time to hike up.  Our group of 3 was Francisco the guide, me and a Bolivian named Carlos.  Carlos was very enthusiastic and full of energy.  The weather was on our side this time.  The night was perfectly clear, and we could see all 25 miles of Quito.  Even in perfect weather, this climb was much more physically demanding than Cotopaxi.  It was steeper and there were only a few times when it leveled out.  On top of that because the glacier is moving constantly, finding the route to the top is always changing.  We had to make a few wasted trips up and around some crevasses only to learn they didn't go any farther.  We started at midnight and finally found our way up at 6:40.  Walking in the glacier felt otherworldly with all of the giant crevasses and ice formations.  One other bonus was just as the sun was coming out, we saw and heard the active volcano Tungurahua blow a large ash column about 50 miles away.  After spending 20 minutes at the wide summit, we made our way down.  It was a long day but very fun.  Carlos has invited me to go with him and Francisco to Chimborazo, the tallest in Ecuador, in January.  Hopefully we have good weather and and just as much fun there.      
   
                        
The lower peak of Antisana and Tungurahua blowing up
On Antisana with Cotopaxi in the background