Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

To fully aclimatise for a climb you should spend 2-4 weeks at altitude, but, we had very little time before our flight from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile so we had to cut it short, to one night!  At first we weren´t even going to spend that long but some common sense prevailed and we organised to spend a night on the base of Cotopaxi at 3,800m.  The view of Cotopaxi from here.

The drive there was only an hour and so we had the afternoon to kill.  We decided to do a bit of walking to see how we were feeling.  First stop was a gentle walk to a lagoon.

On the way back from the lagoon we passed the start of a walk to another nearby volcano, I forget the name.  We decided to start this walk, go for a while to see what there was to see then to return the same way.  The nearby volcano.

The start of the walk.

The next day, around lunchtime the guide picked us up and we drove up Cotopaxi to the refuge, or rather to the parking lot below the refuge.  We had to climb 300m from here to the refuge with all our gear.  At the refuge we saw some wildlife, a wolf (lobo) probably scavenging off the leavings of climbers.

We had a quick bite to eat, then a rest, and then we headed a little way up the volcano to the snow line to have a practice with crampons and ice axes.

 

We were fairly quick to catch on, and the climb wasn´t going to be technically difficult so after a short practice we headed back to the refuge for a sleep.  We were to wake up at 12 midnight to begin our climb at 1am.  The reason for the early start is that during the day the ice melts somewhat and it becomes more dangerous.

The climb was only 5 hours (not 8 like El Misti) but it was much steeper.  Erin really likes climbing in crampons because she usually falls over and crampons give her much more stability.

Sadly I was unable to reach the top.  I tried, but about 100m from the top I just couldn´t go any higher.  I suspect the altitude and perhaps my recent illness affected my fitness as Erin had no trouble whatsoever.  I was also a little worried about the descent, which is the more dangerous part, and decided to wait while Erin and our guide (a man of infinite patience) climbed to the top and back down to me.

Photos from the top!

The view from where I stopped.

Us, at the (almost) top.

Views on the way down.  It was light and there was much more to see!

This cliff face of ice was a whole heap more impressive in the daylight.

More views.

Our guide.  He´s done this so many times it must be boring.

Us, dead tired, in the car park saying goodbye to Cotopaxi.