Two completely soaked backpackers came to stay for the night. All of their soaked gear made me understand that Illinizas’ hard packed ice in the morning, was just the epilogue of all the potential precipitation to come.
Bidding farewell to the backpackers, Diego and I pressed on towards the Cotopaxi shelter to get ready for the summit. Rain continued mercilessly as Diego trying to maneuver around all the wild horses roaming around the Cotopaxi National Park. “They are brought here by the Spaniards” Diego mentioned. “What amazing creatures!” I thought to myself. I marveled at the amount of adaptation that these horses undertook to survive at the high altitude of la Sierra of Ecuador.
Donning all the gears and carrying one day of supply, we hiked for 45 minutes to Refugio Jose Rivas, the starting point of tonight’s climb.
Right after finishing some deliciously cooked fish, all the climbers jumped into bed to get as much sleep as we can before our alpine start. (Posting another sunset taken right outside of the Refugio)
It was 1:15am. I woke up just an hour ago to get ready to climb. Before I even got any further, I could already smell the “rotten egg.” Cotopaxi is an active volcano which erupted not long ago at the end of 2016. Ecuadorian government banned climbing until recently when it was deemed safe for the climbers. Still an active volcano, Cotopaxi continues to emit the undeniable sulfur smell.
Some folks had already started sometimes before I did, so I followed all the little headlamps. We marched carefully. Cotopaxi is not a hard climb technically, but crevasses are constant danger; especially after a heavy snowfall. “Follow your guide’s footsteps exactly!” Another climbing guide yelled at me. And it suddenly occurred to me that the danger of falling is real as we marched into the area that received heavy snowfall. I started to slide with every step, a sign that I still needed practice on using crampons on soft snow. Diego yelled out loud “What are you doing?” Slightly upseted by his choice of words and volume, still I replied with some constraint “I am sliding a lot because of the fluffy snow!” Diego instructed me to walk sideways to reduce the sliding; a method that secured my footing but added to my fatigue.
150 meters to the top, the fatigue started to sink in. Whoever said mountaineering is easy? Never, but we do it because it is extremely rewarding. Sure enough, right at 6 am, we reached the top. We were rewarded with a gorgeous view of sunrise above 19000 feet, above an active volcano.
Sunrise on top of Cotopaxi
The crater of Cotopaxi.
Smiling as I make my way down
(The entire journey up and down the summit took us 6 and half hours)
