Cotopaxi

At 19,347 ft. Cotopaxi is one of the world’s tallest active volcanoes. I had been planning to climb it since I found out I would be studying in Ecuador, so I was very excited when I finally had a free weekend.

View of the refuge at 15,748 ft.

My friend from my program and I decided to climb it together. We planned the trip Ecuadorian style: on Monday we called a guide that a friend had used and asked if he could take us up that coming weekend. “Sure!” he said, “I climbed it last weekend too and the conditions were great.” He said he would call us later that week to tell us what we needed to bring. 

On Wednesday we emailed him asking about important specifics like a time and place to meet and what type of gear we needed to bring. We got a reply on Thursday with such atrocious spelling and lack of grammar that we had to send it to an Ecuadorian friend to translate it into Spanish. It turned out his first language wasn’t Spanish, but Quichua, a dialect common in rural parts of Ecuador.

We decided after the email experience that communication by phone was easier, so after confirming on Friday night we left at 6:30 am on Friday to take the bus out to Cotopaxi. For $0.25 we took an hour and a half bus ride down to the very south of Quito, and then for $3.00 we took another hour and a half bus ride out to a town close to Cotopaxi National Park. There we met our guide in the bus terminal and he took us to rent our gear. He turned out to be a great guide - very knowledgeable and a great cook. He has climbed Cotopaxi over 200 times!

Picking out our gear

We stopped at a nice viewpoint on the drive from the town to the volcano.

After getting all suited up we hopped in the car and started driving up to the volcano. We stopped to buy all the essential provisions: coca leaves, coca caramels, snickers bars, and Gatorade.

We left the car in the parking lot, strapped on our backpacks and started the hike to the refuge. The hike was pretty slow going because of the slippery gravel, our heavy backpacks, and the high altitude.

Taking a break on the way up to the refuge

A lot of people go up to the refuge for a day trip. As we were hiking up we saw a bunch of people playing in the snow. We were so tired just walking we couldn't imagine how they were running up and down the slopes.

When we got up to the refuge we claimed beds for the night, unpacked a few things, and ate lunch prepared by our guide. The refuge was much bigger than I though and can sleep over 100 people. In a nearby snow bank we practiced walking with our ice picks and following in the footsteps of the guide.

We ate dinner around 6 pm in order to be in bed by 7 pm. The plan was to wake up at 11 pm and start climbing. It takes 5-8 hours to summit, so by leaving at 11 pm or midnight, you hopefully summit just as the sun is rising.

However on this weekend the weather was so bad that most groups (there were about 80 people at the refuge) didn’t make it up. Another group from my university had to turn around 2 hours from the top because their guide got sick, and in the morning we saw another couple that didn’t make it up because of the wind and fog. We only made it up about 2 hours because the friend I was climbing it had a combination of altitude sickness and food poisoning. 

So we didn’t have the kind of adventure we were expecting, but we did have an adventure: we got to tromp around in the snow, drink coca tea, meet some new people, see some beautiful views, and learn how to use ice picks. This was also the highest elevation I have ever been at. I’m not sure how high we hiked up to, but the refuge is at 15,748 ft. I didn’t feel the altitude too much when we were walking slowly, but in the middle of the night I woke up completely out of breath gasping for air.

I hope to go back and try to climb it again. The part we did climb was gorgeous. We started out with another group, and looking ahead all I could see was a long line of headlamps snaking up the mountain. It was almost meditative hiking through the snow with only the sound of the wind and heaving breathing. It felt like we were completely isolated in our own world on the volcano, completely separate from time and our normal lives.