Cotopaxi Area: Day 6

Kaitlyn:
I did not sleep well last night. I woke up about every hour and stared out at the mountain hoping the clouds would clear and I'd be able to see little lights going up the volcano. No luck.

After breakfast I signed up to go horseback riding in Cotopaxi National Park. It was a bumpy 40 minutes to the entrance of the park where our horses were waiting for us. We had a brief instruction on what to do (I'm glad I've done it before) and then it was time to get on our horses. Mine was all black and called Savache.

We had a calm, slow walk the first half of the session through hills and a small stream. We saw a gorge and kept Cotopaxi on our right hand side the whole time. The clouds were clear for part of the way to our halfway point and we got some good views of Cotopaxi. About halfway, we stopped for some tea and banana bread, and the opportunity to use the bathroom before we would gallop on the way back.

I'm not sure if it was because we were slow on the way out into the park, but we galloped most of the way back and it was very stop start and therefore hard to get into a good rhythm to not slam into the saddle. Luckily it wasn't a long way back, so by the time I started to feel tender, we were back at the start. Unfortunately, despite being close to the dirt road leading up to Cotopaxi, I didn't see any cars or Allan.

The horses got their saddles removed and once they were all happily free to roam in the nearby fields, we headed back to the hostel. Pulling up to the hostel, I noticed a window open in our room, which meant Allan was back. I was eager to here how the hike went, so I headed to the room instead of into lunch with everyone else. When I got in, there he was, in a cold bath, totally ok.

He told me all about the trek and how difficult it was. If it was difficult for Allan, it was probably really fucking hard. When he'd finished his cold bath plunge for his poor legs, we went to get some lunch. It was like walking in somewhere with a B list celebrity. Everyone was asking him about the trek and high fiving for summitting. Everyone was super impressed, and all I could do was beam with pride for him...and also smile in relief he was intact and only had some tender muscles.

The rest of our day was pretty calm. Allan napped for a fair portion of the afternoon. He was wiped out, and rightfully so. We got up for our WiFi time, and chatted to some people after dinner before heading to bed at a decent time. The fire in our room wasn't as warm when we got in, so hopefully that makes it easier to fall straight asleep.

Allan:

Robinson and I woke up around midnight and started to get organised. We had the refugio to ourselves at this point.

We had a midnight “breakfast” comprising an egg roll and some coca tea. I filled both my flasks with the free hot water offered by the refugio since I thought it would come in handy later. I mean, who wouldn’t think free hot water when hiking to almost 6,000m in sub-zero temperatures on a glacier would be useful?

It didn’t seem like we actually did much, but it took just over an hour to get ready. We departed the refugio around 01:00.

The conditions seemed ok. However, it was snowing, so I immediately added my hardshell jacket. Robinson suggested I wear both my thermals plus my hardshell pants on the bottom (rather than my softshell trekking pants). Despite it seeming a bit strange, this was his environment, so that’s what I went with.

The first 300m or so of the climb was in scree. Not fun at the best of times, but even less so at 4,800m, in the dark, cold and snow with damp mountaineering boots on.

We arrived to the foot of the glacier much faster than normal, but around the time Robinson anticipated. I managed to get my crampons on easier than I thought I would, though I had to take my gloves off to do so. I unclipped my ice axe from my backpack. Now it was time for the fun to begin…

Having never used an ice axe before, I had to really concentrate on switching it to the mountain side every time we changed direction on switch backs. Thankfully, it soon became second nature.

One thing I had a bigger issue with was keeping the rope taught - I kept getting too close to Robinson. The whole point of being roped up is for safety reasons. For example, if I was to slip with the rope taught, it’d be pretty simple for Robinson to brace and take my weight. However, the momentum from my falling a metre or more before the rope became taught might lead to a different scenario. The reason for my getting to close to Robinson was that I was feeling strong and wanted to power on.

I had previously heard people from the hostel saying the climb was short but steep. Of course, none of these people had actually climbed Cotopaxi. It turns out that’s only partly true, only true sometimes, or, maybe only partially true on the sometimes. The climb is always steep. Fact. However, a short distance needs favourable glacier conditions. Robinson described the conditions as “challenging”. Often, we’d have to traverse back and forward, without gaining much elevation. On several occasions we even had to go down and round large crevasses. I guess it made things a bit more interesting!

Another thing I found quite challenging was hiking with crampons and mountaineering boots. I normally hike light and fast, with hiking boots that are more like trail running shoes with ankle support than boots. When I ascent steep parts, I like to lean forward to use my quads and glutes. However, it’s a different story with mountaineering boots and crampons. My ankles are not supple, so even bending them to the right angle to climb, while ensuring the crampons were gripping was tiring. I couldn’t help but thinking that the typical time (in average conditions) was 10 hours, I was climbing in challenging conditions and I was climbing Chimborazo in a couple of days. Thankfully, I managed to get those thoughts out my head quickly and enjoy the immediate challenge.

After a couple of hours or so, maybe around two thirds of the way up/halfway up the glacier/around 5,650m, I started to hear a voice. The accent and words were unintelligible, but there was definitely somebody making some sort of noise. As we approached closer, I could see a light above a small vertical climb.

This was probably the most difficult single part of the climb (up and down). The vertical wall of ice was close to 3 metres high. To put it into perspective, when I fully extended my arm, with ice axe in hand, I couldn’t reach the top. I handed my ice axe to Robinson, so he had two, and watched him climb up. It seemed quite straightforward. Once Robinson was up and secure, he lowered both ice axes to me (mine and his), tightened the rope (in case I fell) and instructed me to proceed.

I’ve vertical ice-climbed once in the past, many years ago, at The Ice Factor, Kinlochleven. I remembered how difficult it was climbing predominately using my arms until I started to trust the crampons and use my legs. While this was only a short climb, I made sure to get my crampons in securely for the first few steps. I also made sure I had three points (two ice axes and a foot or two feet and an axe) in contact with the ice at all times). My technique proved efficient and I climbed the wee ice wall without any issues. Robinson nodded his head in approval when I climbed over the top.

Here, I saw who was making the noise: some guy lying on the ground demanding his guide tell him “in detail, every metre until the top”. According to my watch, we were still around 350m from the summit. I’m not sure the guide was going to provide this guy with a 350-point step-by-step guide to the summit. Robinson suggested we take a short break while he had a chat with his fellow guide.

I examined the other climber while Robinson was chatting to the other guide. He had all the gear: 8,000m+ summit suit, triple boots, good crampons, decent ice axe, googles. It wasn’t until he asked me what I was drinking from my flask that it clicked - it was cunty Azerbaijani guy!

When I informed cunty Azerbaijani guy I was drinking the free hot water from the refugio, which I had carried up, he asked for a drink. I laughed, “no chance”. When he asked why not, I told him how selfish he had been when getting ready and reminded him that he could have got his own water and carried it up himself. Despite him having all the gear, he wasn’t carrying a backpack - his guide was carrying his supplies. Regardless, I still found it a bit odd that he was asking me for a drink of hot water. To be clear, I would normally give somebody a drink in this situation if they asked.

After leaving cunty Azerbaijani guy, we continued our ascent. However, as we got nearer the summit, Robinson seemed to be struggling to find the route. We ended up taking almost a straight line for the last 200m or so, which high wasn’t easy with all the exposed rock and crampons. I’d say it was a similar scramble to that on many Munros, only this was at nearly 6,000m with crampons on.

We made it to the summit shortly after sunrise and the Mexicans (who left an hour before). We let them take their (many) photos, so we could enjoy the summit to ourselves. After enjoying some snacks on the summit and taking the usual photos and videos, Cotopaxi started spouting thick grey plumes of smoke. Remember, Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and was closed for a couple of years until this year due to volcanic activity. Robinson instructed me to put my respiratory mask on and suggested. We took a few more photos, then headed down.

The descent was uneventful. We caught up with the Mexican group around the same time as we passed cunty Azerbaijani guy. I really thought he would have turned round. By this point, it was clear he was the sort of guy who would pay his guide to drag him up. It also explained how he had managed to “climb” some other big mountains.

We arrived back to refugio first after being the last to leave.

Statistics (watch died near the end):
Start time: 01:00
End time: 09.07 (when watch died)
Time: 08.07 (when watch died)
Distance: 10.19km (when watch died)
Active Kilocalories: 1,053KCal (when watch died)
Total Kilocalories: 1,672KCal (when watch died)
Elevation Gain: 1,000m (when watch died)
Average pace: 47’48”/km (when watch died)
Lowest heart: 80BPM
Highest heart rate: 158BPM
Average heart rate: 96BPMBaca lagi