The attempt on Cotopaxi

Okay, im not sure in what order everthing has happened and Im sure ill forget something, but here goes...

I think the last time I posted was when we were getting ready to leave Quito. The next day we took an acclimatizing hike to Illiniza Norte. We hiked to a sub-peak at about 15,800´. It was cold and we popped into the hut there which wasn´t the nicest Ive seen. We hustled back to the van for our ride out to the Hacienda. This hacienda was like a ranch house. it was very cool, lots of character. Only one shower but the beds were very comfy and had 3 heavy blankets on each. The food was wonderful!

Leaving there the next morning we drove along a very bumpy road to Cotopaxi Parque de National. Its a huge park with no paved roads. We drove quite a ways till we got to the parking lot below the Jose Ribas Refugio. We needed to take all our gear plus team gear up the 800´ hike, about 45 minutes. I decided to be a good team mate so I loaded a 5 liter bottle in the top of my pack plus a 10 pound bag of food and carried another 5 liter bottle in my hand. This little walk was a butt kicker. It was only 800 feet but at 15,000 feet carrying an 80 pound pack is a chore...

So we got there and moved in for a few days. Its a 30ish bed affair laid out like a barracks. Racks 3 high and in two large rooms. When we got there, there were only a few people in the place so we had our pick of beds. I chose a bottom unit on the end. We were asked to make a small footprint but we, being typical Americans, took all the room we needed...

The Refugio: its basically a climbers hut, but a darn nice one. There is a full kitchen, a store where you can buy beer, water, gatoraid, and other sundries. However it is unheated. It was 40 inside when we got there and it only got colder. Within an hour of getting there I had on every piece of clothing Id brought including my down jacket!

So we basically kicked it there. everyone goes to bed because climbers attempting the summit each night usually start between 11 and 1am. Plus its so cold the only place you can get really warm is in your sleeping bag. I did not sleep well though. Never more than an hour at a time. I would get to sleep then wake up panting as if Id stopped breathing. Weird. I asked the guides and they said that was a common thing... Nice.

The next day I felt horrible! Headache, neasua, fatigue, I didnt want to eat.... I went outside, walked around and did a lot of pressure breathing. that helped. Then I started drinking water every minute or so and started to feel better. We had a mini snow school that day and walked roped without crampons on up to 16,440´ ugh... The summit was another 3000´ feet higher...

Okay, early dinner of yummy burritos, makes for a musical refugio, then to bed at 6pm. We woke at 11pm, got ready and were on the trail by 12am. The sky was beautifully clear. you could see all the stars! All of them!

After an hour on the trail we got to the glacier where we put on crampons and roped up. I also turned on the tracking feature of the spot. Up we went. Here´s the gist of this mountain. the walking distance from the hut to the summit is probably 2 miles, maybe a little less. In this distance you go from 15,800 to 19,347! 3500 feet in 2 miles = STEEP! The first main face took us 3 hours to get up and you can see that entire face from the hut. Above that it eased up for only a few dozen meters then back up it goes. One team mate puked at about 18,000´, I thought about it but decided not to. We kept going. At about 18,500´ we hit a particularly steep section. We cruised up it but at the top I was nearly hyper-ventilating. Jake, the guide helped my get my breathing under control but I told him if there was another section like that that I could not make it. He coached me some more on my breathing pattern and said lets give it a try. So we did.

I checked the tempature, it was 25f. Every time I went to get a drink of water it was frozen inside my backpack. I would shiver at every break, but had on appropriate clothes for the climb...

So we kept trying. I got to 19,000´. I felt like my legs could go on. In fact I felt rather strong. But I could not breath. I tried my hardest to pressure breath but air didn´t seem to be coming in. At this break it was determined that Gerry should go down. He was coughing very hard. With a guide going down with Gerry I decided to turn around too. Given all the time in the world I probably could have gotten to the summit, but it simply wasn´t safe. With not being able to take in O2 i was seeing stars. Literally. It was a smart decision to go down there because when we started down I kept falling down. Not from fatigue but from my inability to get my legs to listen to my head. I was fuzzy to say the least.

So Gerry, Jake and I took our time and headed down. As we went I felt better but I still couldn´t breath well. there was just more oxygen in the air. We finally got back to the refugio and I laid down for about 1/2 an hour. I woke up weezing and coughing. The others all summited, congratulations to them all! When they got back we packed up our gear and made that 800 foot descent to the parking lot. What a long walk that was...

Back in the fan we drove on another long, bumpy and dusty dirt road. Eventually we ended up at Hosteria La Cienaga. The place was wonderful. I took the longest hottest shower in a long time! After that Gerry, Chris and I had some lunch and some beer then took a little walk around the place.

We got back to the room and I read for a bit but was having trouble focusing so I laid down, as chris was doing. We got up at 7 for dinner. Dinner was average but after dinner we went back to our rooms and went to bed. With the exception of one wakeup at about 3am I slept all night! That was the first full night of sleep I´ve gotten since I´ve been down here! I feel so much better today!

Today we came to Hacienda De Guachala, this place was first built in 1580 and is very cool! I´m rooming with Kurtiss and Gerry. We have a fireplace in our room, and the grounds are beautiful! Dinner is at 6:30 and we´re getting up early to go see an Equator monument, then we´re going to a major farmers market. After the market we head up to the refugio at Cayambe for our attempt on that mountain. Three of our team went back to the states today so we´re down to 4 climbers and 2 guides.

I may not feel like updating this on Sunday because we´ll be walking off Cayambe and heading back to Quito for our flights the next morning...

So thats all for now.
R