Cayambe

The final few days in Ecuador began with a visit to the 0.0.0/0.0.0 point on the face of the earth. That is 0 latitude, 0 longitude. Pretty cool, but our compasses and GPS' still worked fine... We took a few pictures and headed to Otavalo.

Otavalo is a small town with a huge market. We first went to the livestock section. Basically people standing around with their animals waiting for people to come up and make an offer. There were goats, cows, pigs, sheep, I think that was about it. You needed to be careful where you walked... I wanted to buy a goat but I wasn't sure where I would keep it so I skipped that this time.

We then headed over to the street market section. Basically dozens of blocks of people selling their wares. I believe this area was affectionately called the Gringo Market. I picked up a few items and had fun in bargaining. Bartering is certainly expected, and sometimes it's kind of done for you.

Take the blankets I bought for example: I really wanted to find these heavy wool, Alpaca?, blankets we had used at Hacienda El Porviner. The were so warm and comfy! I'd found some in the Quito market but the dude wanted $45. That might have actually been a deal in the US, but we weren't in the US! So when I found some I pulled Gerry over and asked the lady, Quantos?. She told me Trente(30). I asked her to show me how big the blanket was so we pulled it open. Then before I could say anything else she said - Vente! (20). Well, okay that sounds like a deal to me, I'll take it! Bueno! Then I asked Gerry if he wanted to get in on this deal of a lifetime? He said sure. So I asked - Quantos para dos? She said Vente quatro (24). I'm sorry??? Vente para uno e vente quatro para dos??? SI! Woot! We scored! We were happy, and when we looked back the two ladys selling the blankets were laughing. It seemed like they felt they'd gotten the better of the deal. I remarked to Gerry that perhaps this was the definition of a good deal, all parties are satisfied... We shopped a bit more and I picked up some other sundries and some Pan Dulce.

We met everyone back at the van and headed out to Cayambe Refugio which meant another long, bumpy road. However since the road was pretty wet at least it wasn't dusty. After a few hours the van had gotten as far as it could go. The gear would now be brought the rest of the way by Jaime in the Land Cruiser. However climbers now start hiking. It was a pleasant walk up the road to the Refugio. Jaime passed us on the way up and we met him at the Refugio a little while later.

By now we all understood the deal. We moved in, hydrated, rested and prepped our gear for our attempt tonight. I read, wrote in my journal, drank water and breathed. I also decided to check my pulse. At Jose Ribas Refugio on Cotopaxi my heart rate while seated was over 100 (my normal resting heart rate is in the low 50's). While sitting on Cayambe at 15,000' I was now registering 70. Hmmm, seems some physiology is occurring inside Ray... Strangely I would from time to time forget to breath. I don't mean forget ABOUT breathing. I mean forget completely. I'd suddenly gasp and breath deep a few times to catch up. Man! Altitude is weird stuff!

Our scheduled wake up time of midnight came and I heard Dave get up and go outside. He came back a short time later and said it was raining and lightning outside so we were going to wait 1 hour and check again. Didn't matter to me since I'd been up since 9PM anyway...

At 1am, he came back and said the lightning was still going off so we'd wait some more.

I checked my watch at 2AM and figured since we hadn't gotten the GO we weren't going, I think I might have started to relax a bit...

Two minutes later Dave came in and said weather looks good, lets go! OKAY! Lets go! :|

I packed up with the others in the dark and cold, got our plastics and gaiters on. Downstairs we had some oatmeal and tea to warm up and hydrate a bit. I took some caffeine pills so I wouldn't get a headache later. The route up Cayambe starts with about 1000' of Class 2 scrambling. For the neophytes out there, that's basic rock climbing. Facil! I did fall at one point because the rock I was standing on moved. I remember thinking how funny it was that i was on my back and my feet were way over my head. Dave didn't think it was so funny and pointed out that we were just a few feet from a cliff. FINE Mr. Reality! Burst my bubble! ;)

So after an hour of scrambling, slipping, lurching, and traversing we topped out on the rock and were on flat snow. I remarked on my preference for this kind of terrain. With no reply I started to think people weren't appreciating my dry humor around here...

The terrain eventually un-flattened so we roped up and put on the spikes. Where Cotopaxi starts with a sort of kick-in-the-crotch assault with 1800 feet of 55+ degree slope to negotiate, Cayambe is much more deceptive and crafty. The trail gradual steepened over a long time. It was so beautiful, we could see city light below us and some lightning to our east. There was a huge halo around the moon. The climbing was basic and straight forward and more than once I mentioned out loud how amazing this evening was! This was why I climbed! We transitioned onto a ridge line where Dave told Jake, who was leading, to stay toward the middle because this ridge is often corniced, huh?

As the sun started to come up around 5:30am we began to be able to see a bit more. My world became more than Kurtiss' boots in front of me and the crunch breath crunch breath of crampons and ice axe on glacier. But I could now start to also see how little visibility there was. We were in the clouds.

After the ridge we dropped into the crevasse fields below the upper headwall. We continued on above 17,000' and I was feeling good. This day was going to be my day. We could see crevasse's all around and Jake and Dave were diligent in testing for them with probes and ice axe. When they found one they'd enlarge it to get a feel for where it went and how big it was. I began to see how you could follow the snow bridges covering the crevasse's and I got more comfortable here. The snow was a bit flat over these bergschrunds, and perhaps not always but often you could see where not to step. Up we went and the terrain steepened closer to 40 degrees.

While I wouldn't say I was hurting I was starting to feel the affects of the altitude and the increasing difficulty of our path. After my problems on Cotopaxi I knew I needed to put in a concerted effort into my breathing. That means I had to forcefully pressure breath nearly every breath and above 17,000 certainly every breath. Pressure Breathing is basically breathing really hard in then out through pursed lips where by you create a bit of artificial pressure in your lungs and give them a chance to squeeze out just a little bit more oxygen from the oh so thin atmosphere. Now normal breathing for most people is at most an afterthought. It is a very low effort affair. At altitude this changes. As I found on Cotopaxi you MUST pressure breath. You MUST put effort into breathing. And this effort takes, well, effort.

As we neared 18 I knew I needed to put even more effort into my breathing, that this was imperative to my summiting. As you make your way up this mountain you must move your feet, each wearing 5 pounds of plastic boot and crampon; you must place your axe in a safe and defensive way so as to optimize your chances of self arrest should your feet or the ice fail; you must manage the rope to keep it out of your crampons and those of your team-mates; and you must put a substantial effort into breathing. In other words mountaineering is hard...

I had a chance to think about a few more things as we cruised through that crevasse field. I would check my watch not only for altitude checks but also to check our rate of ascent. On Mt. Baldy with 50 pounds I might make 25 feet per min (fpm). A very good pace on a mountain might be 12 to 15 fpm. When it gets really steep you might see 4 to 6 fpm. We were currently going 6fpm and I thought about that for a few minutes (I had nothing else to do but breath, and walk, and manage the rope and ice axe...). I was thinking in terms of the Spots 10 minute updates in the Track mode it was in. Six feet per minute is sixty feet in ten minutes. So I was thinking about my living room which is about 20 feet long. In 10 minutes we were walking 3 times the length of my living room. Here's a little piece of homework for you. Go outside, mark off 60 feet and then try to cover that distance in 10 minutes. You'll get my point... And we really couldn't have gone much faster.

As we got to a break point near 18,200 feet, we had been smelling sulfur for an hour from the Volcano, the visibility was getting really bad. At that point we had three more wands to mark our back trail and we had about 800 feet above to cover to get to the summit. The crevasse's were still all around us. Dave went forward to commiserate with Jake while the three of us, Kurtiss, Jim and my self, ate, drank and breathed. They came back to us and we had a discussion about the trail ahead, the visibility (we could not see more than 15 feet), what kind of terrain we were going to have to cover, and how long that was going to take.

We had 2 to 3 more hours to get to the summit and it had been snowing steadily for two hours. There were 2 tough sections above us; one a pitch of 55+ degrees and a 15 foot section of about 80 degrees to gain the summit itself. It seemed our fitness and pace were not being questioned, just the safety of going up into what we could not see and then coming back down again. As everyone knows the summit is only 1/2 way. Ed Viesturs says that summiting is optional, coming home is mandatory.

So for the second time in three days I turned around a few hundred feet below the summit if a 19,000 foot mountain. And for the second time in three days it was the right decision. We all agreed that going down was the right thing to do. It was only melancholy in that I felt strongly that today, given decent weather, the summit was within my reach. But it was not to be today.

Down we went with Jake leading the way. It snowed steadily until about 16,000 where it turned into more of a slushy rain. Going down the class 2 rocky section was just as un-fun as I thought it might be but not as hard as Disappointment Cleaver on Rainier.

Back at the hut Gerry and Jaime were outside waiting for us and had hot water for tea inside. I was tired and only mildly disappointed. In fact I was quite satisfied. In the last three days I'd touched 19,100 and 18,200 and I still felt pretty damn good.

We went up and packed our gear and loaded the Land Cruiser. But it was raining pretty good outside and we had a 1/2 hour walk to get to the van. Jaime told us he could fit three people in the SUV with him and 3 had to walk. Jake and Dave quickly volunteered to walk and so did Gerry. Cool - Jim, Kurtiss and I would ride.

At the van we loaded climbers and gear and headed back to Quito. Tired but pretty satisfied. It was again a long bumpy ride. I texted Mandi that we were off the mountain, safe and headed back to the hotel in Quito. She wrote back that she was glad I was safe...

A few hours later we get back to the Hotel Mercure Quito and we unload our gear. I go inside to find out which room I'm in and up walks Mandi in the lobby of the Hotel in Ecuador! It took several seconds for me to realize she was really there! In Ecuador! My mind was having trouble processing this... After hugs etcetera she started to tell me about her adventure, which I was amazed to find out had been in the planning stages since October! I'll let the readers get that story from her website and blog: New Heights

Wow, was my head spinning! First I'm breathing reasonably thick air and now my wife is standing in front of me in Ecuador. We went up to the room and I told her many brief stories and showed her some of my souvenirs. She told me some of her stories and showed me her souvenirs. We had some of the exact same pictures... Then she showed me a website she'd made and the guest-book she made so people could sign it and send me messages of encouragement or whatever. I can only say I was very touched by all those messages, thank you to all of you who partook in that little surprise!

Well, that evening we had a team farewell dinner at a place Jaime recommended in Gringo-town. Food and drinks were great and Mandi got to listen as we told stories about our adventures. Afterwards we were all obviously tired so we headed back to the hotel and hit the sack.

We woke early for our flight home the next morning and we got home last night about 7PM tired and happy.

I know I'll have at least two more posts before this blog goes dormant - until I start planning my next adventure.

Stay tuned just a bit longer and I'll share more about this adventure. :)
Adios
Ramon