Long overdue news from South America!

Exmouth Harrier on Tour 

Quito and Cotopaxi

NB. This installment was from December 2012. This instalment seem Katie climbing up glaciers and ice-crevasses and snow-smothered mountains with ice-axes and crampons... during her day off!!

After a flight that nightmares are made of, with delays at check in due to computer issues, I missed the connection at Bogota – 5 hours and the next flight later I finally left for Quito. I spent Sunday exploring the city – the old town is simply beautiful. A few enquiries later and I had managed to book myself on a trek up Cotopaxi, an active volcano standing at 5897m.  I had a day to work on my acclimatisation, so I made to most of the chance to trek up TeleferiQo and Pinchincha which both overlook Quito.

The next day I took a local bus to Latacunga to meet my guide – a mere $1.50 for a 1.5 hour trip! I wish it was as cheap in the UK. In Latacunga I met Miguel, my guide and Jason my trekking partner for the next two days. After being kitted out with an ice axe and crampons we were ready to go.  The drive to Cotopaxi through the Cotopaxi National Park was beautiful, and once there we had a short trek up scree slopes to get to base camp – relative luxury in a little log cabin!  An early dinner at 4.30pm and then straight to bed to get some rest as we were setting off at 1am. At 10pm I woke with a splitting headache so frantically took some painkillers – I didn’t want to risk not being able to try my summit bid! Fortunately when I woke at midnight it had passed.

All kitted out we set off back up the scree slopes for another two hours of ascent until we reached the ice fields and it was on with the crampons.  Travelling through the ice fields in the dark, with just the light of our head torches was amazing – crevasses and ice towers just loomed from nowhere and our guide was essential! The ascent was very tough – incredibly steep in places to the point where I needed to use my ice axe in one hand and jam my free hand into holes left by previous ice axes so I could work my feet up the slope. The sun rose when we were an hour from the summit, throwing light and creating shadows across the ice and snow. It was spectacular! After a brief rest we commenced the final 300m. The air was thin and progress was slow but we gradually made our way up the steep slopes, the smell of sulphur getting stronger as we neared the crater, until finally at 7.15am we were there!!

The views from the summit were simply stunning, the crater opened up in front of us with visible smoke rising from it’s core. After 20 minutes we collected ourselves together and started to make our way back down. The cut off time for summiting is 8am. After that there is not enough time to return down the slopes before the snow is softened by the sun and the risk of avalanche is significantly increased. Fortunately we made it down without incident – tired but happy. An incredible experience and the toughest trek I have ever done, the perfect ‘holiday’ before the next trip begins.

Katie on the glacier

Exhausted but exhilarated at the summit of Cotopaxi