12.20-21.14: Cayambe

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The Climb

    We left base camp at 1:00am to clear skis and a brisk 32 degrees.  My scheduled guide, Ramiro was unable to make the appointment and sent one of his most experienced climbers, Diego as a substitute.  I was a little sad that Ramiro couldn't make it, but Diego and I hit it off well.  Prior to leaving base camp, Diego informed me that the turn-around time was 7:00am. Whenever you climb a large mountain, it is necessary to establish an absolute drop-dead time that you cannot violate - even if you are 0nly 20 feet from the summit. Conditions deteriorate throughout the day and it gets too dangerous to be on the mountain too long.  By 4:00am, we had reached 16,800 feet and I was feeling the effects of the altitude.  My breathing was short and I was struggling to get enough oxygen with every breath - but I kept going as steadily as I could.  Due to the varied terrain, I was unable to skin up the hill and had to carry my gear on my backpack the entire climb -that didn't help the cause much, but those are things that you have to be prepared for in the backcountry.

    At 17,000 feet we hit some steep terrain and deep crevasses that were still navigable, but pretty disconcerting,  I found it was best to not look down them since they seemed to go on forever.  In some cases, the gap was large enough to fall in to, but narrow enough to jump over (I found out later they were actually easier to ski over).  When we hit 17,600 feet it was 6:00 and the sun was rising (This was one of my goals for the trip, and it didn't disappoint).  

    At this point it was becoming apparent that the summit was out of reach. It had been in the back of my mind for a while as I did quick calculations every now and then to check our pace, but you just keep going. I tried to pick up the pace the best I could, but my lungs were on fire and I was taking four breaths of dry, thin air every step.  At 17,700 feet, Diego stopped and had the inevitable conversation.  He said it was 6:10am and we were not going to make the summit.  By this time, we were doing less than 400 vertical feet per hour and we still had 1,300 to go. He said that we might as well stop and return to the skiable terrain below the deep crevasses we had been dodging for a while.  I'm not sure why, but I asked Diego if we could just keep climbing until the turn-around time.  He smiled, straighten the safety rope and headed up Cayambe towards the Summit Col.  At 7:00am we had reached the base of the Summit Col at 18,104 feet (less than 900 feet from the summit).  We caught our breath, took in the view, and headed back down to 17,500 feet to do some skiing.  

    I'm disappointed I didn't reach the summit, but I came to Ecuador to push my limits - and I found them at 18,104 feet above sea level.  I left everything I had on the mountain and have no regrets.  The skiing was fantastic and I was the only skier on the entire volcano.  When we reached the final rocky portion that led back to the trail head, Kimberly and Armando (our driver) were waiting to escort us back to the refuge.  Armando offered to carry my pack for me down the steep rocky portion - I stubbornly, but politely declined his request.  I just wanted to finish what I started.

    All in all, this trip to Ecuador has been an amazing adventure.  I accomplished goals and tried new things.  I pushed myself farther than I thought I could go and hopefully learned something about falling short of a goal with grace and humility.  There's a quote I put at the bottom of every page on this blog because it sounded cool to me.  It's by Sir Edmond Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest -"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."  I think I have a better understanding of it now.  I'm ready to get home.