Cotopaxi and Chimborazo

Ascension of Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador with Expediciones Andines & DAV Summit-Club from 14.08. – 30.08.2008

Introduction and Preparation

... and I decided to go for climbing to SouthAmerica... and how did it come??? well, actually I never was too enthusiast of visiting SouthAmerica ... already earlier there was the thought to climb aconcagua maybe... but finally the mountain didnt really attract me... but this time I had about two weeks of holidays on my hands to spend them somewhere for climbing. and as you have monsun in asia in many regions and moreover most trips - as trekkings for instance - needed more time than only two weeks, this trip to Ecuador caught my eye - and finally I thought::: okay, give it a try...

as for my preparation... well, I had a quite perfect one this spring when I originally had planned to take part in an expedition to Nanga Parbat but finally could not take part in business-reasons (of course my heart was still bleeding because of that missed and unique chance to climb such an outstanding special mountain). - this was also the reason that these two weeks of holidays had been left over and to be spend now. and so on thursday the 14. august I was prepared and LG brought me to the local station where I took the train to Duesseldorf airport and from there the airplane to Quito in Ecuador via Amsterdam. - I had estimated a flight duration of about 15 hours... and finally I needed about this time indeed. not least because of the feeder flight from Duesseldorf to Amsterdam ...but also an intermediate stop in Bonaire, isle of the Netherlands Antilles... and a 2nd one in Guayaquil, Ecuador... before we finally reached Quito...

at Quito airport we were welcomed and picked up to the hotel republica by the local agency. thitherto "we" actually had meant only "me" (and the anonymes doing this flight with me) ... but already at the airport I came in touch with matthias, another member of our group. we have a good understanding right from start and decide even to share the double room in the hotel. til the evening we got to know the rest of our group... and next day in the morning we were welcomed by famous Marco Cruz. he is a sort of living legend in ecuador and south america and a pioneer of climbing in these regions. but he even has been many times in europe and also has climbed in the himalaya. - as quito is already located on a level of 2.850m of altitude, we had to take care about our acclimation from all the begining. so at first we stayed for a day of sightseeing in quito, visiting the old town and the Panecillo hill with the "Virgen del Panecillo" - dedicated to Virgin Mary...

in the afternoon we went to visit "the middle of the world"... its a place where several attempts were done to find the exact location of the equator in this region... with more or less success... as even the current location - which is represented by a monument building - is placed about 240 m southern of the correct line... however...

well, but already our next day reminded us of our actual plans... which meant mountaineering and not sightseeing. we did a first acclimation tour "climbing" mount rucu pichincha...

Acclimation Tour to mount Rucu Pichincha, 4.698 m

we has to get up early in the morning at 6:15... and went by bus to the cablecar which brought us up to the upper terminus from where we started our tour at about 4.000 m. with us were of course marco... and two of his guides... and a young french lady, carol her name, who wanted to do the same mountain program as we did. she was French and spent some month as a trainee in our hotel in quito and now wanted to see some parts of the country before returning home. - we walked quite slowly as it was an acclimation tour and not a competition... all running-up only had been stupid. - the only one who was running ahead was nico - a young man who explained his forced pace with his already being acclimated by a preceeding acclimation-tour in peru - where he was living and working. - during this ascent we had splendid weather and a good view over the city of quito. we could realize the enormous length of the town in contrast to the only small width... a relation of about 30km / 10km... quito is the second highest capitol of south america behind la paz in bolivia. - on this acclimation-tour I felt perfectly. I went slowly - as I always do when preparing for greater heights... and never will be found at the top of a group. anyway it is always good to have some reserves for any cases of emergency - which I have experienced already twice with cedric coming into serious problems on cho oyu and singi crashing down pumori over 500 meters... so I had my experiences in rescue-operations too... and meanwhile even know very good how my body is reacting in the heights... and also during the process of acclimation. - from the heights we even had a very good panormic view over the whole valley and even on opposite mountains amongst them the mighty and snow-covered cotopaxi and antisana...

coming back down from the top of rucu pichincha to the top station of the cablecar we met a lot of people still coming up... asking ourselves what all these people wanted to do there in the remaining time of maybe only about 2 hours before the service would stop. - when the cablecar was still quite low frequented in the morning now it was just the opposite. a real kermess around it... and we had to spend some time lining up before we finally could go down...

so our first acclimation tour finished successfully... and the next day we left the hotel in quito and moved to our camp where wewere going to spend our first two nights in tents to climb Iliniza North as a further preparation...

driving down the panamericana for some miles and thru some country environments with the bus we came to the place where we had to leave the bus and had to walk the rest up to the camp. - one hand as the bus could not go further up because of the trail... but even to acclimatize. iliniza north is already 5.125 m high and we had to take care about a good preparation for our main-targets which were cotopaxi and chimborazo... I took this phase for very serious as I was aware that a good acclimation was the most essential aspect of this trip. all the rest I wanted to let come as it would like to come and didnt bother too much about...

when we reached the campsite all was already prepared for us... our tents were installed and even the team-tent and our KitchenCrew were already waiting for us with a soup and later coffee with some cookies. I shared the tent with matthias - meanwhile we built a good team with our experiences of the hotel and were fitting each other very good. - generally mostly we had supper at about 7pm - occasionally even at 6:30... - and now I was looking forward to my first night in the tent - which I always prefer to a hotel...

Acclimation Tour to mount Iliniza North, 5.125m

the next morning we had to get up quite early at 3 am to climb Iliniza North. we took a lil breakfast and did our last preparations and then left the camp at 4 am. the two options were to wake us up at 3 am in case of good weather - or for the case of bad weather to wake us up a bit later - depending on the particular conditions. - well, we maybe did not have really good - but still fitting weather. cloudy but even with "moony spells" - It was btw around fullmoon. in this terrain - with some vegetation still in this height of about 4.000m - I didnt need my headlamp. when preparing for my expeditions in the SWF at home I never use a lamp... and there it is a lot darker. - we walked very slowly. - marco found that we still were a tiny bit to fast when climbing Pichincha. especially our youngster nico was going up a lot faster again than the rest of our group - as he meant he was already acclimatized to this height. I didnt have any idea on which height he had stayed before - and for how long... but as it was already some days ago since his "acclimation" I thought it to be imprudent to go faster than necessary... even when he really was acclimatized it had been better to spare his power for the coming challenges in greater heights... but okay... it was not my decision...

going up we left the vegetation zone and followed a wide ridge ... with even first passages of snow ... the sun arose in a beautiful scene of clouds and dust as a decoration for the moon... we took a lil rest to drink sth and to take some photos. and then went on... - leaving the ridge we passed by a lil cabin and had another rest before we crossed a steeper snowy slope ... screwing up higher and higher. - for this trip I only wore my normal trekking boots... and even didnt wear any gaitors... a good decision as I found... because the snow was still quite hard... and allover we didnt have to walk too much thru snow. a bit less good was the fact that the soles of my trekking boots were quite worn out... but okay... no problem in this terrain. - when crossing a steeper slope maybe crampons had made it easier... but they were not really a must...

leaving the slope we had to cross a short passage of bizarre ice formations (cauliflower structures) and then had to go downhill for some meters. here our guides installed a fixrope... and even for the further ascenst they prepared fixropes for us. it was a mixed terrain of rocks and snow... not very difficult. - well, and if there was really a need of fixropes??? as for me surely not... but it was okay and a good fun anyway... and so we went on. - meanwhile the weather had changed to cloudy and we had to climb thru the mist of the clouds. the temperatures were still not too cold and my decision not to wear too warm clothes for this trip was a right one too. and so finally at about 11 am, on the 20.08.2008, we reach the summit... which is a very small snowy plateau... where we hardly could find enough place altogether. we took some photos and took a lil rest to eat and drink... and then we left to go back down...

a bit below the summit we met a group of young ladies who had come to visit us the other evening. they were from munich and a talent-cadre of the german alpine-club. they stayed in ecuador for an exchange with their ecuador colleagues who would come to visit them in germany later. we exchanged some greetings... shouting and laughing thru the mist...the young ladies were climbing in a good mood and were very fit too. - our way downhill nwas a different one... down a sandy steep slope where we slided more down than we walked... but it was a quite direct and fast way to descent. meanwhile the temperatures were warming up... even rain was threatening inbetween... - we rested two times to drink something and to eat the rest of our lunch-packages... and finally reached our camp just in time before some heavy rain started coming down. - we were welcomed by our kitchen crew with a soup and a coffee afterwards. - later when the sun was coming back for some moments I took the chance to wash myself at the closeby flowing creek...

as a result it was a very nice and straining long day... we were back in the camp at about 2:30 pm. and after washing I took a nap in the sleeping back until supper. later we got the information that nico was feeling very low during the ascent. he had summited quite a while after the rest of our group ... but we thought he had surely stopped for calling maybe ... and so coming in delay... but never had thought of him to be in serious problems ... as he was "very good acclimatized" in his self-evaluation and even seemed to be quite strong... - after supper (we had minced beef with potatoes and green beans) we went to lay down for the night - recovering from a long, successful, happy day...

Climbing Cotopaxi, 5.897m
our next target now was cotopaxi... the scond highest mountain of ecuador and one of the highest active volcanos on earth. cotopaxi is located in the cotopaxi national park in the eastern andes and in a distance of about 50 km of quito...

first we had to do now, was to move to cotopaxi national park. we got up at 7 am ... had breakfast at 8... with breadroles, eggs and marmelade, fruit juice and coffee... and already had packed our bags before. to leave the camp immediately after breakfast. - we went back down the trail to the place where the bus was able to come to pick us up...

again we took the famous panamericana (an old dream to ride it down on a harley -hahaha) and stopped for lunch at the hacienda la cienega, which is one of ecuadors most prestigous haciendas. in colonial times it has hosted famous persons as for instance alexander von humboldt who is a person anyway whose traces you can find everywhere in the country and south america allover too... we still had some time to spend waiting for our lunch... and went to visit the local souvenir-shop... where I bought my postcards. the hacienda allover is in a quite good state... but nevertheless you got a hunch, that it maybe has seen better times in the past. - our lunch was very tasty and for our great surprise even a life-band was playing for us... - but as unexpected as they came... as soon they even disappeared ... after performing some songs of their repertoire and offering their cd for sale...

after lunch we continued our trip to cotopaxi national park via panamericana. cotopaxi national park has a very beautiful landscape... and you can find some species of wild animals there ... as the infamous condor ... pumas, llamas, andean foxes, wild horses and even a species of andean bears in some parts of the park. - when we arrived at the park in the afternoon, the crew which has arrived before us, was still building up the camp. our cotopaxi basecamp was a very beautiful place at the foot of cotopaxi which is a very imposing big mountain - and was right in front of us. - allover we had some bad luck with the weather in so far that it was mostly cloudy with only less sunny days... and so we even didnt get to see cotopaxi instantly that day with our arrival... but had to wait some time until the clouds allowed us a glimpse and a beautiful sight on this impressive big colossus which we wanted to climb the next day...

the weather had changed to cloudy and rain was threatening... marco who is a specialist of this region meant, that it was impossible to forecast the weather now... if it would rain or not... and so I decided to stay in the tent instead of going for a little hiking. we did some preparations for the ascent of cotopaxi and even took a rest lying in our tents in the sleepingbags. supper was announced for 6:30pm... and that evening carol had her supper with us... because otherwise she would have had to sit alone... and that had not been good of course. carol was a nice person and meanwhile somehow part of our team. that evening marco told us about the volcanos of ecuador. he is very widely read. marco even was a friend of anderl heckmair... who was member of the team of the first ascension conquering the famous eiger nordwand in 1938... and anderl heckmair in turn was a friend of luis father, volkmar "burschi" stitzinger - and even was luis godfather. marco knows luis since he was a little boy. when I wrote my postcard for alli I asked marco to sign it and of course he liked to do it and congratulated them for summiting nanga parbat that year. - after supper we went back into our tents... and after listening to some music I fell asleep at about 11 pm... mostly I found it quite warm in the sleepingbag and only wore a tshirt and short sleepingpants...

it was thursday, the 21. august - the day of our ascent of cotopaxi. we got up at 8 am and had breakfast at 8:30. the provisions were very good during the whole trip. we had breadroles and boiled eggs that morning with marmelade, coffee, tea and fruit juice. -after breakfast we did some exercises in the fix-rope... as some of us hadnt any experiences of going in a fix-rope. marco even built the roped-parties for the ascension...I was with matthias, herrmann and willi... and our guide wshould be hernand, one of marcos boys. - later it started to rain... and we had to take a break of the exercise and when we finally finished, we started for a little sightseeing of the cotopaxi national park - instead of a two hours hiking which we actually had planned before, but now were passing on it because of the rain...

well, coming back from our sightseeing we had lunch... and afterwards the weather changed to sun with rain... - we decided to have supper at 6:30 pm and to start for our ascension at 10 pm. time to rest and to prepare for the ascension. - that day nico gave up. he didnt want to give it a try to climb cotopaxi. he was in problems with his stomach and even still had light headache. he already had finished our ascent of mt. iliniza in a bad state... and so it was a very good and reasonable decision not to proceed. he had symptoms of high-altitude-sickness. now he was going back to quito and wanted to meet us there when we even would be back there at the end of our journey. - but maybe nico even was not too sad because in quito he wanted to meet his australian holiday-darling -hahaha...

for supper we had noodles with tuna and parmesan cheese... the perfect energizer for such an energy-cunsuming climb...

On top of Cotopaxi - 22. august 2008
... after supper we were still resting some time in our sleepingbags... as it would become a long night. because of the hot equator-sun its only possible to climb cotopaxi during the night. in the later morning the sun shines so hot that it would be too dangerous... and of course incredibly straining too. to walk thru the soft and deep snow.

after a short cup of black tea we left the basecamp by bus... driving up to the starting point of the climb. we could drive only quite slowly as the street was non-asphalted one hand... and even was winding uphills so that the engine had to work hard... - at the starting point the weather was cloudy with parts of blue sky and stars... it was perceptibly colder in this height of now 4.620 m. and even a strong wind was blowing... we left the parking at 11:10 pm. our first target was the closeby cabin which is the normal startpoint for climbers who come up the day before. to stay in this cabin has certain disadvantages. its crowded of course and quite restless because of all the people... you have to bring up you own provisions... and even dirt is a problem in the cabin as they say. - the way up to this cabin was stoney or sandy and still snowfree... and after a short hour we reached the cabin. even marco and ximena, his wife, were still going with us... but stopped later and went back down to the bus to wait there for us to come back around noon next day. - at the cabin we took a lil rest to put on our harnesses as the weather was too rough to do it later at the foot of the glacier where we had to put on our crampons and wwould leave the rocks to go on climbing in the ice. it was indeed quite cold meanwhile and the wind was blowing strong - with occasional stormy squalls. - now I also put on my light downjacket, which I wore under my gore-jacket - a very good - and tried and tested - combination for heights up to around 7.000 m, which I wore at pumori too. and I even put on my stormcap.

then the next point was the bottom of the glacier... which we reached about half an hour later. a lot of people were going up that day. we put on our crampons and changed the trekking-sticks to the piolet and even were going in the rope now. hernand was going in front and I was at the end of our rope. allover I felt very good, except of some pain of my back... but I m used to pain of my back since many years. - In the begining there were many teams parallel with us on the slope... and even some already climbing higher in front of us... we often had to stop and wait because of the teams in front of us in the trace...

the weather was very windy and depending on how open a slope was for the wind, the wind came to the limit of storm... occasionally we even had some frozen crystals falling down of the clouds. meanwhile our guide was accelerating... and once even was doubling another team beside the trace in the deeper snow, which is quite straining of course. we had changes of our pace and rhythm which is not good... and I even couldnt see any good reason why to do that - as we were very good in time to reach the summit - and even only still one or two teams were in front of us... and the way up was quite direct and very steep with hardly any flat passage inbetween where you could recover for a moment. - the whole climb was quite straining - the more as we had a lot of fresh snow the other night and the snow was quite fluffy which meant, with every step you went, you slided back a bit and you even sank deep into the snow with your piolet... often with your hand touching the snow... and it was of course very straining to climb in these conditions... and then to go with such a high speed. for our guide it was for sure less a problem as he was perfectly acclimatized - whereas we were only adapted more or less good to this height - but for sure not in a way you would be, when staying in heights of 4.000 m since a longer time... and this mountain is climbed during all seasons of the year... and marco is here with other groups too of course whenever possible... - however - for some of us it went to their limits as they later told each other when exchanging our experiences... - anyway it was our mistake not to stop our guide. we only had about two stops to drink, which of course is too less and brings you into dehydration...

so we went on and on... and the route really is steep, steep... steeper... very direct... and marco later told us that it hadnt been like that in former times but that they had changed the route some years ago... (to climb the summit more direct and straight -maybe with the motto::: fast forward - your coffee is waiting in the basecamp - so to speak -hahaha)... - occasionally we even thought already to be close to the top... but then it was again only a little hill and after getting over it... the trace went further and the next hill came in sight... or when - after taking a steep slope - we thought now would come a flat passage - at least for some meters... even that was a fake -hahaha... - the trace always went on steep and very direct. - but then... after passing a short - but a bit exposed - passage... the last ramp camp in sight... a last jump... and at 6:17 am we reach the top of Cotopaxi. still in the dawn ... and many clouds blocking our view ... and so we had almost no sight and for bad luck even didnt get sight of the crater of this famous volcano - but we couldnt help it. - On top a stormy wind was blowing. it was quite cold as even the sun hadnt yet arisen. - only few persons were standing there with us... and before - during our ascension - only one two-party-team already came down from the summit. - even carol was already on top. she was quite strong and in a good shape. moreover in a two-party team you are of course more flexible than in a four-party one. so we took some photos and at 6:30 started to descent...

a bit below the summit we met our colleagues still coming up. sven had to give up because of some problems with his leg... he had an accident some weeks ago and had hurted his leg. I was walking top of the rope now... and in the daylight now we could see the beautiful landscape... all in snow of course... even crevasses and bizarre ice structures created by the wind... we stopped three times to drink and to take some photos... and reached the cabin at about 9 am. meanwhile the weather turned to rain again... but before we even got to know the hot eqator sun burning down on us walking thru the snow which was getting pliant and very wet by the sun... whereas we were sweating in our warm clothing... but in the mountains you often have these contrasts of very strong coldness during the nights or in bad weather conditions... and of hot sun burning down on you the day over when the sun is shining and the wind is becalmed... so occasionally its not so easy to choose the fitting clothing. but its always good to be able to change clothes... and in so far for instance even overpants are a good option... - we still had to go down the slope from the cabin to the parking where I arrived at 9:20 am - meeting marco who was welcoming and congratulating us. well, he is of course the master of this mountain and has summited it several hundreds of times. basically I felt good except of still some pain of my back and some headache. as for the latter I knew it was because of the dehydration and would fade away after drinking and taking a rest... now we were waiting for the rest of our group. some minutes past 10 am the bus could eventually leave... and about 11 am we were back in the camp where we had lunch with soup, cookies and cheese.

after lunch I went to the little hut where you had one cold-water place - and washed myself. back at our tent I unpacked and arranged my material and other stuff and went to lie in my sleepingbag to take a nap for about an hour. - I had ordererd 2 liters of hot water in our kitchen... to make some tea and drinks to get back in balance with my bodys hydration. with drinking even my headache was reducing and after some talking in the tent with matthias I fell asleep for 2 more hours. - at 7pm we had supper. with bread, steak with potatoes and lentils... and afterwards went to sleep. - the end of a splendid day and wonderful experience of summiting Cotopaxi...

Moving to Marcos huts - our starting point for climbing Chimborazo

next morning, saturday, we had to get up early at 6:30. - we had to leave the camp and had to made it to marcos huts. which were about a five hours trip away from cotopaxi BC. - I had a good night... and we had a lot od sheet lightnings during the night and later it had started to rain for the rest of the night. but in the morning we had a beautiful sight on cotopaxi, which was covered with new snow down to its foot. - after packing all our stuff went on our trip. - driving with the bus we made two stops and finally reached marcos huts, which are really very beautiful and are located in a wonderful remote place in the mountains. marco has a very outstanding collection of things of the mountains... and which he has decorated in his huts. they really have a very high standard... and are very comfortable. - after having lunch with maize, soup, beans, bread, cheese, we went to our rooms to get installed... taking a shower... and a lil rest. - it was quite fresh in these heights... and we had to turn on the heating... a filament heating in this case. - at 7pm we went for supper. I was sitting next to carol and we had a good conversation about this and that and the mountains. in english of course, because carol was French. (eeehm... as I could experience I have forgotten all my french during the about last 8 years - and since I put my focus on english. a bit frustrative, when I think back, that my french before was better than my english had been...)... - after supper we sat around the open fire and had some conversation. even ximena, marcos wife was taking part in it. and she told some nice stories about marco... to mention when he met hary belafonte or neil armstrong, the famous astronaut who came to visit him in hostel. yes, marco is a famous person over there in south america. he even met reinhold messner... and there is a foto of the both shaking hands. - at about 11pm we went to sleep and another exciting day ended up in sweet dreams in our beds...

next morning, sunday, we went for a sightseeing after breakfast. we visited a local indio market in colta ... and in rio bamba we went over the ruine place of san fransisco which was destroyed by an earthquake already long times ago. afterwards we went over the local market of rio bamba. there you could by food, clothing and stuff of all kind... and also some animals. - those who know me, know that Im a great fan of cats. and when Im on holidays, Im looking for local cats too of course and try to take fotos of them, whenever possible. in ecuador cats seemed to be very rare. and when I realized that it was so difficult to find one, I offered the members of our group that I would give 10$ to the one who would show me a cat so that I would be able to take a foto of it. - occasionally the or two - and even me - had seen a cat when sitting in the bus... but it was impossible to take a foto of them. and then marco told me he could show me a cat. and showed me caged ones on the market of rio bamba. it broke my heart to see them sitting there. a litter of kitten with their mummy. and one kitten had chosen me, looking at me in such a special way, that you could feel it. it was heart breaking to see that - and of course this was not what I wanted to shoot to open the page on my website with the "cats of ecuador"... - back home to marcos huts we had lunch and then hermann, who is a priest, did marco the favour to sacrify he new built part of the central hut. - after this ceremony marco announced that we would go for our cimborazo ascent that night. and so went to our rooms to take a rest and to prepare our material and things. - it meant to have dinner at 7pm... and to leave by bus at 9pm. - I packed my rucksack and prepared the clothing which I wanted to wear for the climbing. we could reckon on some wind and even cold temperatures - similar as we could experience on cotopaxi before...

after supper at 7pm i took a rest until 8:30. then started my final preaparations. and at 9:45 we overtook our bottles with the hot water. I used my own tea... a blend of fruit tea because<I have my experiences with tea. on the 8.000er expeditions you have to drink lots - and tea is the first choice. but I experienced that only after a week I couldnt "see" any tea anymore. and then drank warm water instead. - at 10 pm we left... taking the panamericana until the point where we had to turn to the right - driving up to the parking which is the starting point for the climb in 4.850m of altitude. - it wass windy when we left the bus. i wore my typical "summit-clothing" - its already surely 20 years old - or older - and the modern clothing industry surely would not have any fun in me -hahaha. - in the bus I had given my windstopper gloves to irina, who was missing some to handle the jumar. and I didnt think that I would miss them so very much myself. I depended on my "red ski gloves" - very outworn too -hahaha. with very significant "scars" of abseiling on other alpinetours...

at about 10 pm we started from the parking - and after a lil while we reached the carrell hut. there we put our harnesses on - and I put on my thin down-jacket too which I wore under my gore-jacket because of the wind which had started to blow stronger. marco and even his wife ximena were still accompanying us futher up. they came with us til the foot of the glacier, where we had to put our crampons on. marco didnt come with us... but returned to the bus with ximena and stayed there for the night - waiting for us to come back the next day.

now, climbing on the glacier, we had some stops because of other groups in front of us. in this phase of the ascent I got slightly cold feet and even had to put on my stormcap because of the increasing wind. but after a while we found our rhythm. this time hernand, our guide again, made a good pace... not too fast. the weather turned to worse with the time passing by. - and when marco had told us before that ascent of chimborazo would be less steep and direct than the ascent of cotopaxi, this was an err -hahaha. and surely he only didnt want to discourage us...

I found the ascent quite straining - as my colleagues found too - as they told me afterwards. this was in reasons of that the route is indeed quite steep and direct one hand... and that we had a lot of new snow the other day on the other hand. so that meant that you always slipped with every step while climbing up... and beyond that you even sank deep into the snow with your piolet til your hand with every step you made. - later I took the help of my trekking-stick - in combination with my piolet - and then things became easier...

underway we had one passage where we went in a fixrope - but as I could see later when desending and passed this passage, there was a way beside it, where you did not need to go in a fixrope. so it had not really been necessary to use a fixrope - however...

coming higher and higher we came more and more into clouds. and had a spit of snow too. and coming close to the summit, they wind started blowing very hard too. and the last part of the climb was quite a fight against the stormy wind and coldness going along with it...

so we reached the "point veintimillia" with 6.267m at 6:18 on 25. august 2008.

we arrived there as one of the first groups. but the weather was so bad with no sight at all... a stormy wind blowing and very cold temperatures, so that there was no thought of reaching the highest point of chimborazo that morning as we had had to proceed for about 40 min thru a labyrinth of penitentes which you find up there... generally you must have good luck to reach the top of chimborazo. and many climbers cant reach it in reasons of bad weather. but even hot sun can pretend you from reaching the top, when you reach point ventimillia too late. - for a pity we even couldnt see the crator of the volcano, because it was completely hidden in clouds. - our colleagues who came up some time behind us, had better luck as the clouds opened the sight on the crator for a while so that they even could take photos of it.

the ascent finally was quite straining that day in these conditions of snow and weather. and basically you can say: climbing chimborazo is not a technical challenge, but it is a hard alpine daytrip... maybe to compare with climbing mt blanc in the alps.

... TheComingUpWithSomethingMachine is still working - so please stay patient ...