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SOUTH AMERICA CLIMBING

GREAT PEAKS OF PERU

JULY 2016

CHOPICALQUI-6354M/20,848FT

PISCO OESTE-5752M/18,872fT

NEVADO ISHINCA-5530M/18,138FT
URUS ESTE-5420M/17,782FT

ECUADOR VOLCANOES

 

JANUARY 2015

 

CHIMBORAZO-6310M/20,701FT

COTOPAXI-5911M/19,348FT

CAYAMBE-5789M/18,996FT

Chimborazo @ 20,701ft, Cotopaxi @ 19,347ft and Cayambe @ 18,996ft!!! What an expedition to the three highest volcanoes in Ecuador!!! Our trip began in Quito the capital and from here onwards we spent two weeks acclimatising to get us prepared for our first summit attempt. Our original goal was to climb Antisana, a remote volcano thats heavily crevassed near its summit and stands at 18,891ft. The weather had been bad for a few days and after preparing on the volcano with some high altitude ice climbing, we prepared for our summit bid. We set off that night, but were soon turned around by strong winds and cold temperatures and so were forced to retreat back to our camp. 

   We then continued on our journey towards our next goal Cotopaxi , the highest active volcano in the world, within the Cotopaxi national park and the second highest in Ecuador. Here we encountered llamas, herds of wild horses and varying zones of vegetation.  A really spectacular place! Again the weather was looking ominous, as Cotopaxi was enveloped within huge lenticular clouds and high winds that we'd seen for a week. Luckily though, when it came to our summit night, the winds subdued radically and gave us the chance for a summit attempt. We set off into the night, up the steep slopes of the volcano and were treated to a magnifient sun rise just below the summit! On top, we had an incredible view down into the active crater and the smell of sulphur was quite intense. I then had the incredible opportunity to descend down into the crater itself and circumnavigate around the rim. This was a whole experience in itself, to drop down into the heart of a live volcano and be surrounded by fumeroles at such a close distance! Tired and happy, we descended back to camp and then towards our next goal, the highest volcano in Ecuador.

Now that we were acclimatised, we got ourselves prepared for the biggest of our goals, Chimborazo.  Chimborazo is an extinct volcano and its summit is the furthest point from the center of the earth, in its own way making it the tallest mountain on the planet! We made our high camp at the Stubel camp at 16,567ft and from here we made our preparations for our summit bid. We set off early into the night following the Stubel Glacier until it joined the Castle saddle, which was a safer route in order to avoid rock fall hazard. It was a long summit night with some occasional thunder activity fairly close by which we kept an eye on, but eventually as day light broke, we arrived to the Whymper summit @ 20,701ft, to get magnificent views back over to Cotopaxi, Antisana and watched as Sangay volcano was erupting its plumes far away, high up into the atmosphere!

With some time spare and being super acclimatised at this point, Jose Luis and I decided to attempt one more volcano, the third highest in Ecuador! Cayambe is a massive glaciated extinct volcano located 65km northeast of Quito. Not only is it Ecuador's third highest peak but its the third highest peak in the America's north of the Equator. It also has the distinction of being the highest point on the Earth's surface through which the Equator directly passes. Cayambe is rather dangerous due to very active glaciers, crevasses and avalanches, so we knew this was a mountain we had be particularly careful on. We made our way up to the high refuge for a few hours of rest. As we were lying in our sleeping bags, we could hear the rain and thunder and then snow storms outside of the refuge. Our original plan was to get up at midnight and start climbing, but the weather was terrible. Finally on our third attempt at waking up at 3.00am, we poked our heads outside the door and miraculously the weather had subsided and the stars were beginning to poke through! We scrambled our things together and headed out. It turned into a beautiful summit night. Our main obstacles as expected were trying to navigate around huge crevasses and snow bridges up high, but we safely accomplished this by some careful exploring, re-tracing our route back down in sections and then having to re-ascend up a different way. The final climb was up a steep 50 degree ice pitch near the summit, but then we were on top of this beauty! We didn't stay long however as the weather was too unpredictable and the cloud was piling in, so we made a swift descent!

CHILE VOLCANOES

 

DECEMBER 2014

 

OJOS DEL SALADO-6893M/22,572FT

VICUNAS-6067M/19,904FT

PENA BLANCA-6030M/19,783FT

SAN FRANCISCO-6018M/19,744FT

 

Our expedition to Chile took us to the Atacama desert, to attempt climbing the highest active volcano in the world and the second highest peak outside of Asia-'Ojos Del Salado' @ 22,572ft! A giant amongst giants, Ojos is located in the Chilean Altiplano comparable only with Tibet. Our acclimatisation process got us hiking the peaks in the beautiful Atacama desert, where we  camped alongside natural salt water lakes with flamingos and were treated to views of snow-capped volcanoes and red desert slopes. After packing up our Laguna Verde camp at 14,765ft, we established our high camp at 17,000ft and prepared for our summit attempt.  Our summit night began in the early hours, ascending up to Refugio Tejos at 19,350ft (the highest hut in the world!)  and then continuing up the volcanoes steep scree slopes. As we approached the summit, we circumnavigated around the huge extinct crater, taking in the smell of old sulphur and then on towards the final rock section, up to the summit.  The sun appeared just as we reached the top and we enjoyed stunning views across the Atacama, marvelling at all the surrounding 20,000ft volcanoes!  We completed this part of the expedition by descending down and packing up our camp and then drove all the way down to the Pacific ocean, where we celebrated with fresh seafood and cocktails!!!

 

As we were super acclimatised at this point from climbing Ojos, we decided to extend our trip and return back into the Atacama to climb three more super volcanoes!  After replenishing supplies, we made our base camp back at Laguna Verde at 14,765ft and then started our next challenge to speed climb San Fransisco @ 19,744ft, Pena Blanca @ 19,783ft and Vicunas @ 19,904ft! It was tough on our bodies as they were already tired from Ojos, but a super fun challenge as we were acclimatised and could move really fast. After our fourth volcano in eight days, we realized we were starting to look like desert lizards and decided to call it a day-it was time to say goodbye to the Atacama!!!

 

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