Mount Chimborazo: Climbing Glaciers Near The Equator
The climb up the glaciers to the summit of Mount Chimborazo
in Ecuador isn't considered highly technical. Technically,
it is mountaineering, but how hard could it be,
considering that I went to 20,600 feet the first time I used
crampons and an ice axe? Okay, I had used them once for
practice, on a sledding hill near my house. I climbed almost
forty feet while people walked by with their sleds, warning
their kids to stay away from me.
Driving Up Mount Chimborazo
It is easier to climb a mountain when the guide drives you
to 15,000 feet. Don't get me wrong. Climbing that last 5,600
feet was one of the most difficult things I've done, but not
for the skill required. The fact that the air was missing
half of its oxygen is what had me quitting twenty or thirty
times on the way up Chimborazo. It just gets difficult to
move up there.
The Graveyard
The little monuments near the first refuge weren't for
climbers without skill. The graveyard is a testament to the
unpredictability of all high places. Chimborazo is very
high, it randomly drops large rocks on you, and has weather
that changes by the minute. Even as we were hiking to the
second refuge, we could hear the rocks and pieces of ice
falling somewhere above.
El Refugio Edward Whymper is a simple, unheated hut at
16,000 feet, named after the English climber who first made
it to the summit of the mountain. Okay, it isn't entirely
unheated. There is a fireplace, and when somebody feels like
carrying wood up to 5000 meters, the fire might raise the
temperature in the hut by 3 degrees.
We had "mate de coca" a tea made of coca leaves, which are
also known for another product made from them--one that is
taken up the nose. Then we went hiking for a short while.
That was my acclimatization. We ate, and I slept for at
least an hour before starting the ascent at eleven that
night.
A Little About Mount Chimborazo
Chimborazo is in Ecuador, not far from the Equator (100
miles south). The elevation in the center of the country,
and the moderating effect of the Humboldt Current, which
runs along the west side of South America, gives the country
near perfect weather. A bit hot along the coast and
lowlands, but spring--like in Quito (the capital) , with
daily highs in the sixties to low seventies year--round.
Wonderful weather almost everywhere--until you get high
enough.
Chimborazo, at it's peak, is the furthest point from the
center of the Earth. Our planet bulges at the equator,
making Mount Chimborazo even futher out there than Everest.
It has the distinction of being the closest point to the sun
on the planet, and yet still the coldest place in
Ecuador.
Climbing Chimborazo
Paco, my guide, didn't like the lightweight part of this
mountain climbing adventure. He frowned when he saw my
sleeping bag, which packed up smaller than a football, and
weighed a pound. My frameless backpack didn't seem to
impress him either (13 ounces). In any case, although it did
get below freezing in the hut, just as he said it would, I
stayed warm--as I said I would. No problems so far.
Unfortunately, Paco didn't speak a word of English, and I
was just learning Spanish. Since our whole group consisted
of him and me, we did have some communication problems. I
thought, for example, that the $11 fee for the "night" (a
few hours) in the hut was included in the $130 guide fee. He
thought that I was a mountain climber.
I think he was saying that he didn't like the papery
rainsuit I was using as a shell, and he frowned at my
homemade 1--ounce ski mask. When he saw me putting on my
insulating vest, a feathery piece of poly batting with a
hole cut in it for my head...well, I just pretended not to
understand what he was saying.
I hadn't intended to go climb up Mount Chimborazo with such
lightweight gear, but I had come to Ecuador on a courier
flight, and could bring only carry-on luggage. Since I had
only 12 pounds in the pack to begin with, by the time I put
on all my clothes that night, the weight on my back was
irrelevant. The weight of my body, however, wasn't
irrelevant. Paco had to coax me up that mountain.
Hiking On Glaciers
The glaciers start a short walk from the hut, and hiking
soon became mountaineering. I put on crampons for the second
time in my life (there was that sledding hill). During one
of my many breaks ("Demasiado" - too many, which I pretended
not to understand when Paco explained in Spanish), I noticed
that the tiny, cheap thermometer I carried had bottomed out
at 5 degrees fahrenheit. I wasn't cold, but I was exhausted
at times--the times when I moved. When I sat still I felt
like I could run right up that mountain.
We struggled (okay, I struggled) up Mount Chimborazo,
hiking, climbing, jumping over crevasses, until I finally
quit at 20,000 feet. Of course I had quit at 19,000 feet,
and at 18,000 feet. Quitting had become my routine. Lying
had become Paco's, so he told me straight--faced that the
summit was just fifty feet higher. Maybe I wanted to believe
him, or maybe the lack of oxygen had scrambled my brain. In
any case, I started up the ice again.
On Top Of Mount Chimborazo
We stumbled onto the summit at dawn. Well, okay, I stumbled.
Paco, who seemed somewhat frail down at the refuge, was in
his element at 20,600 feet. Dirtbag Joe, the
nineteen-year-old kid from California with ten dollars in
his pocket, borrowed equipment, and my Ramen noodles in his
stomach, was waiting for us with a smile.
The sky was a stunning shade of blue that you actually can
never see at lower elevations. Cotapaxi, a classic
snow-covered volcano to the north, was clearly visible 70 or
80 miles away. Handshakes all around, and it was time to get
off the mountain. I was told you don't want to be on Mount
Chimborazo when she wakes up. She wakes up at nine a.m.
Paco kept looking at his watch and frowning. He told me to
hurry, then he got further and further ahead. I thought he
was going to abandon me on the mountain. When I finally
caught up to him at the hut at nine a.m., I began to hear
the rocks fall out of the ice above as the sun warmed it.
Now I understood his concern with time. We really did need
to get down to the refuge by nine. A thousand feet lower and
my mountain climbing adventure ended with a photograph that
mercifully doesn't show my shaking knees.
NOTES:
If you want to climb Mount Chimborazo, it is cheapest to
wait until you get to Ecuador to make arrangements. Talk to
almost any hotel owner or manager in Riobamba, and he or she
will find a guide for you. It will be cheaper if you are
part of a group, of course.
For more information and stories about Ecuador, you can
visit the pages, "Information On Ecuador," and "Banos
Ecuador" on the website
http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com
About the Author
Steve Gillman hitchhiked across the U.S. and Mexico at 17.
Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, who he met in Ecuador.
His stories, tips and information on travel and backpacking,
can be found on his websites,
http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com, and http://www.TheUltralightBackpackingSite.com