The climb up
glaciers to 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 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 guide drives you to 15,000 feet. Don't get me wrong. Climbing that last 5,600 feet was one of most difficult things I've done, but not for skill required. The fact that air was missing half of its oxygen is what had me quitting twenty or thirty times on way up Chimborazo. It just gets difficult to move up there.
The Graveyard
The little monuments near first refuge weren't for climbers without skill. The graveyard is a testament to unpredictability of all high places. Chimborazo is very high, it randomly drops large rocks on you, and has weather that changes by minute. Even as we were hiking to second refuge, we could hear rocks and pieces of ice falling somewhere above.
El Refugio Edward Whymper is a simple, unheated hut at 16,000 feet, named after English climber who first made it to summit of mountain. Okay, it isn't entirely unheated. There is a fireplace, and when somebody feels like carrying wood up to 5000 meters, fire might raise temperature in 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 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 ascent at eleven that night.
A Little About Mount Chimborazo
Chimborazo is in Ecuador, not far from Equator (100 miles south). The elevation in center of country, and moderating effect of Humboldt Current, which runs along west side of South America, gives country near perfect weather. A bit hot along coast and lowlands, but spring--like in Quito (the capital) , with daily highs in sixties to low seventies year--round. Wonderful weather almost everywhere--until you get high enough.
Chimborazo, at it's peak, is furthest point from center of Earth. Our planet bulges at equator, making Mount Chimborazo even futher out there than Everest. It has distinction of being closest point to sun on planet, and yet still coldest place in Ecuador.
Climbing Chimborazo
Paco, my guide, didn't like 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 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 $11 fee for "night" (a few hours) in hut was included in $130 guide fee. He thought that I was a mountain climber.
