Volcan Chimborazo, Ecuador

The mighty Chimborazo. A scary 6310 metres above fish level

Volcan Chimborazo
Volcan Chimborazo is not only the highest mountain (and a dead volcano) in Ecuador but at 6310 meters, is the furthest point from the centre of the earth, thanks largely to the equatorial bulge. And we´re hopefully gonna be climbing it on a two day trek!

We set out from Baños at 11am and travel 3 hours to the National Park where we hike 40 minutes up to the first refugio which is situated at 5000m. It's already an incredible view from up here and we arrive just as the sun is setting. At 7.30 we eat an evening meal of soup and spag bol and get straight to bed for 2 hours sleep before our utterly crazy 10pm wake up call. (Yes, we are going to be climbing Volcan Chimborazo through the night!)


The refugio at the base of Chimborazo. Not exactly 5 star


Lucy was on bread carrying duty


The view from the first refugio at sunset

The prospect of walking up to 6310 meters is daunting enough but especially so when doing it in the dead of night, with crampons, ice picks and other various bits of alien mountaineering equipment. We're both genuinely buzzing from the prospect of it. At 5000 meters, it's already really hard to breath and the reality of lying in a bed trying to calm your heartbeat down for sleep is simply ridiculous. We don't sleep a wink.

So at 10pm we have breakfast (!) and get all our gear together and by 11pm we are on the icy slopes making our 7-hour ascent towards the summit. The first hour (for me), is utterly grueling. Having no sleep, being at altitude and wearing ill-fitting snow boots and crampons makes it frustratingly hard work. I complain to our guide that the boots are causing blisters and my legs to bleed, but he clearly doesn't seem to give a shit (by the way, the tour group is Rainforestur, based in Quito and Baños and I can't recommend them, simply because the equipment was so bad and our (freelance) guide was such a tit). Lucy however is having a wonderful time and being utterly hardcore, seems immune to the effects of altitude. She's already sick of my whining.


Making the ascent with flashlights

We carry on higher and eventually the guide needs to rope us all together, just in case the ice bridges we are beginning to walk across collapse. At this point, things start to get alot easier for me and the next two hours are alot more pleasant.

After just over the 3-hour mark, the guides stop to inspect the snow and ice and we're told that although the snow is good now (i.e hard enough), the prospect of the same coming back down after sunrise the next morning is not looking good and there will be risk of avalanches. Disappointly we're told that we have to head back down. We're only at 5400 meters and we're all absolutely gutted.


Me, having been told that we're heading back down


The 6310 summit. Sadly it wasn't to be