Illiniza

Illiniza Norte & attempt of Illiniza Sur

Ecuador

Photography

Colorado Rockies

Climbing & Mountaineering

Sierras / California

Kindergarten Chute

Colorado

North Face - Longs Peak

Bell Cord Clr - Maroon Pk

International

Las Illinizas - Ecuador

Chimborazo - Ecuador

So how does one find himself on the summits of a 16,000 and a 20,000-foot peak, in the middle of a third world country? Mix the recommendation of a manager of Neptune’s, a motivated partner, and $800 for a plane ticket, and wa-lah – a few months later, there you are. OK, maybe it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Our story starts almost exactly a year before the trip, on the summit of Mt. Meeker . After finishing Dreamweaver, Dave and I met Mark and were talking about possibilities of an international trip to get in over our heads. Alaska – maybe, but fricking cold. Peru – yeah, but the peaks are a trudge to get to. Ecuador – now we’re talking. Easy access, great food, beautiful glaciated peaks, adventure with luxury. Come March Dave had an itinerary planned out (he always does that, but at least I don’t have to worry about it) and we were buying plane tickets. My training was not going well. Storm after storm was clobbering the Sierras and Shasta, so by May I had been to 10,000 feet once. I’m gonna die. I get up to 13,000’ on White Mountain in an epic battle with the scree, and offer myself some hope. We meet in Houston , and arrive in Quito on May 23.

Quito is a mix of modern skyscrapers, cyber-cafes, middle class money, poverty, and historical 16^th century architecture. I dig it. We spend Saturday gearing up and failing to find white gas for our stoves. Sunday we hop a bus to Machachi, grab a passing taxi/pick-up for $25 and drive through El Chaupi to the La Virgen trailhead. Our heavy packs plus “The Pig” – my yellow North Face duffel make for a helluva load to hump the five miles up to the Illiniza Refugio at 15,200’. It soon becomes clear that the 40 pounds of gear in the Pig doesn’t want to be carried by two of us. After shuttling loads a few times, we drop it, and load everything we can into out packs. The seventy-pound loads slow us, but we make it to the hut by 5:30 – a half hour before dark. The hut keeper is there to collect our $30 for the three nights we plan on spending there.

After observing the weather pattern while hiking up, I expect clouds and fog to envelope Illiniza Norte, our objective for the day, by 11:00 at the earliest, and easily by afternoon. I am up at 5:30 , planning on leaving the hut by 6:30 . Dave sleeps in and diddles around with breakfast and getting ready, and we don’t leave until 7:30 . I am silent until we get on the ridge and get phenomenal views of Cotapaxi rising about the clouds and enshrouded in fog. The ridge is easy, with only occasional sections of 3^rd class. At one point I outpace Dave and follow a ledge around a tower, losing him as he gets off-route. Eventually sanity returns, after losing 20 minutes trying to find each other. Clouds surround us as we climb the final loose 3^rd class gully to the summit. Our altimeters read 16,300’ – not the published elevation. We hike over the knife-edge to a sister summit just to make sure we don’t miss anything, then return for summit photos.

A guide and his client, Joe, show up in the hut that evening. Joe is a Canadian diver who has never climbed before, and thought it would be something fun to do on his vacation. Right. That’s why he looks and sounds totally wasted. Illiniza Norte will be his third and highest peak. He mentions wanting to attempt Cotapaxi next.

I get up at 4:00 AM to attempt Illiniza Sur and its 1,500-foot southwest flank ice route. I go outside after dressing, and find an icy fog blowing over the saddle and visibility of about 20 feet. An exploration of the trail to the saddle reveals fresh snow and ice. We go back to bed. At sunrise we rise, gear up, and hike out to the base of the route. Intermittent clearing lures us out onto the glacier, but the start of the route has melted down to rock, making the route more difficult than published information indicated. Clouds and fog continue to roll over the saddle and summit, and we know will cover the peak by 11:00 or noon regardless of how long any window lasts. We decide not to risk descent in a whiteout (I am comfortable climbing in the conditions we encountered high on Illiniza Norte yesterday, but descending unknown, icy terrain in a whiteout is a different matter). We bag it, and return to the hut to hydrate, eat, and pack for our trip out to Machachi and Chimborazo tomorrow. Clouds enshroud the peak within 20 minutes of our return. Joe and his guide are successful and leave later that afternoon. Another party replaces them that evening, and the client (a foreign sailor of unknown origin) promptly gets AMS, and spends the night throwing up and miserable in bed.

Dave and I make the hike out to La Virgen in about an hour and a half, and our ride – the INEFAN tax collector who had taken our $5 park fee – shows up promptly at 8:00 to take us to the bus stop in Machachi. A bus to Riobamba shows up within a few minutes, and we load our gear and are whisked away in a blink of the eye.