Attempting the Summit

We’re back from expedition! It was wonderful and challenging and fun and magnificent.

We left Antisana together for a 5km hike to the intersection of the dirt Ranger’s road and a small stream where our two solo groups parted. Emma led myself, Wicho, Lucas, Amy and Rose up the stream while Isaiah continued on the road with Laura, Bethany, Elsbeth, Lara and Adin. My group still had about 4kms left to go that day across the grassy foothills to a beautiful camp spot beside a clear stream. We set up camp in record time, bathed in the stream and still had time to talk and hang out before we ate dinner and went to bed. In the morning we accidentally slept in until 6pm but made wonderful time out of the valley and around the mountains. Cows dotted the hills in herds, interspersed with wild horses and the occasional solitary bull. That night we made camp beside a marsh and made the world’s best mac and cheese for dinner, which we ate all snugged into one tent.

When we awoke we set off for our last 16kms of solo. We followed a beautiful ridge above the swamps, crossed and re-crossed a rushing stream, and eventually set off across the flat, rocky lands at the base of Cotopaxi. In only 8 hours we arrived to what seemed to be the lakes where we were to meet Mathias and we set up our most beautiful camp yet. Just as our water was about to boil and the sun was about to set behind the mountains, our evening of perfection was shattered by Mathias and Misha turning up and informing us that what we thought were the lakes were actually just a swamp, and the real lakes were still about a kilometer away. Oops. Despite our protests and the fact that the water was really just about to boil for dinner Mathias insisted that we push on to the lakes, so we did. We packed up camp faster than you can imagine and set our due south to the lakes. Two hours later we were wandering among the lakes in the foggy dark with our headlamps, unable to find the exact campsite of Mathias, Misha and Roberto. Eventually we just made camp where we were. Despite the late night and never-slept-in campsite we all agreed that the adventure was worth it. Something about wandering around in the quiet misty night brought us closer together.

In the morning, after realizing that our rushed campsite was more bumps than not, we reunited with our leaders and soon after with the other solo group to share stories. This was their journey:

After walking for a little while with the entire group we parted ways into two smaller groups. On the first night of solo, we slept in a valley that a rushing river had cut into a steep ridge. After waking with the sun, and eating a breakfast of leftover soup from the night before, we shouldered our backpacks and set off into a seemingly endless sea of ridges and valleys. After making great progress in the morning we realized that we were lost. We woke up still lost and after many kilometers we found ourselves on the path of the other solo group. We followed their tracks until reuniting with them at a lake at the base of Cotopaxi.

~Isaiah

After eating breakfast together we got a late start across the moraines, the steep succession of ridges and valleys at the base of the mountain. It was Rose’s turn to lead and she chose to take us up to the top of the moraines where they are shallower and easier to cross. As we climbed up and over each ridge it got colder and mistier and the terrain lost its vegetation and became a collection of black and red rocks set in dark sand. We made camp at 4,000 meters near a clear glacial stream, which disappeared overnight when the glacier refroze.

On our last true day of backpacking it was Wicho’s turn to lead. We walked very fast, took the most direct route possible across whatever was in our path and arrived at Refugio Cara Sur, the mountaineering retreat of our layover day, just after lunch. Arriving at Cara Sur was like walking into heaven. Luis and Jenny, the couple that live there, made us popcorn, endless hot tea and even let us take hot showers. We spent two nights there resting and preparing, reading aloud to each other and writing about our thoughts and experiences from expedition thus far.

On Wednesday afternoon we shouldered our packs again and made the three hour trek up to the Cotopaxi high camp accompanied, in addition to our leaders, by Poco, Davicho, Tupak, Nicole and Gaspar who came along to help out but mostly to have fun. That night at 11pm we awoke in high camp to begin the climb. It was about an hour and a half hike to the base of the glacier where we put on crampons and roped up by the light of our headlamps. It was a warm, wet night. Snow and hail was falling softly around us and the only sounds were of our footsteps in the deep, icy snow, the gentle plunk of our ice axes and the unnerving settling of the snow pack. By 3am we had made it to 5,100 meters. We didn’t make it any higher. The settling of the snow pack and the results of Mathias and Gaspar’s avalanche test were just sketchy enough that we decided not to continue. Mathias says it was the mountain telling us we still have things to learn in our hearts before we are ready. Although we did not summit we did learn things from Cotopaxi, from that quiet dawn as we came down the mountain. We watched the sunrise from high camp and the clouds rise as we walked back down to Cara Sur. Each surrounding mountain lit up as the sunlight touched it and the dark sand sparkled.

We arrived back at Cara Sur earlier than expected and had time to clean our gear before walking a little over an hour to meet the bus. We slept the whole ride home back to Palugo where were cleaned and unpacked gear, ate an early dinner. It was a magnificent, if long, day.

Now we’re wrapping up loose ends, finishing our semester book and preparing for graduation. On Tuesday we’ll fly back to New Hampshire to finish our journey there.

Hasta Luego,

Mary Kate

Reflections

Silence

Some say silence is the absence of sound

But I say those who think this have never actually heard silence

For silence is the sound of the wind picking up right before a bellowing                                  thunderstorm

Silence is the sound of a mosquito buzzing by your ear as you try to fall asleep

Silence is the sound of a bird’s vibrating wings while it blows past your face in the   early evening

I know that silence has many sounds

Because I have begun to listen to silence.

I know a man who can talk to silence

And silence talks back to him

Whispering the secrets of the wind and fire.

Maybe one day I will be like that man,

But for now I am content to sit here

And simply listen to silence

Until it tells me it is time to return home.

~ Laura

Cotopaxi

A line of headlamps in the snow,

The crunch of boots,

 The darkness; still.

One silent mountain towering above,

One mist-shrouded valley sleeping below.

Few stars burn through the dark,

Snowflakes dance in my headlamp’s glow.

We climb above the clouds,

Above the moraines,

To where the mountains meet the sky

To where the sky holds a certain power

The power of the deep night

The power for each step to bring us higher.

Our steps are the only sound in the silence,

Our breath misting in the cold.

Nights are long on the mountainside,

But when the first light comes,

A subtle glow,

The horizon lights up

For another day.

~ Elsbeth