outdoors travel

Climbing the glaciers to the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador isn't highly technical. It is mountaineering
but how hard can it be
considering I went to 20
600
feet the first time I used crampons and an ice axe? Okay
I used them once for practice
on a sledding hill near my house. I climbed forty feet while people walked by with their sleds
telling their kids to stay away from me.

It's also easier to climb when the guide drives you to 15
0
feet. Don't get me wrong. Climbing the last 5
600
feet was incredibly difficult
but not for the skill required. The air missing half of its oxygen is what had me quitting twenty times on the way up. It just gets difficult to move up there.

The Chimborazo Graveyard

The monuments near the first refuge weren't for climbers without skill. The graveyard is a warning of the unpredictability of all high places. Chimborazo is very high
it randomly shruggs off large rocks
and has weather that changes by the minute. While hiking to the second refuge
we could hear the rocks and pieces of ice falling somewhere above.

El Refugio Edward Whymper is an unheated hut at 16
0
feet
named after the English climber who first summitted the mountain. Okay
it isn't entirely unheated. There's a fireplace
and if somebody feels like carrying wood up to 5000 meters
the fire may raise the temperature in the hut by 3 degrees.

We had hot mugs of "mate de coca" a tea of coca leaves
which are also used to make another product - one that's taken up the nose. We went hiking for twenty minutes - my acclimatization. We ate
and I slept for an hour before starting the ascent at eleven that night.

About Mount Chimborazo

Chimborazo is in Ecuador
near the Equator (100 miles south). The elevation in the center of the country
and the moderating effect of the Humboldt Current along the coast
gives the country near perfect weather. A bit hot in the lowlands
but spring-like in Quito (the capital)
with highs in the sixties to low seventies every day of the year. Great weather almost everywhere--until you get high enough.

The summit of Chimborazo 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. Unfortunately
it's also the coldest place in Ecuador.

Climbing Chimborazo

Paco
my guide
didn't care for the lightweight part of my mountain climbing adventure. He frowned at my sleeping bag
which packed up smaller than a football
and weighed a pound. My 13-ounce frameless backpack didn't impress him either. It did get below freezing in the hut
just as he said it would
but I stayed warm - as I said I would. No problems so far.

Unfortunately
Paco didn't speak any English
and I was just learning Spanish. Since our whole group consisted of him and me
we had 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 I was a mountain climber.

I think he said he didn't like the papery rainsuit I was using
and he frowned at my homemade ski mask. When he saw my insulating vest
a feathery piece of poly batting with a hole cut in it for my head
I just pretended not to understand what he was saying.

I hadn't intended to go climb Chimborazo with such lightweight gear
but I'd come to Ecuador on a courier flight
and could bring only carry-on luggage. I had12 pounds in my pack to begin with
so 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. Paco had to coax me up that mountain.

Hiking On Glaciers

The glaciers start near the hut
and hiking 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)
I noticed my tiny
cheap thermometer 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 hill.

We struggled (okay
I struggled) up Mount Chimborazo
hiking
climbing
jumping crevasses
until I quit at 20
0
feet. Of course I had quit at 19
0
feet
and at 18
0
feet. Quitting had become my routine. Lying had become Paco's
so he told me straight-faced that the summit was only fifty feet higher. I wanted to believe him
or the lack of oxygen had scrambled my brain. I started up the ice again.

The Summit of Mount Chimborazo

We stumbled onto the summit at dawn. Well
okay
I stumbled. Paco
who seemed slow and tired down at the refuge
was energetic at 20
600
feet. Dirtbag Joe
a nineteen-year-old kid from California with ten bucks in his pocket
borrowed equipment
and my Ramen noodles in his stomach
was waiting for us
smiling.

The sky was a stunning shade of blue you can never see at lower elevations. Cotapaxi
a classic snow-covered volcano
was clearly visible 70 miles away. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes.

Handshakes all around
and it was time to head down. I was told you don't want to be on Chimborazo when she wakes up. She wakes up at nine a.m.

Paco kept looking at his watch and frowning. He got further and further ahead
like he planned to abandon me on the mountain. When I finally caught up
at the hut at nine a.m.
I heard the rocks falling out of the ice above as the sun warmed it. Now I understood - we really did need to get down by nine. A thousand feet lower my mountain climbing adventure ended with a photograph that mercifully can't show my shaking knees.

Note:

To climb Mount Chimborazo
it's cheapest to wait until you get to Ecuador to make arrangements. Talk to almost any hotel manager in Riobamba
and he or she will find a guide for you. It's also cheaper if you're part of a group.