Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition Dispatch
December 9, 2008 – Steve and Juancho Summit Cotopaxi
In the shadow is the high peak of Cotopaxi
It’s December 9 at 11:00 a.m and I’m calling you from the Jose Ribas Hut at 4,800 m/15,748ft on Cotopaxi. I want to report a successful summit today for the BAI team. Right now as I’m speaking Juancho and Steve are walking back to the Hut, roped together, having been the two team members who reached the very top of Cotopaxi. The guys are tired but they did great.
The conditions were extremely demanding and tough today as we climbed up on the glacier. The team left at 1:00 a.m. Richard had the same stomach bug that had hit Bob a couple of days back so he had a really long night. He then decided that the best thing to do would be to get some rest at the hut and not do the climb today. The rest of us battled the rough conditions and high winds on the mountain. After a few hours of climbing through the tough conditions, Leila, Line, Pierre, Oswaldo, Mauricio and I turned back to the hut. This was probably around 4:15 a.m. The winds were just too much for us today. We got back to the hut still in the darkness.
The team will get some well deserved rest after
their summit at the comfortable Tambopaxi Hut
Juancho and Steve continued to climb. We talked to them on the radio time to time and heard that the winds were getting stronger. A lot of people from several other teams were attempting to summit today but most turned back. Only a few actually made it to the summit. We are really proud of Juancho and Steve who made it to the summit at about 7:55 a.m. They did really great and stuck with it. They now have one of South America’s unique and challenging peaks under their belts for the effort.
The team is heading down now and our van is ready to take us to the Tambopaxi Hut for some well deserved R and R. We will settled down there and savor the lower elevations and rest up. We will give you more reports tomorrow as we continue to climb the volcanoes of Ecuador. Great job team!