Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition Dispatch

November 6, 2012 – Reaching the Imbabura Summit under Great Conditions

Today is our first big test for acclimatization. Our goal is to climb Imbabura, a volcano at 15, 780ft (4,800m) that is acknowledged as a sacred mountain. It is a long hike considering we start at 3,300m, and will therefore need to climb 1,500m in one day.

We had an early morning breakfast at 4:30am and by 5:00am we had loaded the bus, and we’re ready to go. We started the climb at 6:50am and reached the summit at 12:40pm. As expected, it was quite a long day, but the team moved well, steadily, and taking only a few breaks. In fact, the team was moving at such a fast pace that our guide, Joaquin, had to slow them down. He did so because of the fact that this was our first acclimatization day. The team complied, and Jeremy did feel a bit of a headache higher on the trail, but it mercifully went away once he descended.

Something remarkable we saw on this climb was the presence of the micro-flora, a native flower. These are usually found around Guinea Pig Lake, which is at a much lower elevation. However, due to the dry weather conditions of the region, we only saw a few on our hike there. What’s interesting is that we saw a lot more flowers at higher altitude—the true survivors!

Our way back down was awesome! There was very little mud. At least compared to our previous climbs, and because coming down is always long and difficult here, the lack of mud was a real treat. Imbabura has a notorious reputation of having really challenging mud conditions on the way down.

Here are some photos to share more of our day, enjoy!