Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition Dispatch

December 11, 2008 – Team Prepares For Chimborazo

It’s the morning of Thursday December 11, 2008 and today is a big day for us. We spent the night at a beautiful, modern hacienda outside the charming Ecuadorian town of Rio Bama. Our elevation is 2,800m (9,186ft). We are following our strategy on the Ecuador volcano’s trip of sleeping high, climbing higher and then sleeping lower to recuperate before we return back to high altitudes.

Right now we are loading up the land rover and van and then we will take a short drive to a beautiful hostel called the Estrella which is located inside Cotopaxi National Reserve. This is were we will be spending Friday night, hopefully after we’ve successfully reached the top of Chimborazo, the highest peak on our itinerary. We will have lunch at the hostel where we will be returning Friday night, the elevation there is 4,100m (11,521ft). From there we will drive up to about 4,800m and then get out of our vehicles by mid afternoon. We will be moving in to the higher hut on Chimborazo which is located at 5,000m (16,405ft).

Chimborazo is our big climb. It stands at 6,310m (20,701ft) and it is such an interesting mountain. Because the earth is not round but bulged in the middle, Chimborazo, which is very near to Equator, is actually much further to the center of the earth than any other mountain in the world. It is often said that the top of Chimborazo is actually 7,000 ft further from the center of the earth than Everest is. It’s not as high in the atmosphere of course, but it is still an interesting geological fact that if we are on the top of Chimborazo tomorrow, we will be closer to the sun than any other point on earth.

Wish us luck tomorrow. It will be a big climb but we are confident and determined to give it our best! We will report as we get to the higher hut tonight and prepare for our climb.