Expedition Dispatch

November 11, 2009 – Moving Up to Cayambe Hut Via the Equator

Today we woke up reasonably late and had a relaxed morning. Peter and Janice decided to have breakfast in bed which was a great decision. They were able to sleep in and woke up with the waiter knocking on their door with their breakfast.

Our plans today is to move to the Cayambe hut and start our preparation to climb the Cayambe Volcano, the first of the big-three ahead of us.

Osvaldo and Juancho went to their room to check on everyone’s gear and make sure that they have everything they will need for their climb. Janice and Peter are novice climbers. This will be the first time they ever tried on crampons and they are really excited to start wearing all the new climbing gear they have acquired for this trip.

Ken is a more experienced climber, having successfully summitted several major peaks including Aconcagua and Ojos del Salado, which he climbed with Berg Adventures a few years ago. He has all the climbing gear, especially the very warm jacket in case of cold conditions that is very likely to happen especially on Chimborazo.

We were all ready and prepared to go by noon. We separated the gear that was going to go to the hut and what we would store in the next hacienda that we will be staying after the climb. We are sad to move out of Hacienda Cusin but excited for what is ahead of us. On the way we stopped at the Equator Line, which is always an interesting place to stop and think about our earth.

We had our lunch at the Hacienda Guachala, the oldest hacienda in Ecuador and where we would spend the night right after the Cayambe climb. We had a great lunch at Guachala: an amazing cheese with avocado soup.

We had lunch on their patio and we were quite entertained by a few horses showing up out of the blue from their barn and just started browsing around the patio and eating all their flower beds… eventually a man came and started moving them back to the barn but we could tell that it was not the first time that they took advantage of someone’s distraction and went for a stroll around the farm. Janice, who used to own horses when she lived in British Columbia was especially amused with their behavior and was wondering if they had some mule mixes in them due to their long ears…

After a great lunch we checked out the rooms with great fireplaces that we are getting used to having and left for the hut.

We also met Cosme who will be our Ecuadorian climb guide for the next 3 volcanoes. He seemed to be pretty excited and he was able to give us some updates on the conditions of the mountain since he has just finished climbing Chimborazo,.

We started the drive to the Cayambe hut with 2 cars, a 4-wheel drive truck which Cosme was driving and our bus. The bus went as far as possible on the mountain and after that, all our gear was transferred to the truck and taken straight to the hut.

Osvaldo and the team started the hour long hike to the hut. Once we arrived at the hut, we were happy to see that there was some popcorn and tea waiting for us. The best news of all is that the hut was quite empty. We were informed that the night before there were more than 40 people sleeping at the hut and there was barely any space left. We still had to sleep on the top bunk beds but at least it was sort of quiet.

We had a great dinner: an amazing fresh vegetable soup as well as a veggie stir-fry with some meat on the side, and the best of all a brownie cake which came boiling to the table and didn’t last long.

Tomorrow will be our training day. We will also get our gear ready and go to bed early for our summit attempt the following day!