Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition Dispatch
November 12, 2011 – Reflections of Our Time Training and Climbing on Cayambe
By 9:00 PM on Friday we had reached our hot springs resort – far from the high altitude of Cayambe. We were so tired and hungry that we took dinner in our rooms. We all soaked in the hot springs afterwards, but we are sure our tired muscles will still need that tomorrow and there will be plenty of time then.
Rain and muddy roads were a big disadvantage for us reaching Cayambe Hut, but at least we had the place to ourselves once we arrived. Life was good there, with ample room for training and great meals. Now that we have left the hut behind for a more relaxing environment, we can enjoy some of the images of our first high alpine hut experience
The summit of Cayambe beaconed, even though the clouds did not portend the best of conditions ahead for us.
We tried some new local fruits for breakfast.
Class time
This isn’t so hard!
Andrew checkouts his Prussik knot.
System in place and Yuki is ascending!
Nimble, warm fingers help.
Bill’s got it wired.
At 1:30 in the morning we were ready to begin climbing!
And up we went!
Our first measured steps
Hydration is always important.
Ana and Andrew much higher on the mountain. It was not to be our day for the very summit, but great effort by the entire team.