Projects: Ecuador 2010 - day 8-9

Coming off of a great ascent of Cotopaxi I was still able to squeeze in a trip to Chimborazo. At 6,310 metres (20,702 ft) It's the highest mountain in Ecuador and makes for a challenging climb. Leaving from the Whymper refuge located at 5000m we set out for the summit at 12:00am. Going for the north summit of 6,310m that means an altitude incrase of 1300m in one push. In my opinion at the limit of what one should do at this height. Climbing entirely in the dark we reached the summit in 6 hrs. Almost to the exact moment arriving on the summit the sun was rising. This allowed for amazing views of nearly all of Ecuadors large volcanoes. The weather throught the climb was perfect. Almost no wind, no less than 10 below C, and clear. The climb was great until the descent. Climbing the 1300m was tough enough, but what made it more challenging was the relentless incline. Once on the snow line above the ridge the incline seemed to go forever without any rest areas. The only break was after hitting the South summit you must go down slightly before meeting another steep pitch to the true summit (Whymper). However this wasn´t really easy due to breaking trail in fresh snow. I can realistically say it was the toughest single push I've done. Then going down, using nearly all my energy just to summit I had a tough time returning to the refuge. it took nearly 2.5 hrs. Longer than expected. I haven´t felt exhaustion like that on any previous descent. Regardless it was an amazing expierience to climb a beast of a mountain. Another great gem of Ecuador.
sP