NEWS

jul.04.08

cotacachi day climb

We left Quito early in the morning, (03h30), and drove north to the village of Quiroga, passed by Laguna de Cuicocha and then drove up to 4,100 m./ 13,448 ft. to Cotacachi´s Trail Head.

We started hiking up at 8 am no matter the poor weather quality performed in the mountain, featuring with chilly temperatures, windy conditions and low visibility. We hiked up towards the saddle of the mountain, followed the cairn-marked path and traversed westbound, where we stood on the first remains of snow. From this point we headed up through a long col that took us to the base of the summit. As we reached altitude we climbed up on waist deep snow, too soft that it was taking all the energy out of us. An hour later after trying to get over this soft snow area, we got to a platform, where we got stopped by a tall almost vertical crack which ended up just below the true summit. After sorting a few exposed passes and overhanging cliffs, we got to the top of the 11th highest mountain in Ecuador, Cotacachi (4,939 m/16,204 ft.)

It was great to step on top of Cotacachi, after almost 7 hours of constant and hard activity despite of the bad weather and snow/rock conditions.

We advise in the event of climbing this mountain during this season the use of gators, piolet and even crampons for the hard ice/snow sections considering the current characteristics of the mountain.

(Trip report by Boris Aulestia)

jun.29.08

conditions on chimborazo

Taking advantage of the weather break that was hitting Ecuador in the last weeks, we headed south to the province of Chimborazo in order to climb Ecuador’s highest mountain.

Along with other several teams, Sun & Snow Expeditions led by Edgar left the Whymper refuge by midnight, and started climbing up towards the summit. Snow and ice conditions were perfect and compacted up to 5.900 m (19,352 ft). But the last couple of hundreds meters conditions worsened considerably up high, with wind speeds of70-80 km/h (45 m/h) and a wind chill of- 15 ºC. (5 ºF). Snow softened at that altitude as well, and being the first and only team getting to the highest point of the mountain, seeking for the summit was hard to accomplish.

The team of Sun & Snow stood up on top of Chimborazo - the Whymper summit - after 7 hours of constant climbing. Few minutes at the summit and we headed back down to the refuge in less than 3 hours. A great weekend spent high on the Andes!

jun.18.08

antizana west face direct route

Ekaty and I were planning to go climbing the normal route of Antisana on full moon of June, which was on the 18th, the previous days the weather was wonderful, but 2 days before the climb the weather was awful, so we decided to quit the ascent…. The previous afternoon (June 17th,) the weather improved a lot and the colours were just amazing. We could see most of Quito’s surrounding mountains including Antisana, Cotopaxi between others peaks, so we wondered, if it could be the right time to make an attempt to that mountain.

But at night we finally decided to go there and give it a try. We made a phone call to the responsible to give out the permissions in order to get in the Antisana Reserve. Normally permission could be obtained several days in advance of the climb, but luckily we got an affirmative answer the very same night. We were really exited!!

So, on June, 18th the weather in the morning was just perfect. We start packing our climbing gear, food, and camping equipment; got the permit and drove east towards the 4th Ecuadorian highest peak.

Around 10h00 in the morning we started driving east from Quito to towards the Antisana Reserve. Once there, the weather got cloudy, but we kept driving until we got to the place where the car will be left (4.435m, /14. 5468 ft.). From this point we took all the stuff what it should be needed for the climb. We started ascending with our heavy backpacks 35kg-40kg towards the base camp (4.750m./15. 580ft). Heavy snow began to fall few minutes before we arrived to this place, so we hurried up a bit, and we set up immediately our tent, and put everything inside.

The snow fall lasted few hours, but the weather improved by late afternoon. It was time to talk about the route, about the equipment, and to plan the way how our climb will be done. So we decided to climb THE DIRECT WEST FACE route instead of the normal one, because of the great alpine features that this route involves. We were up to it!

We woke up at 02h30; ate a light breakfast, gotready with the necessary climbing stuff to make the route, and start moving up at around 03h00. The weather wasn’t nice, but anyway, we keptgoing up. So we wanded the route in case the weather could get worst. This route wasvery interesting, which involved crevasses to cross, some seracs to surround, and beautiful ice sections of 60º of slope.

Everything was going great until day light came in and we could see a big wall with a huge cornice hanging from it. It wasn’t until we got closer to that ice wall that we realized it was 12-15m /39.36-49.2 ft high, just below the main summit (5. 858m./18. 891ft). We searched for a good place to go through, but with got no success at it. We chose to turn back to BC and then to Quito.

(Trip report by Edgar Parra)