We “woke up” at midnight. Sleep is hard to come by at 16,000 ft. This wass the highest I had ever been. My head was already hurting but it felt better than the day before, when we arrived at the climbers’ refuge. I wasn’t sure if I was 98% nervous and 2% excited or the other way around. I had never felt that way before. I had never done anything like this in my life. We were an hour away from attempting to the summit of Cotopaxi.
Two days earlier, a seven-hour bus ride took us to Latacunga, the small town set beneath the towering volcano. The realization was refreshing. I had spent long enough thinking about what climbing Cotopaxi would be like. I was excited to find the truth.
The active peak stands at 19,347 ft. above sea level. I had only been to 13,850 ft. and that was only a week prior.
I would be trekking with Matt and Anna. Matt, 40-something, has been working out rigorously in preparation for the climb. Anna, 28, who rowed to Olympic gold in Beijing, has beenworking out with Matt and doing her own things. I occasionally made cameos at their workouts and worked out on my own. I feel prepared – ya know, sort of.
I am 22. Former OK athlete. Generally strong legs. I took a year off football and on my third day back ran a mile in 5:42 (in my year off I took up golf). That gave me confidence in my legs I probably didn’t need.
We all live at 8,500 ft., which helps.
Latacunga is pretty at night. Our hostel was near a historic square. It was beautifully lit. On the corner was a pizzeria.
After a quick dinner, we went to bed in our hostel dormitory that we had to ourselves.
We had to meet our guides at 8:00 a.m. and breakfast was at 7:00 a.m. so naturally we got up at 6:00 a.m. It took bout 30 seconds to realize that it doesn’t take an hour to stumble in and out of a shower and pack a school backpack with the clothes from yesterday and the book that put me to sleep the night before.
Breakfast was lonely. The hostel seemed fairly empty and the only inhabitants were having beers last night. Didn’t expect them up early.
The guide’s shop was more or less around the corner. High Andes. Our guides are brothers named Fernando and William. Ironically, it’s Fernando that speaks English (in addition to Swiss, German, Hebrew, Italian and obviously Spanish).
We get geared up trying on pants and boots. I was able to bring all my upper layers (long sleeve polyester shirt, fleece pullover, fleece jacket, shell).
Check!
Trying on pants was interesting. I was basically given sweat pants to begin with. A little stunned, and scared, I asked for something else. The top is about -5˚ F without wind chill. We’re going to be on a peak above 19,000 ft. I’m going to err on the side of there might be a little wind chill. He came back with some nice snow pants that fit perfectly with my fleece under-layer.
Pants? Check!
The first boots I tried on fit perfectly. Too bad they fit Anna too. The second was too small. So was the third. The fourth finally fit well… enough.
Boots. Ch..ch...check.
(My feet blister and freeze routinely. They are wimpy. These boots have input the potential of an excruciating hike.)
I got my ice axe (this rules), cramp-ons (these look intense), backpack, hat, sleeping bag, gators, gloves, and… “inside gloves.”
I was ready.
Kind of.
I didn’t have socks (For those who don’t know, cotton freezes and can kill you. Not a good call if you’re gonna be outside in the cold for an extended period of time.) But we would pick those up along the way. I had two small water bottles but they would sell more up there.
After a short walk around town to kill time we returned to load up and head out for Cotopaxi.
It was about a 45 minutes to the park and another hour from the park entrance up the winding bumpy road.
We had stopped for lunch as we were leaving town.
At the park entrance, I mentioned to Fernando that I still didn’t have socks. Seemingly having forgotten, he looked around and then pointed to the vendor in the shack on the side of the road. Glad I said something, I bought some awesome red alpaca socks that had a llama and a lady circling my ankle.
I wasn’t sure how well they would work but it couldn’t be worse than the (cotton) socks I was wearing – I was already getting a blister.
Winding up this mountain road, packed into the back with Matt and Anna we looked on to what lay ahead the next morning. After an hour’s drive the peak didn’t look that much closer.
We finally arrive at the parking lot. Bless Anna – she has band-aids. I already needed two of them.
The blisters have me a little rattled. One was on my left pinky toe and the other was just a hotspot but on my right heal.
It’s cold up here. We put on our jackets.
I’m nervous about my feet holding up. I forgot my wallet and sunscreen in my bag in Latacunga (Anna helped with the socks). Good lord.
Am I ready for this? I already need Matt and Anna to hold my hand and we haven’t taken one step toward the summit.
I start concentrating on breathing (I mean we are at 14,800 ft.) and start to feel better.
I’ll worry about the blisters if they become a problem but the alpaca socks will help. Matt and Anna kindly offered to lend me money if I need it but we are going to the climbers’ refuge, not Rodeo Dr. They have sunscreen and most everything is covered anyway.
There is a 1,000 ft. climb to the refuge. In theory, a good practice hike.
I’m monitoring my breathing. With every step I am going higher than I have ever been before. I can breath surprisingly well.
We walk slowly, one step at a time. The entire hike is up. The key is pace.
Arriving at the refuge was a small victory but a welcome one after feeling pretty nervous in the car. It took about 30 or 40 minutes and it wasn’t difficult. We all felt pretty good.
But my head is hurting. Headaches are one of the first signs of altitude sickness. I’m not going to let a headache stop me from getting to the top but layers of skin on my foot ripping away while fighting a searing headache doesn’t sound like a good way to climb. The foot feels OK. My head will be fine. Lets just hope it doesn’t get worse.
The clouds had blocked the peak from the parking lot but they lifted when we got to the top and we had a beautiful view of the summit. It didn’t seem very far.
A little math told us that all we had to do was do what we had just done, three and a half more times. Not bad.
Our guide, William, made dinner and tea. We had, surprise surprise, chicken and rice.
After dinner Fernando gave us a demonstration of the cramp-ons. It was too late to practice outside. He told us what to do in case we fell and how to navigate when everyone is tied together. Uh… Let’s all agree not to fall. K?
Bedtime can quickly. 6:00 p.m.
My headache, nerves, and distaste for sleeping bags (I NEED to be able to move my legs) make sleeping nearly impossible. After lying there for about two and a half hours, I finally fell asleep ready (thought still nervous) for what was coming.
