Cayambe, Ecuador
4 Dec 2001 - by Wolfgang Stiller
On Tuesday December fourth (2001), we depart Quito at about 8:40 AM headed
for Cayambe. In the city of Cayambe we stop in a small biscuit place
(biscuits are a local specialty) and have biscuits (of course!), cheese, and
coffee. We then head up the small road to the Cayambe hut (15,250 ft). On
the way there, we pass an American Alpine Institute (AAI) group in a large
bus. The bus is forced to stop at about 14,000 ft on the road and the AAI
climbers hike the last 1,000 feet up to the hut. They are assisted by Pepi,
(one of the Safari guides) so we take some of their load in our Landrover to
make it easier on Pepi to negotiate the upper and more difficult
four-wheel-drive part of the road. (The upper part of the road can be tricky
and someone once rolled a LandRover on this section of the road.) We get up
to the hut at about 12:15 noon. The Cayambe hut is the nicest in Ecuador
and actually has running water which means sinks in the bathroom and toilets
that actually flush without using a bucket. (And electricity via a 3500 watt
Honda generator which runs from 6 PM to 8:30PM). The setting for the hut is
one of the prettiest also. It's drizzly and foggy at intervals but I really
enjoy spending the afternoon at the hut and feel privileged to be able to
enjoy such a beautiful place. Julian Tonsmeire of Ultimate Ascents
(www.ultimateascents.com) and a client are planning to paraglide from the
summit in a tandem paraglider. (Julian has done this once before from
Cayambe). The AAI group is planning to spend two or three days at the hut to
acclimatize before attempting the summit. This means the AAI group members
won't need to hit the sack early and this winds up making it hard for me to
get to sleep as they drift into the bunks and different times. It feels cold
in the hut and I expect we're going to have a cold climb up the mountain.
(The guidebooks say Cayambe has some of the worst weather in Ecuador.) We
go to bed about 7PM but I don't get sound sleep until about 9 PM. At 11:30
PM, we get up; I poke my head outside the hut and find that it's snowing but
the wind is calm and it feels rather warm. With the warm weather in mind, I
dress with just a Gore-Tex parka over my undershirt. We get some hot water
(we each carry two liters of Cytomax) and start climbing at 12:52. During
the first hour, we climb over some rocky areas with a few brief (six foot)
sections of class 3 climbing. It's warm (it feels like it's in the low 40s
Fahrenheit) and I regret wearing as much clothes as I am wearing but the
clouds are mostly to the east which indicates we may be getting more bad
weather. (For the eastern volcanoes the moisture generally comes in from the
jungle rather than the coast.) We reach the glacier at slightly over 16,000
feet (at 1 AM), and put on our crampons. At this point it appears we have
climbed through the clouds and snow and now have good visibility and can see
the stars. (It's starting to look like we may have another pretty summit.)
We climb by the light of the moon rather than using our headlamps at this
point. The glacier on Cayambe is the easiest of all the glaciated mountains
(Cotopaxi, Iliniza Sur and Chimborazo) we have climbed so far. It's a
fairly mild slope (I'd guess about a 20 to 30 degree average) until you
reach the very top of the mountain. We climb for about 90 minutes under the
beautiful stars. We plan to take a rest break near a rock out-cropping
further ahead. During the next half hour (as we approach the rocks), the
wind steadily increases. By the time we reach the rocks, the wind is howling
(I'd guess 30 knots steady with 45 knot gusts), it's starting to sleet, and
the clouds are starting to move back in. I strip and put on fleece,
Activent jacket, and my Gore-Tex parka again. I remove my multi-layer
(Gore-Tex shells and windstopper fleece) mittens and put on my expedition
down mitts (this is the first time I have needed to put on these mittens
while climbing but I can tell we are in for some really bad weather ahead.)
Dianne at first wonders why I am putting on the down mittens but then does
the same.) As we head higher, the weather worsens; visibility goes down to
about 20 to 30 feet and the sleet stings my eyes. (After nicer conditions
on the other peaks, we did not bring our goggles on this climb...big
mistake! It would have been much easier climbing and route finding with
goggles.) Crevasses now become much more an issue. We overtake and then
are followed by Javier (former part owner of Safari and highly regarded
guide) who is guiding a British climber. Suddenly, out of the fog, a lone
German climber (crazy fellow!) appears; this fellow starts to shadow Javier
and client. Our guide Rene does excellent route finding around the glaciers
in what is now at times almost zero visibility. (There are wands indicating
a route but these can no longer be followed on the upper mountain.) The low
visibility combined with the strong wind and sleet makes reading the
crevasses very difficult. At one point, at around 18,000 feet on the
mountain, I briefly break through a crevasse (Rene and Dianne passed over
the same spot with no problem) sinking up to my waist in the snow. Rene and
Dianne quickly apply tension and I carefully crawl away from the opening.
Javier and client, who are following us, wisely detour around the new
opening. (The German fellow disappears after this; we later learn he turned
back at some point before this incident). At about 500 vertical feet below
the summit, we reach a large bergschund (a wide crevasse with a vertical
wall of ice on the far side). We follow the bergschund to the right
circling the summit and eventually find a 60-degree slope to the summit. As
we reach the summit, conditions continue to worsen. On the summit (at almost
7:30 AM), we have very strong winds and blinding sleet. It's almost
impossible to do anything other than look just beyond your feet due to the
stinging sleet. Not a nice view from this summit; we don't even bother to
take a summit picture under these conditions! Javier and client have chosen
(wisely!) not to continue the last 500 vertical feet to the summit but we
rejoin them shortly and descend down the mountain together. Once we descend
past the upper 1,500 feet of the mountain (where route finding was still
rather difficult under the conditions), the descent becomes quite easy and
fast due to the moderate slope of the mountain. At about 16,500 feet, the
wind drops and we start to get some sun coming through the clouds.
Amazingly, it has become hot again and we stop to strip off our extra layers
and rehydrate. Dianne and I consume only slightly over a liter of the water
on this climb rather than the two liters we expected. This is the first
time on this climb that I get out my camera and start to take some pictures.
We learn that we are the only team to have reached the summit. (A dubious
distinction ) We take our time on the remainder of the descent so we can
have at least a few pictures of this beautiful mountain. (Rene informs us
that he has never had good weather on Cayambe so there is probably something
to the bad reputation that Cayambe has weather-wise.) To further sour Rene
on this mountain is the fact that this is where the Ecuadorian mountain
guides do their glacier training and testing (so he has been dumped into
numerous crevasses here ). We return to the hut at about 10:45 and are
driving down the mountain at about 12 noon. The weather now looks rather
benign; it's hard to imagine that it is probably still storming higher up on
Cayambe.
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