At 5 AM, we leave the hostel at San Jose de El Chaupi. There is fog and a
drenching rain. We drive with 4WD LandRover to La Virgen parking area on
Iliniza. (High clearance two-wheel drive would be OK also.) We have
breakfast and at 7 AM we start hiking. (We have arranged for someone to
take our sleeping bags and technical gear up to the hut from the parking
area via a horse.) The rain has now let up and we have some nice views as
we head for Iliniza Norte. The trail is well marked and has occasional trail
markers consisting of a sign with a green square perimeter and a white disk
in the center. Rather than going by the hut (El refugio) first, we take a
shortcut that takes us up the east side of Norte and intersects with
"normal" hut route on the north side of the peak. (There's no marked trail
on this route until about 15,000 feet in elevation.) We pass some bulls
(trained for bull fighting) on the path above 14,000 feet. Unfortunately,
as we get higher, we enter the clouds and never get any further views from
Norte. The route is fairly well marked once you get close to the summit and
although one guidebook says there is class 5.3 scrambling on the normal
route, we see nothing harder than class three moves (more like about class
2+). We both found Iliniza Norte easier than El Corazon. We reach the
summit (16,818 ft) at 11:30 and take pictures next to the summit cross but
the fog is very thick so there's nothing else visible. At 12:30 we leave
the summit and reach the hut by 2:30 PM. The descent is fast and fairly fun
by plunge stepping through deep volcanic sand. It's foggy and snowy outside
but occasionally we get a few glimpses of the surrounding mountains. By
about 4PM the hut is full. There are other groups (mostly from Safari) that
will be attempting Norte in the morning (leaving at 6AM). We already know
most of the arriving climbers. It turns out that almost half of the climbers
in the hut speak German so we have a nice ongoing Deutsch corner of the hut
where only German is spoken. A number of the climbers including Barbara
have altitude sickness. (Barbara is one of the Germans having been born in
Berlin). The hut has a wonderful atmosphere of conviviality since everyone
knows each other and has shared experiences and values. Dianne is still
having problems with her stomach and gets advice from Dieter (a German
doctor) and Barbara an RN. We get fed some pretty good potato soup and some
greasy pink colored pasta. (I just can't eat much of the pink pasta so I
munch a protean bar to finish off my supper. We will have two guides in the
morning (Mauricio joins Reni) since there are three clients (Beat, a Swiss
fellow that we already know, joins Dianne and myself). The plan is to get up
at 2 AM (the guides will fix breakfast at 2:30 AM) and depart by 3 AM to
climb Iliniza Sur. (Unlike Norte, Sur is a snow covered glaciated peak and
is regarded as one of the most technical of major Ecuadorian peaks). 7 AM
will be our turn around time because of the risk of the sun softening the
snow and increasing rock fall and crevasse danger. Two climbers that
attempted Sur yesterday (and failed) reported significant rock fall. We
will have two rope teams (Reni, Dianne and myself on one team). Our team is
the only team that is attempting Sur (the other climbers will all leave at 6
AM to climb Norte) The cooking inside the hut has really steamed things up
so several of us conspire to keep the door open to air things out prior to
hitting the sack. By 8:30 everyone is in bed and all is quiet.
(Nov 22)We get up at 2AM (I'm not sure how much, if any, sleep I managed to
get). I have some coffee but ignore the rest of the breakfast in favor of
some nutrition bars. We start climbing at 3:05 AM (not bad!).. The fog is
incredibly thick and I can barely see the person in front of me so I'm very
glad to climbing with someone that knows this mountain very well. The first
50 minutes is up an easy rocky trail to the glacier. The start of glacier is
rocky and icy. (There are places it's very difficult to get a good ice-axe
placement.) Fortunately, by the time we are climbing on the glacier about an
hour later, we now have clear sky. Sur has gotten some snow overnight which
has improved the conditions. We were originally facing a 45 degree ice slope
on the start of the glacier but the glacier now has only a few icy
stretches. We're all climbing roped with crampons, helmets, and alpine ice
axes. Reni, Dianne, and I are also carrying ice tools but it turns out we
won't need them on this climb. After the first hour above the glacier
entrance, we see there is no clear route on Sur. Still working in the dark
with occasional foggy patches, Reni does an expert job route finding. This
would be difficult even if there were no fog. At several points Reni spends
five to ten minutes probing crevasses and finding safe crossings. This
mountain should be approached very carefully since these difficult slopes
must be climbed in the dark. By 6 AM, the sun is up and we are high on Sur.
The views are fabulous but it's hard to take time to take many photos since
the climbing is very steep and we have to be very careful and also keep
moving to beat the sun. We reach the summit (17,200 ft) at 6:35 and lounge
until almost 7 AM. I lead on the way down and am amazed that on several
stretches I can see no sign of our tracks (erased by the wind). We
encounter a lot of rocks (but not a single one falls during our entire
climb) and crevasses but because of early start none of these posed a
hazard. (A prior team had reported significant rock-fall danger but they
started climbing relatively late at 5 AM.) The most intimidating part of the
climb was the start of the glacier at the bottom. Because of the dry year
the start is very rocky and icy. (It's steep and no good snow or thick ice
for placements). We're back in the hut by 9 AM. We hurriedly organize our
gear to load the duffel so the horse can take it back to the LandRover
parked at La Virgen (13,000ft). There is no sign of the climbers on Norte
but we hear a report that at least two are having problems because of the
altitude. (Note, that Norte while not technical should be approached with
caution--there is a Czech climber that went missing six weeks earlier after
leaving the summit.) We leave the hut about 11AM and zoom down to the
parking area at La Virgen. From there we stop at the place that provides the
horses and settle up with them (Dianne and I are charged $22). While we are
there a man on bicycle rides up and charges us $5 each for admission to the
national park. (If we hadn't stopped to pay for the horses I don't see how
we could have been charged the park fee.)