I am not going to post much tonight, I am tired.
The quick version:
I didn't go up Cayambe, my insides were turned around on me.
Pictures are posted
Cayambe looked awesome from where I was resting. Had a blast, couldn't be happier with my experience.
I will post more detailed descriptions of both my summit attempt on Cotopaxi and what went on while at Cayambe tomorrow after I have had a chance to rest.
GW
Monday, December 10, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
A rest day
After our summit attempt yesterday, today was a welcome rest day. We left a very nice hotel, Hosteria La Cienega, this morning, dropped off a couple of our team mates who are leaving tomorrow and headed towards Cayambe.
We are currently at the oldest hacienda in Ecuador, the Hacienda Guachala and are just hanging out playing pool and ping pong. Kurtiss and I are going to battle at ping pong for our international ping pong title. (The punk has our international foosball championship won in London.)
So that's about it. We head off to Cayambe in the morning, an early sleep, and plan to awake around midnight (Saturday night) to push for the summit of Cayambe (18,997ft). I still have my bronchitis and it got significantly worse after our Cotopaxi summit attempt, but I am going to give it a go. If I am not on top of my game though, I am not going. I cannot even begin to describe how uncomfortable it is at 18,500ft.
Also, here is what our lead guide has to say regarding our trip. Enjoy.
G(in Ecuador)W
We are currently at the oldest hacienda in Ecuador, the Hacienda Guachala and are just hanging out playing pool and ping pong. Kurtiss and I are going to battle at ping pong for our international ping pong title. (The punk has our international foosball championship won in London.)
So that's about it. We head off to Cayambe in the morning, an early sleep, and plan to awake around midnight (Saturday night) to push for the summit of Cayambe (18,997ft). I still have my bronchitis and it got significantly worse after our Cotopaxi summit attempt, but I am going to give it a go. If I am not on top of my game though, I am not going. I cannot even begin to describe how uncomfortable it is at 18,500ft.
Also, here is what our lead guide has to say regarding our trip. Enjoy.
G(in Ecuador)W
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Summit Attempt
The hut we stayed in the last couple of nights was at 15,800ft. I was starting to get a headache from the altitude but I took some Diamox and that seemed to fix me up. So we did some training hikes like I mentioned and I felt strong throughout. Even though, I was somewhat worried about my performance on the mountain today, but was still hopeful all would go well.
Yeah, so last night we went to bed around 6:00PM and woke up around 11:30PM. (an alpine start) Got dressed, ate breakfast and hit the mountain. We were climbing by 12:30AM.
I felt wonderful today. I was climbing strong and had a pretty good outlook on the day. That is until we hit the 50 degree incline that continued for 1800 vertical feet. Talk about a lung buster. About half way up, at 17,500ft, I asked the lead guide if I could quit, he was all, ¨No.¨
So this continued, and just so you know, am still recovering from my bronchitis so I was leaving big chunks of my lungs on the mountain. Around 18,000ft, I started having wicked coughing fits. I thought I was going to break a rib, turns out, I think I pulled an ab muscle because if I breathe deep, it hurts.
Well, around 18,700ft, the sun started to come up and I started seeing stars on the ground. This is a result of hypoxia; basically starving my brain of oxygen. I was still climbing though. Just to let you know how thing the air is that high, I was taking 2 to 3 breaths for every step I took - super hard.
Around 19,100ft, we took a break and only had about 200 ft to go. I was wasted though, I started coughing and red stuff came out. My guide thought I was coughing blood, but it was only gatorade, regardless, he turned me around. Thank God, I was ready.
So, I didn´t make the summit, but I did make 19,000ft, 4000 ft higher than anything in the lower 48, so I am pretty proud of myself.
Going to get a beer and celebrate our success on the mountain and get ready to try cayambe in 2 days.
GW
Yeah, so last night we went to bed around 6:00PM and woke up around 11:30PM. (an alpine start) Got dressed, ate breakfast and hit the mountain. We were climbing by 12:30AM.
I felt wonderful today. I was climbing strong and had a pretty good outlook on the day. That is until we hit the 50 degree incline that continued for 1800 vertical feet. Talk about a lung buster. About half way up, at 17,500ft, I asked the lead guide if I could quit, he was all, ¨No.¨
So this continued, and just so you know, am still recovering from my bronchitis so I was leaving big chunks of my lungs on the mountain. Around 18,000ft, I started having wicked coughing fits. I thought I was going to break a rib, turns out, I think I pulled an ab muscle because if I breathe deep, it hurts.
Well, around 18,700ft, the sun started to come up and I started seeing stars on the ground. This is a result of hypoxia; basically starving my brain of oxygen. I was still climbing though. Just to let you know how thing the air is that high, I was taking 2 to 3 breaths for every step I took - super hard.
Around 19,100ft, we took a break and only had about 200 ft to go. I was wasted though, I started coughing and red stuff came out. My guide thought I was coughing blood, but it was only gatorade, regardless, he turned me around. Thank God, I was ready.
So, I didn´t make the summit, but I did make 19,000ft, 4000 ft higher than anything in the lower 48, so I am pretty proud of myself.
Going to get a beer and celebrate our success on the mountain and get ready to try cayambe in 2 days.
GW
Sunday, December 2, 2007
First hike today
First off, let me start by saying that it is always interesting using a keyboard with buttons in different places.
Yeah, so we arrived in Quito, Ecuador on Friday night around 11pm. Pretty quick evening, checked into our hotel and called it a day.
The first part of the day yesterday was spent exploring the city.
Around 3:00, Kurtiss and I decided we were going to go find someplace to hang out. Luckily, we ran into some other members of our group (Ray, Steve, and Pete) and they pulled us back from the ledge. Not too far though, we ended up staying at the bar for about 4 hours and having a few drinks. Yeah, I think we each had 5 or 6 22oz beers and our tab was $21. How were we to leave.
So today we are going to about 14,000ft. For reference, the highest peaks in CO are at 14,400. This is just to stretch our legs... Should be a good time. We are going to a National Forest Reserve and starting at 10,000, so a 4000ft climb (to stretch our legs...)
Well, that´s about it. I have loads of pics and will try to post some tonight if my fingers aren´t worn out.
C ya,
GW
Yeah, so we arrived in Quito, Ecuador on Friday night around 11pm. Pretty quick evening, checked into our hotel and called it a day.
The first part of the day yesterday was spent exploring the city.
Around 3:00, Kurtiss and I decided we were going to go find someplace to hang out. Luckily, we ran into some other members of our group (Ray, Steve, and Pete) and they pulled us back from the ledge. Not too far though, we ended up staying at the bar for about 4 hours and having a few drinks. Yeah, I think we each had 5 or 6 22oz beers and our tab was $21. How were we to leave.
So today we are going to about 14,000ft. For reference, the highest peaks in CO are at 14,400. This is just to stretch our legs... Should be a good time. We are going to a National Forest Reserve and starting at 10,000, so a 4000ft climb (to stretch our legs...)
Well, that´s about it. I have loads of pics and will try to post some tonight if my fingers aren´t worn out.
C ya,
GW
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