It is about m farther from the center than Everest's summit. This is only possible because the Earth is in the shape of an oblate spheroid, i. Chimborazo is an extinct volcano located in the Western Cordillera, km 95 miles southwest of Quito.
For this climb you need ice-climbing equipment, excellent physical condition and lots of stamina. Climbers must also acclimatize their bodies to the high altitude conditions before attempting to summit Chimborazo. Most of the time, it is not a difficult climb but there are periods when hard ice conditions make it very challenging.
There is some discussion about the actual height of the summit: There is some debate on the actual height of the mountain. Thank you Estalin Valladolid for the beautiful photos across Ecuador and great leadership throughout! Cheers team! Last steps to the summit of Chimborazo, in the background you can see Veintimilla Summit at 6, m 20, ft.
Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. In any case, I did just summit these mountains. I did Cotopaxi Jan 19 then Chimborazo Jan. From what I gather from the guides, there's some sort of dispute with who owns or operates it. Conversely Refugio Jose Ribas on Cotopaxi is open. That, I was surprised about. I arrived in Ecuador with the assumption that refugio was closed. Back on Chimborazo, on Saturdays it seems you can get some things from the kitchen inside the Carrell Refugio and the bathrooms were open the Saturday I was there.
I spent most of the day Friday and until about 2 pm Saturday hanging around the Refugio. I had several odd experiences during that time and I camped to the right of the Carrell Refugio. Walk to the right of the building and you will see campsites ready for tents.
I slept a lot and prepared for the climb the next day. The weather was terrible. Rain and sleet froze overnight and turned my tent into a chocolate-coated ice cream you get from Dairy Queen. As far as climbing the mountain, on Saturday I went up to high camp at 17, or whatever and setup my tent until midnight and we made a 5-hour dash to the summit. It was cold as F the last 1, feet. Even with a new pair of insulated Black Diamond Gortex gloves I had purchased after my hands froze on Cotopaxi my hands froze.
We left camp too early then climbed pretty quickly. But the last feet was slower and tough. We cruised the section past the rock cliffs before El Castillo comes up and joins the ridge. We blew past several of the parties who left about 15 minutes before us and never saw them again.
Turns out they didn't make it much further. You can see who's climbed a mountain in technical mountaineering gear and who hasn't when it comes to these types of sections or on the descent. Anyways, we slowed down after that and the higher we got, the exponentially colder it became. At one point I took my gloves off my right hand and stuck it in my pants pocket. When I did that, I was able to regain some of the feeling and that told me that while my hand was damn cold and going toward frostbite, I had time and had caught it early enough and so far, was able to mitigate it.
I powered on and we still got to the summit too early. It was pitch black and the clouds were on us. Quickly figuring out we couldn't see anything and the sun wasn't coming up for another hour-plus, and not wanting a repeat of Cotopaxi, where we climbed through a storm, we decided not to hangout and we went back down. The descent was uneventful and the storm never materialized. By the time I reached camp, my hands were tingling but heading the right direction. As as the other parties stumbled back, several of the guides commented on how the cold had come in so fiercely, while taking off their gloves to inspect their fingers.
It turns out we got a cold weather front that rolled in for about three hours and the precipitation had held off. But the air was so wet that the cold was penetrating. That's what I learned the most. The weather and what to expect when you climb in Ecuador.
That's what we had no real clue about before we arrived. Stick to climbing during the midnight hours. On this route it makes even more sense to return during frozen conditions. I thought about the next time I climb it, we leave later, even as late as 4 am. Because the snow was so firm and crunchy on the approach to high camp at 3 pm the day before, it stood to reason the snow would be firm higher up, therefore safe to travel on throughout the day.
But you don't want to move slow through the rock section. It takes a good minutes for a competent rope team to get through it. It's not technical but you have to be able to walk on mixed rock and snow and scree with mountaineering boots and crampons efficiently and in the dark. It's not a friendly-looking place to be walking beneath if it's warm and melty. I guess this is why I am surprised at the posts immediately above this from where those guys were talking about this being their first real mountaineering experience, and curious how they ended up.
I'm not sure this is a route on a mountain I would learn these skills on. Contact Luis at Condor Trek if you are interested in a last-minute trip.
He is pretty good with giving the info you need as far as if the refugios are open or closed and that stuff. Red Tape You'll have to figure out the red tape as you go and it's dependent on what you want to do and if you want to hire a guide.
Basically you need to register at every park and they close at 2 pm. But you seem to be able to get out a bit later. But they will lock the gates on both Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. We just pitched a tent off the side of the parking lot on Chimborazo after we rolled in late Thursday night and went in the next morning. We used the day as a travel day then that night as an acclimation night because even the parking lot to the entrance is as high as the summit of Mt.
Something else we did earlier in the trip, before Cotopaxi, was spend the night at the Refugio on Pichincha. That was also a bit of and adventure we sort of had to break in but the night at altitude is what we needed and we managed to get it and it helped us for Cotopaxi the next night. Cotopaxi was more of a tailored experience. With the Refugio, the food and accommodations and facilities.
It's like going skiing from a ski lodge. Because the refugios are closed, Chimborazo at this time was more like the experience you'd have climbing a Cascade volcano. You're more on your own with the mountain. But there's still support if you need it so it's not like climbing the Kautz Route on Mt. Rainier where you are self-sustained from as low as 3, feet on up. Chimborazo and Cotopaxi for that matter can each be climbed from the parking lots in a day.
This is what I will do on Chimborazo next time. I guess to time stamp this semi trip report. Chimborazo The Stubel camp Related. Extreme Self-Care: Expedition Style by Aili Farquhar As you toil against the steepness of the hill, the backpack hipbelt secured to your sled digs into your harness. Guides Our guides are an integral part of Alpine Ascents because they understand and share our climbing principles. Environmental Reponsibility Leave No Trace principles are fundamental to our program, and we encourage all who climb and trek with us to understand proper wilderness practices.
Alpine Ascents International.
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