My Trip to Chimborazo

My trip to Chimborazo turned out to be a great experience and one of my most favorite things I have done here in Ecuador. The morning started off with a drive up to the first refuge on Chimborazo. From there I hiked the 200 hundred more meters up to the second refuge along with my guide Edison and my guide/driver Rodrigo . While the actual distance walked was not that far, the altitude and incline made for a reasonably strenuous hike. The clouds lifted just enough to give a decent view of the mountain's peak.

After spending some time at the refuge we hiked a little further up in order to meet a climber who had just summited that morning. The climber was Santiago, an amazing person with a very inspiring story. Santiago is professional climber, having summited most of the peaks in South America. Four years ago while doing a solo attempt at a difficult face of Aconcagua (the tallest mountain in the Andes, located in Argentina), Santiago fell victim to frostbite and lost a good portion of both of his feet. He has continued to climb and is currently doing a tour to raise money for prostetic feet in order to eventually climb Everest and K2. He is currently riding a bicycle throughout Ecuador from highest peak to highest peak, and climbing them solo to prove he is still capable. Yesterday morning he was finishing up his ascent of Chimborazo, and was then riding down the mountain all the way to Cuenca then Guayaquil. Below is a picture of me with Santiago (bottom middle), his support team (back two on the right) and my guides for the day (back left and front right).

Following some good conversation in the refuge, Santiago headed to bed (having woken up around midnight to start his ascent) and my guides and I headed back to the first refuge in order to start the bike ride. While we had been talking in the refuge, a blizzard started to blow outside. At the beginning of the day there had been no snow at the first or second refuge, but after our walk down 3-4 inches had already accumulated on the ground.

Because we were suppose to start our bike ride from the first refuge, and since there was now so much snow there, I assumed we would just walk the bikes below snow level before starting our descent. Just as that thought ran through my head, Edison looked at me and said ¨So have you ever ridden in the snow before?¨ I am going to be honest, that bike ride down Ecuador's highest mountain in the snow was one of the scariest things I have done yet!

After getting below the snow, we hit a little rain then the sky cleared up. I was expecting the ride to simply be downhill from the mountain, but it turned out to be so much more! After getting down the mountain we rode through beautiful countryside, including Incan ruins and indigeneous communities. While the ride was downhill for the majority, it still included a fair amount of climbs and hilly pastures. The views were spectacular and the guides wonderful.

After the ride, I hoped on a bus and headed back to Banos. The direct route was opened back up again, allowing for the one hour ride. The geology of the area through which we drove was amazing. The road winds just at the base of Tungurahua and from the windows of the bus you can view all of the destructions its history of erruptions has caused. I was able to see a large number deep gorges through which the volcano´s lava once flowed.

This morning a woke up early to paddle the Upper Rio Pastaza before my afternoon class (for today only I had changed my class to the afternoon in case I had wanted to stay in Riobamba another night). I went with five of my friends, all of which are local Ecuadorian paddlers. They assured me that we would leave early enough for me to make it back for my 2:00pm class. As to be expected, our 8:00 departure time turned into a 9:30 one (this difference in time is often referred to as Ecuadorian time). I almost backed out, but with some convincing from the boys, I decided to go for it. The river was great! Lots of big class 4 rapids, along with a number of beautiful waterfalls and mountain views. After a wonderful morning of paddling, I arrived back in Banos at 1:50pm, just in time for my class!