A humbling experience
June 25, 2024
We had planned a central Ecuador back country traverse, but due to excessive rain and landslides, we decided to play it safe and take the carretera Panamericana to get through the region. This main road got us to the next big town Riobamba a little faster, so we dared dreaming of taking a shot at climbing Chimborazo. A 6263 masl volcano standing high and proud right in the middle of Ecuador. The summit of which, due to the bulging nature of our planet around the equator, is the highest point on earth when measured from its center.
Despite not being very technical, a sleepless night with a start at 11 PM, in combination with the high altitude, makes this climb a challenging undertaking nonetheless. Indeed, this massive volcano did not want to be climbed on our night of venture. With no one else on the mountain besides us and our guide, the moon that illuminated our path in the night turned off the light for one of us.
4 hours into the climb, Aimée's energy suddenly plummeted. We were at about 5500 masl, and every step felt like the first ones she ever took. She was able to push it some 300 meters of elevation gain more, but then at 5800 masl, her body said no more, that's enough. A clear case of acute altitude sickness. She felt absolutely terrible. At 4 AM we decided this was not our night, and turned around to meet the sun at 6 AM near the shelter from which we had started the evening before.
A humbling mountaineering experience. We've had to deal with high altitude plenty of times before and never ran into similar problems due to proper acclimatization. This time, however, we knew up front we were pushing it a bit given our "lower" altitude endeavors in northern Peru and southern Ecuador. In addition to our climbing trip being cut short due to an overbooked guide, giving us less time to eat, rest and further acclimatize. Risky, but we figured we could always turn back. After all, exciting things rarely happen without a good dose of opportunism! And exciting it was. Climbing through the night in the moonlight on steep mountain slopes is incredibly special. We'll save a summit for another day. Back on the bike!
Route: Cuenca - Riobamba - Chimborazo
