Saturday, October 07, 2006
Chimborazo's climb, 4th-6th October 2006 - ENGLISH
Camping spot, 4600m - 4th October 2006
I guess someone might believe that after all my foot was not so sore if I could leave to climb another mountain. Well, things are not exactly like that. Let's say that I preferred to climb being in pain rather than continue to be a tourist. Speaking frankly it goes much better, otherwise I would have never got to the foot of Chimborazo. I am currently camping at about 400m from the Whymper hut, a place named from the name of the british climber who first got to the summit of this mountain. This is the starting point to climb Chimborazo on its normal route.
Right now I am too tired to trek a single more yard and I need to spend a day at 4500m to get again acclimatised to the altitude. Chimborazo is not one of the highest mountain in the Andes. It is the highest in Ecuador, but despite its 6310m there are at least fifty more higher mountains in South America. The thing that is the most interesting is the relative size of the mountain when compared to the sourroundings. I don't think I have ever seen anything of so BULKY. It is a massive block of rock (covered with a glacier) emerging for about 2500m over the sourrounding plateau which has a height variable between 2500 and 3500 meters. Tonight the moon is almost full and it is very cold as it can be at 4500m (even at the equator).
I'm in my sleeping bag and at the weak light of my torch I write being already worried by the fear of the solitude that I will feel as soon I finish to write. It is low season in Ecuador and I guess that even this time I will have to climb alone.
Whymper hut, 5000m - 5th October 2006
4 pm, in seven hours I start to climb. Even this time, damn, I am alone.
Outside the landscape is almost lunar. There is just a little of vegetation near the stream generated by the fusion of the glacier. We are at 5000m and there is little flora that can adapt to such tough conditions. The glacier is very dark after the eruption of the close Tungurahua volcano which moved massive quantity of ash. I guess this will accellerate the process of glacier retreat which at the equator is already very fast (dark corps receive more light, and then heath, then the bright ones). I don't know how things will go tomorrow but getting to the top would be and immense personal success. Chimborazo's normal route is classified as almost easy but when it comes to 6000m's mountains even the easiest climb can be impossible if the weather conditions are adverse. Furthermore I am alone and this is psycologically a big hardle. However things go, I will put in all my motivation and enthusiasm.
Quito - 6th October 2006
I am in an Internet bar trying to put together the memories of a long and tough day. Yesterday night at eleven after a double portion of Porridge and three cups of hot milk I left towards Chimborazo's summits, with the company of the stars. Very quickly I moved to 5300m where a mixed section (ice and rock) called El Corridal (the corridor) starts. The first difficulties arrive, I was expecting a kind of straight-forward walk and with my surprise I realise I need to use frequently my ice-axe. It has not been snowing for more than a month, all the snow melt to leave room to what it is technically called "blue ice". In the process of building of a glacier what happens is that the snow after several stages of compacting and melting passes from the conditon of snow to ice. In this process the density increase from about 0.35 (density of fresh snow) to nerly 0.92 (density of ice). The end of this process arrive of course that the highest possible density is reached and of course this makes the ice layer in a glacier also the deepest one as its density is the highest. Higher density means higher weight and this makes also the ice layer the one that flows the fastest towards the valley. I do not want to make it too long - stop sleeping! - but the deepest layer is also the layer which is in contact with the rock and hence in its sliding mouvement erodes and carries all kind of rocks and scree. All this to say that this kind of ice is very very hard, also because it contains rocks.
Without any additional difficulty I get to 5500m where I expected to find more snow and an easier ground to climb. Not at all, there is still ice. Hard, very hard. I can progress only with major effort. I did not expect such conditions and I had choosen a light equipment, just one ice-axe and crampons not very sharp. At big risk (I am climbing on solo) I left back of me an ice pitch - a kind of dome - high about 10 meters. In my guide this is described as the last difficulty before a tedious and easy track trough a snow 30 degrees slope that in four hours should bring me on the top. Surprisingly the slope is not 30 degrees but at least 45. I continue to climb on this hoping things will smooth as I get closer to the top. Absolutely nop, after over one hour of hard work and about 500 meters climbed I find myself at 6000m and the climb is getting steeper rather than easier. I am alone, with the wind that starts to blow very fiercely and back of me there are at least 500 meters of slope. The smallest mistake in the ice-axe or crampons placement could cost a lot; I guess I would have big trouble in stopping myself in case of a fall. I understand I took the wrong way, I climbed on a direct route instead of turning left at some point of the climb to follow the change of slope. It is 4am and it is getting too late. In two hours the outter layer of ice will start to melt and the ice more than hard will be also sleepery. Even ignoring the difficulties of a way back on such a difficult surface I cannot ignore that front of me there are still 300 meters to gain with a slope higher than 50 degrees, no possibility to make a mistake and I got only one ice-axe; I also starts to be tired.
Good sense is taking its place in my mind, I concentrate and take the decision to turn back. Focusing on each single step I start to descent facing front to the ice. Meters after meter I get to "El Corridal" when the sun is rising. I got to the hut at 7.30am. I am very sad for the missed summit but the joy to be back home safe and exactly as I left is bigger than anything.
Today it is a nice day even if the Sun struggles to shine.
I guess someone might believe that after all my foot was not so sore if I could leave to climb another mountain. Well, things are not exactly like that. Let's say that I preferred to climb being in pain rather than continue to be a tourist. Speaking frankly it goes much better, otherwise I would have never got to the foot of Chimborazo. I am currently camping at about 400m from the Whymper hut, a place named from the name of the british climber who first got to the summit of this mountain. This is the starting point to climb Chimborazo on its normal route.
Right now I am too tired to trek a single more yard and I need to spend a day at 4500m to get again acclimatised to the altitude. Chimborazo is not one of the highest mountain in the Andes. It is the highest in Ecuador, but despite its 6310m there are at least fifty more higher mountains in South America. The thing that is the most interesting is the relative size of the mountain when compared to the sourroundings. I don't think I have ever seen anything of so BULKY. It is a massive block of rock (covered with a glacier) emerging for about 2500m over the sourrounding plateau which has a height variable between 2500 and 3500 meters. Tonight the moon is almost full and it is very cold as it can be at 4500m (even at the equator).
I'm in my sleeping bag and at the weak light of my torch I write being already worried by the fear of the solitude that I will feel as soon I finish to write. It is low season in Ecuador and I guess that even this time I will have to climb alone.
Whymper hut, 5000m - 5th October 2006
4 pm, in seven hours I start to climb. Even this time, damn, I am alone.
Outside the landscape is almost lunar. There is just a little of vegetation near the stream generated by the fusion of the glacier. We are at 5000m and there is little flora that can adapt to such tough conditions. The glacier is very dark after the eruption of the close Tungurahua volcano which moved massive quantity of ash. I guess this will accellerate the process of glacier retreat which at the equator is already very fast (dark corps receive more light, and then heath, then the bright ones). I don't know how things will go tomorrow but getting to the top would be and immense personal success. Chimborazo's normal route is classified as almost easy but when it comes to 6000m's mountains even the easiest climb can be impossible if the weather conditions are adverse. Furthermore I am alone and this is psycologically a big hardle. However things go, I will put in all my motivation and enthusiasm.
Quito - 6th October 2006
I am in an Internet bar trying to put together the memories of a long and tough day. Yesterday night at eleven after a double portion of Porridge and three cups of hot milk I left towards Chimborazo's summits, with the company of the stars. Very quickly I moved to 5300m where a mixed section (ice and rock) called El Corridal (the corridor) starts. The first difficulties arrive, I was expecting a kind of straight-forward walk and with my surprise I realise I need to use frequently my ice-axe. It has not been snowing for more than a month, all the snow melt to leave room to what it is technically called "blue ice". In the process of building of a glacier what happens is that the snow after several stages of compacting and melting passes from the conditon of snow to ice. In this process the density increase from about 0.35 (density of fresh snow) to nerly 0.92 (density of ice). The end of this process arrive of course that the highest possible density is reached and of course this makes the ice layer in a glacier also the deepest one as its density is the highest. Higher density means higher weight and this makes also the ice layer the one that flows the fastest towards the valley. I do not want to make it too long - stop sleeping! - but the deepest layer is also the layer which is in contact with the rock and hence in its sliding mouvement erodes and carries all kind of rocks and scree. All this to say that this kind of ice is very very hard, also because it contains rocks.
Without any additional difficulty I get to 5500m where I expected to find more snow and an easier ground to climb. Not at all, there is still ice. Hard, very hard. I can progress only with major effort. I did not expect such conditions and I had choosen a light equipment, just one ice-axe and crampons not very sharp. At big risk (I am climbing on solo) I left back of me an ice pitch - a kind of dome - high about 10 meters. In my guide this is described as the last difficulty before a tedious and easy track trough a snow 30 degrees slope that in four hours should bring me on the top. Surprisingly the slope is not 30 degrees but at least 45. I continue to climb on this hoping things will smooth as I get closer to the top. Absolutely nop, after over one hour of hard work and about 500 meters climbed I find myself at 6000m and the climb is getting steeper rather than easier. I am alone, with the wind that starts to blow very fiercely and back of me there are at least 500 meters of slope. The smallest mistake in the ice-axe or crampons placement could cost a lot; I guess I would have big trouble in stopping myself in case of a fall. I understand I took the wrong way, I climbed on a direct route instead of turning left at some point of the climb to follow the change of slope. It is 4am and it is getting too late. In two hours the outter layer of ice will start to melt and the ice more than hard will be also sleepery. Even ignoring the difficulties of a way back on such a difficult surface I cannot ignore that front of me there are still 300 meters to gain with a slope higher than 50 degrees, no possibility to make a mistake and I got only one ice-axe; I also starts to be tired.
Good sense is taking its place in my mind, I concentrate and take the decision to turn back. Focusing on each single step I start to descent facing front to the ice. Meters after meter I get to "El Corridal" when the sun is rising. I got to the hut at 7.30am. I am very sad for the missed summit but the joy to be back home safe and exactly as I left is bigger than anything.
Today it is a nice day even if the Sun struggles to shine.
# posted by Silvio @ 5:51 PM 
