Trip Reports

Ecuador Volcanoes - 26 Oct to 10 Nov '12

Written by Leader Mungo Ross, November 2012

“Ecuador’s a great trip – all hotels and haciendas, just a couple of nights in mountain huts; a hot shower and a glass of wine with dinner most nights, you just need to be hill-fit before you go since there’s no trekking in anywhere – out the bus, boots on, and it’s full on high altitude mountaineering before getting back on the bus for another lovely meal”.

That’s what I’ve been saying about the Ecuador Volcanoes Expedition to folk who ask what it’s like – and it’s still true, except now with a shortened itinerary it’s pretty non stop travelling and climbing mountains, leaving a memory of five fine volcanoes and not enough of exploring Ecuador! Impossible to win selling trips like these – fill them out with evenings of music, cultural visits, city tours and time to relax (who ever said they are meant to be “holidays” anyway?), and the summit-obsessed market complain about having to take time off work to do what they do when the in-laws come for the weekend (annual membership of the National Trust is good for that): then we go and get a group like this one who all wanted the trip to last longer.

It’s not as if they would have preferred to visit churches and markets, practice their smattering of Spanish or stroll streets of old towns, drink coffee and eat ice cream (or guinea pig) instead of hard climbing – they all wanted to do both. Proof of this is in the statistics; all 5 mountains climbed, two by them all, 3 folk climbing all 5, some folk realising altitude PBs, others stretched the way they wanted to be (some stretched a wee bit too far), all learning a lot and everyone putting in at least as much as got taken out. To climb to very nearly 6000 meters three times in a 14 day round trip is going to be hard for anyone, too much for some, but what an opportunity for finding out what is possible, for pushing personal limits. And that indeed we all did, as individuals and as a group; some digging deep, some testing nerves, some very tired limbs, (some upset tums), some tearful eyes but so many smiley faces. “Chuffed” does not do justice to the sense of achievement for most if not all, “that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done” heard yet again, “knackered” overheard as well.

The conditions on the mountains in Ecuador are a’changing – deglaciation is constantly altering the routes on Cayambe and Cotopaxi, necessitating negotiating steep slopes and huge crevasses; nowhere technically difficult, but requiring a steady head and sure-footedness (thank you everyone for complying with both). Another thing that makes the Ecuador trip so good is our agent Javier and the guides he provides, and thank you to them too – Sebastian especially. The hotels and haciendas are still wonderfully comfortable, you just need a little more stamina to keep on the move, and not fall asleep on the bus to miss any of the landscape passing by. You can always do the jungle or Galapagos or Antisana extensions before or after the volcanoes (several folk did) to make the long journey to South America more worthwhile, or be back at work after only a short break with a long memory of mountain adventure. It’s a great trip, and this one was especially so – thank you Jagged Globe, Javier and group for such a good time.

Mungo Ross, Expedition Leader « Previous report | Next report »

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