Pichincha, Ecuador - Climbing in the Clouds
Pichincha is located adjacent to the capitol city of Quito in Ecuador and is easily viewed from anywhere in the northern half of the city. It is a series of peaks with two main summits "Rucu" and "Guagua" at a summit elevation of 15,724'. I originally signed on for an Ecuadorian expedition to climb glaciated volcano's. However, to climb 20,000' volcano's one must take care to acclimatize to prevent AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) which can lead to HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema) and HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema) - both of which are the deadly. So to my surprise and delight we were informed by our guides that we would be climbing Pichincha and not taking the normal trekking route. According to the owner of the Ecuadorian Alpine Institute..."these people have skills".
Our expedition included a couple from Colorado Springs - Colleen and Andy; a pair from Singapore - Tengren and Guy Chuan (attending U of Chicago); an Indian college student from the U of Texas - Raghu; a German linguist studying Spanish in Quito - Marko; our two guides from Ecuador Wilson and Hugo; and myself a middle aged Realtor from the mountains of Arizona.
An enjoyable part about climbing in Ecuador is easy access to high mountains/volcanos. Quito itself is at 10,000' nestled in a valley known as the Avenue of the Volcanos. The climber/trekker does not have to spend days approaching these huge mountains on foot or mule, most of the mountains are accessible by 4WD vehicle. This is also the case with Pichincha, a pleasant 20 minute "paved" drive from our hostel to the trail head. The trail head is actually a car park for a large amusement park built on the side of the mountain and is home to the "Telefrinko" - a tramway to the base of Pichincha. It felt a little weird standing in line with all of your gear in your pack with a helmet lashed onto it waiting to catch a tram to climb a mountain. The ten minute tram ride took us up a couple thousand feet to the base of the mountain and drooped us off in an ecosystem know in Ecuador as "paramo". We would consider it high grassy plains with a few bushes but no trees, I would estimate the elevation to be around 12,500'.
Typical Ecuadorian weather during December is cloudy, with more clouds in the forecast. This is the best time of year to climb, since we are on the equator and once the sun is shining conditions change very rapidly - especially on glaciated peaks. So as we made our way up the trail towards the base of Pichincha we were very occasionally greeted by clouds parting and a breathtaking 5 second view of the landscape below. Our gear for this trip was very limited, this was a rock climb, so all we carried was a harness, helmet, carbiners, rope, water, shell jackets and a backpack. Our route to climb Pichincha was very straight forward - we were going to traverse across all of the sister peaks from south to north until we summitted. The normal route is to trek alongside, (1/4 mile north or so), the traverse route as an approach and then scramble and claw up a sandy scree slope to the summit, the normal route is non-technical.
Our first pitch was a up a backbone to gain access to the top portion of the mountain. Rather than belay, we fixed ropes and utilized prussiks (a type of rope ascender) to secure ourselves to the line safely. The rock itself was much different than what I was accustomed too, a flaky granite with lichen, which made footing a bit tricky. It was also very wet, which meant foot placement had to be exact and not regional. Often I would test a hold before committing to the move. As we gained elevation the thick clouds seemed to hang around our bodies, on occasion we were offered glimpses of the peaks we were to climb in short order. The first few hours entailed moderate 5.3 shimmies and cracks utilizing top belays for protection, along with rock scrambles on coiled ropes.
I enjoyed this mountain since the next pitch was always uncertain, you really couldn't see more than 20' due to the dense cloud cover. We bagged and down climbed 4 "false summits" before we started rappelling off the mountain versus down climbing. One particular rappel was quite technical, it involved rapping down a knife edge, then swinging off the edge to rapp down another 20' with a nice 10' pendulum swing at the bottom to terra firma. I was the lucky one to begin this rappel sequence and yelled instructions to my team mates above as they descended, as I was the only one able to view the entire sequence from below. We did have one close call when one of our teammates lost footing and slammed into the mountain on a full pendulum. At first I thought there may have been a broken rib, but thankfully only the wind was knocked out of him - along with a good scare, there was 1000' of air below him.
Finally, we were getting glimpses of the main summit at 15,724' from below. Our summit approach was on coiled ropes with a few scrambles in between. The summit ridge was relatively flat and we could release our carabiners to go off rope and relax with fluids and a bite to eat. There were two cruxes that brought the difficulty rating up to a 5.5. The entire ascent of Pichincha took a little over 6 hours, an excellent warm up. Our descent was via the normal route with some seriously fun "sand scree skiing" for around 500'. The technique is to jump forward down the mountain, land on your heels, ride the sand scree for what it's worth and balance with ski poles. Our backtrack to the "Telefrinko" tramway took a little over two hours and we were the last group off the mountain. To my delight I was able to purchase a liter of "Pilsner" beer (Ecuadorian national beer) at the top to sip and enjoy in the warmth of the tram car on my way back down through the clouds.
Many thanks to the Ecuadorian Alpine Institute www.volcanoclimbing.com for presenting our team with a fantastic acclimatizing climb at the beginning of our expedition. Ramiro Donoso the owner/director of the institute provided us with two extremely competent guides in Wilson and Hugo - both of which continued to prove themselves with knowledge and experience over the coming weeks on the steep glaciers of Ecuador's volcanos.
On Belay - Krugie
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