Ecuador - Iliniza Norte Volcano

This activity included scrambling (and a bit of solo climbing after I got off route) as well as hiking.

Four of us (Jason, Michele, Juan Manuel and I) departed the Quito Colón Hotel at 6:00 with a hired driver ($150), and drove south through Mihachi, turning off the main highway soon after to drive up a cobblestone (think rough) road to El Chaupi. Fortunately the road was paved closer to the village. After the village it turned to soft dirt and we continued on to La Virgen, the end of the road and our starting point at 7:44 and 4000m.

We hiked up an easy trail, past a few trees, and then angled up a shallow moraine. At the top of that, we intersected a steeper moraine and climbed that to a flat spot where we found a hut (the refugio), nestled between the twin peaks of Iliniza Norte and Iliniza Sur. It was now about 10:00. From the hut we obviously had great views of both peaks, but also of the beautiful Cotopaxi volcano poking its head above low clouds to the east, the lower Rumiñahui volcano in the foreground, and the El Corazón volcano not too far to the north.

Here the trail split, and we chose the north branch and soon began climbing steeply up a ridge line. It was non-stop easy 5th Class scrambling (except for the altitude), and we moved steadily up toward the summit. Just before the south summit, the trail left the ridge line and angled below some steep cliffs to the north end of the mountain. Here we headed up a narrow, steep gully the last 200m to the summit. I got off trail a bit and ended up doing some 5.7-5.8 solo climbing moves on backward-leaning loose blocks of volcanic rock. Not my favourite situation to be in!

Just as we reached the summit at 5141m, clouds moved in, and we heard a boom of thunder. When I touched my hiking pole, and my leg, to a rock, I could feel a burning sensation of static electricity. After a few brief pictures, we got the hell off the summit. Just in time, too, for it started to snow.

We headed straight down the east slope of the mountain, taking advantage of scree slopes that allowed us to drop 200m in the first 15 minutes, and 600m in the first hour. At the bottom of the scree slopes it started to drizzle, then rain, then rain heavily as we rejoined the main trail at the top of the second, steeper moraine, and we were all soaked by the time we got back to the car. But we were still happy!

Notes: the squiggly lines around the 4600m mark are due to poor GPS signal coverage: there were no switchbacks! And the odd-angled lines soon thereafter also are spurious.