Cotopaxi Team Reaches Illiniza Norte

Joshua sends in a new update from the Ecuador team after a suc­cess­ful sum­mit on their sec­ond objective. 

Illiniza Norte. Joshua Jar­rin photo

“I am glad to inform you that we reached the top of Illiniza Norte yes­ter­day, reach­ing our sec­ond goal of the pro­gram. After we drove into the Nation­al Reserve the day before, we hiked for almost four hours to the ​“Nuevos Hor­i­zontes” hut. We had hired mules to move our load to this hut. On Wednes­day we woke up ear­ly (5 am) try­ing to take advan­tage of the clear weath­er of the morn­ing and head­ed north­west towards the north peak of the Illinizas. We had to deal with some snow patch­es plus a high scram­bling in the last part before we reached the sum­mit at 9:45 am. I had arranged for a dif­fer­ent route for the descent to take us down the north face of the moun­tain. We were back in the car by 1:15 pm, where our ​“arriero” was wait­ing for us with the rest of our luggage.

Beau­ti­ful sun­rise on Illiniza Norte. Joshua Jar­rin photo

“Now we are head­ing east to Cotopaxi Nation­al Park. The idea is to rest in Tam­bopaxi lodge this after­noon, recov­er and restore our strength for our next goal, Cotopaxi! The sum­mit push will be fri­day night. We can’t wait!”

~ MM Guide Joshua Jarrin

Joe, John and Ter­ry on the sum­mit of Illiniza Norte!