Ecuador: busy summer season comes to an end, next trips in November coming up fast!

Five trips com­plet­ed from April to August this year con­firm that it’s not just the win­ter sea­son that pro­vides excel­lent sum­mit climbs and trekking oppor­tu­ni­ties. Our teams enjoyed some excel­lent climb­ing con­di­tions and weath­er com­bined with the usu­al fick­le weath­er Ecuador some­times affords climbers and trekkers. But, if you missed these trips the tra­di­tion­al Novem­ber-ear­ly March sea­son is com­ing up fast! In the mean­time, read more about our August trip.

Upcom­ing trips:

Ecuador Moun­taineer­ing School
Ecuador Vol­ca­noes
Anti­sana and Illiniza Sur
9‑day Cotopaxi Expe­di­tion
Cotopaxi Trek or Climb

August Ecuador Vol­ca­noes trip: Five climbers, along with MM Guide Gas­par Navar­rete, approached the Ecuador Vol­ca­noes in ear­ly August with hopes of favor­able climb­ing con­di­tions. They were met with extreme winds and unfavroable con­di­tions on some of the peaks that is char­ac­ter­is­tic often of this month, how­ev­er the climbers were able to come away from their adven­ture with some great accom­plish­ments! Their first objec­tive, Cayambe, expe­ri­enced high winds on sum­mit day, keep­ing the climbers a few hun­dred meters short of the summit.

Cayambe. Oscar Amador photo

Oscar Amador photo

An extreme­ly windy day accom­pa­nied the climbers on their sum­mit day of Cotopaxi. Climbers Ben­jamin L. and Kir­si L. reached the 19,348 foot sum­mit while Gas­par and client Oscar A. reached 18,537 feet! Con­grat­u­la­tions to every­one for these won­der­ful accom­plish­ments! The high winds made sum­mit day a very long day for everyone.

Ben, Mar­co and Oscar. Mar­co Lopez photo

The team then trav­elled to Baños and Urbina to rest up before the attempt on Chimb­o­ra­zo. How­ev­er, the con­di­tions on Chimb­o­ra­zo were unfa­vor­able, so Gas­par quick­ly and smooth­ly set up two alter­na­tive options: Illiniza Norte (16,818 feet) or Illiniza Sur (17,267 feet). Climber John C. took to Illiniza Norte while the rest of the group head­ed to Illiniza Sur. The team encoun­tered more wind and cold weath­er, how­ev­er Oscar A. and Ben­jamin L. suc­cess­ful­ly reached the sum­mit of Illiniza Sur over some nice tech­ni­cal ter­rain that was a bobus to the trip for sure! 

Mar­co Lopez photo