Cotoapaxi
On Dec. 9th I left Bozeman and my beloved Hyalite Canyon for a ten day trip to one of my favorite South American mountains. Having been away from Ecuador for more than five years, my memory of Cotopaxi was as rusted over as my grasp of the Spanish language. Landing in Quito, Ecuador’s sprawling capitol, it took no more than two cab drivers hustling me for fares to plug back into the basics of “No Gracias”. They say that immersion is the quickest way to learn, relearn or go up in flames when attempting to absorb a new language, with the light bulb quickly lighting up on this front, I hoped my brain would do the same adjusting to altitude which would eventually reach 19,348 feet. Luckily it did.
From the get go, the nine guys signed up to climb Cotopaxi with Rainier Mountaineering Inc, were on the ball. Everyone was seasoned in international travel, good hygiene and perfect spanglish. Two days of acclimatizing around Quito prepared the team for our relocation to the Cotopaxi hut at 15,800ft which is the launching pad for the long summit day which for us took over 12 hours round trip.
The entire team of 9 climbers and 3 guides departed the hut a O-dark-thirty (12.30am) confident we all could reach the top. It is a rare occurrence with groups of this size to gel as well as this team did. With difficult snow conditions on the route, the altitude took a greater toll than was expected. Through drive heaves, bodily function near misses, penetrating cold and eye crossing exhaustion, all twelve of us prevailed, reaching the summit 7.5 hrs after leaving the hut. (see RMI’s website for images of the team’s summit) It was a fantastic climb I felt lucky to be a part of.
Once back in Quito, a fiesta of fiestas ensued. With no sleep had the night before our departure at 6am the following morning, the trip back home was unpleasantly long. Ahh, but so worth it!
Thanks to the four Mikes, two Bills, Uncle Chuck, Senor James and Mr. Scott for the great journey. I hope we meet again.
Adam Knoff 
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