Summit Trekking Ecuador - Page 3

Rucu Pichincha (4.696 m)

Today Quito's local mountain, the Rucu Pichincha (4,696 m) awaited us. The cable car took us up to 3,950 m. From Cruz Loma we had a phenomenal view even in light fog of Quito and the surrounding volcanoes - Cotopaxi (5,897 m), Antisana (5,753 m) and Cayambe (5,790 m). For a long time, the route was only slightly uphill through the familiar grassy landscape. It only got steeper before the summit rock, and helmets were required for the first time today, as falling rocks were likely. On narrow rocky paths, where you sometimes had to use your hands, the route climbed steeply up to a long scree field. We could only zigzag our way up because of the extreme incline. At the end, a few more steep rocks and we reached the summit of Rucu Pichincha (4,696 m). We stayed at the top for a while. Striped Caracaras, a beautiful species of falcon, were quite used to the climbers here and ate out of their hands. From time to time we had great views between the clouds.

A few more summit photos, then we started the descent. We took the scree slope like skiers, gliding down quickly on our hiking boots. The only thing we had to watch out for were rolling rocks. When we arrived at the bottom, a minibus ride of several hours to the next mountains, Corazón and Illiniza, awaited us. It was getting dark again. A beautiful little lodge was waiting for us. The electricity had just gone out again, so we only had headlamps to sort our luggage. There was no hot water either, so we had dinner first. The atmosphere was good, but the beer was quite expensive 🙂.

Corazón (4.790 m)

Early, after breakfast, jeeps took us up to 3800 m. The road up was extremely steep and full of holes. When we arrived at the starting point, we crossed the grassy slopes of the beautiful Páramo as usual. Then we reached the rocky, sandy southwest ridge. From here, an increasingly steep, scree sandy path led up the ridge for a long time. The last few meters we had to climb over boulders, sometimes with the help of our hands. In some sections safety ropes were stretched. Today we had to wear helmets and harnesses. The last rocky ascents brought us to the spacious summit. It was foggy and cloudy all the way up, but from time to time the clouds cleared and we were able to see our next destination, along with many other volcanoes, the Illizina Norte. It was a very challenging climb, and the faces on the summit were accordingly happy. The striped caracaras were also hoping for some leftovers from our lunch box 🙂.

The descent was not much faster than the ascent in the rocky climbing section, but our mountain troop accelerated on the ridge. The clouds cleared and we even saw two Andean condors, one of the largest birds of prey, circling in the sky. When we arrived at the starting point, there were still two llamas in the pasture. The jeeps took us back to the lodge. Not much happened there, 2 days of hard mountain hiking only make you tired and hungry. We only used the fireplace for an hour, then we went to bed. The adventure continued tomorrow, but not so early.