Part 2: Chimborazo. Stay for an additional five days to climb the giant 20,703-foot Chimborazo. (Note: You can also add this five-day extension to end of our 10-day Illiniza-Antisana Expedition). Accommodations: lodge, camping, and hotel.

**The dates shown in the column to the left reflect Part 1 and Part 2 combined for each trip date. Please see below for trip dates for Part 1 or Part 2 only.

Many people have said, "this trip has it all." The rewards range from rich cultural experiences, great hikes, and aesthetic landscapes, to excellent food, beautiful haciendas, instruction in glacier climbing skills, an ideal introduction to high altitude climbing, high quality snow and ice climbing, and amazing summit views (from the Amazon Basin to the Pacific lowlands).

In sum, the variety and beauty on this trip are awe-inspiring and the personal rewards are of such variety and depth that this is commonly one of those experiences that people describe as "a trip of a lifetime." You can also absolutely guarantee that categorization if you add on a five to seven-day boat-based journey through the Galapagos Islands after your climbs. Many who have made ascents with us here have enjoyed ending their Andean journey with a few days in that wonderful archipelago off the coast of Ecuador.

Acclimatization:
We take a conservative approach to acclimatization, and the wisdom of our itineraries is seen every year in the safety record of our trips and the tremendous success rate of our climbers. We have been guiding the high altitude peaks of Ecuador since 1977, and the days we allocate to acclimatization are based on our decades of experience. Though in our first trips we allocated nine days for climbing Cayambe and Cotopaxi, for more than two decades we have been climbing on a ten-day itinerary because we found people are much more comfortable at altitude and enjoy a summit success rate slightly over 30% higher than on a nine-day itinerary. You will find other guide services that offer eight and nine-day trips. Our experience tells us that if you subscribed to that pace, you will save a little money and vacation time but cut your summit success rate by 30% - 50%. Climbing at altitude is quite challenging, and it is important to stack the odds for success in your own favor.

Sunrise on the lower glacier of Cayambe.

Quito and Otavalo

The Andes of Ecuador run as two parallel and impressive chains of peaks, rising dramatically from Pacific coastal lowlands on the west and even more abruptly from the Amazon Basin on the east. Our flight into Ecuador gives us a grand view of the entire range as we cross the country's northwest coast and pass just over the Pichinchas - 15,700-foot volcanoes standing right above Quito - then drop down to the capital's airport at 9400 feet. It is an exciting entrance into a spectacular country and beautiful city.

Quito is South America's second highest capital (after La Paz, Bolivia), and its high altitude allows us to begin our acclimatization as soon as we arrive. The city fills a gently sloping valley beneath thirteen to fifteen thousand-foot peaks, and from several points just above Quito it is possible to look up and down the "Avenue of the Volcanoes," as the Ecuadorian tourist industry is fond of calling it, and see most of the country's major summits.

The program begins with climbing team members traveling to Ecuador on a Friday and meeting AAI staff members that evening for an initial program orientation. On our first full day in Ecuador, we drive north, stopping briefly at the Equatorial Monument for photos on the equator, then move on to Otavalo, world-renowned for the excellence of its weavings. Our visit is timed for market day, when the Otavalans come down from their villages in the surrounding mountains to sell their agricultural products, weavings, and sweaters. After a morning of exploration, photography, and shopping in the market, we hike the hills above town and cross through fields and eucalyptus groves as we make our way to a lake for a meal of Otavalan cuisine at a shoreline restaurant.

During our additional time in Quito, AAI staff members continue the program orientation with discussions of the itinerary, high altitude physiology, and a final equipment review and check. We explore Quito, a city of pretty parks and boulevards, grand mansions and embassies, but also a living display of South America's colonial past. Not far from our hotel, cobbled streets with sunken walks spanned by beautiful stone arches wind around, overlooked by buildings of 16th and 17th century Spanish architecture. We also visit the national ethnological museum (which provides a good introduction to the history of Ecuador), several of the city's most interesting colonial churches, and the busy and traditional central market.

Acclimatization Hikes

Our first acclimatization hike is on 13,776-foot Pasochoa, an extinct volcano about twenty miles south of Quito. Its large, eroded crater opens to the west, and its northwest flanks support a forest like those that once covered the entire Quito basin. We establish a very easy pace on this day hike as we begin to get our bodies used to altitudes above 10,000 feet. Our second acclimatization hike is on Guagua Pichincha, and though its summit rises to 15,670 feet, our time in Quito and on Pasochoa make this a good next step for us at altitude. Our primary goal on both of these days is to give our bodies a chance to begin their further adjustment to the altitude while we enjoy some beautiful hiking and outstanding photographic opportunities. These rocky ridges, high grasslands, and summits provide great views of the entire cordillera and an excellent orientation to Ecuador's geography.

Ascent of Cayambe (18,997 ft)

Cayambe is Ecuador's third highest peak. Forty miles northeast of Quito, it stands at 18,997 feet, looking out over Reventador ("The Exploder", one of South America's most consistently active volcanoes) and over the Amazon Basin. Cayambe's glaciers are large and among the most active of all equatorial ice flows, and the varied glacial terrain here provides an excellent training ground and a rewarding summit climb.

Having spent at least seventy-two hours above 9000 feet, group members should be well enough acclimatized to begin sleeping and climbing at greater altitudes. Driving north to the mountain we pass through high, rolling grasslands with wildflowers and occasional herds of sheep and llamas. Leaving paved roads, the track we follow passes several working haciendas, steadily narrows, and becomes more rugged as it climbs higher and higher, finally to reach a point within a half-hour hike of a large stone hut that serves as our base on the slopes of Cayambe at 15,290 feet.

A guide discusses glacier travel skills. Tim Connelly

As we continue our adjustment to the altitude, we spend our first afternoon and the following day in moderate activity on a low section of the glacier where we work on glacier travel skills, protective systems techniques, and the general procedures we will use in our ascents. The route we will take is not technical, but the number and size of the crevasses make the route serious and the route finding and overall climbing very interesting.

Climbing with headlamps, we leave long before dawn in order to have firm snow conditions throughout the ascent. For the first four hours we make an easy glacier climb to a saddle, and then continue onto steeper and more exciting ground. We traverse around large crevasses, many with enormous tropical icicles hanging from their edges, pass some spectacular seracs, and climb 35-degree slopes with occasional and short, steeper sections as we work our way to the crater rim. The final climb to the summit follows a photogenic line along the glaciated edge of the volcano's crater, a fittingly dramatic ending to an ascent that is varied and scenic throughout.

On to Cotopaxi (19,348 ft)

Sunrise on Cotopaxi from Cayambe. Our route follows the S-shaped sunlit snow ridge
below and right of the summit. Melissa Park.

Cotopaxi is the world highest active volcano. It stands in Ecuador's eastern cordillera, towering high above a small altiplano along with three other major peaks within the borders of the beautiful Cotopaxi National Park: Ruminahui (15,602'), Sincholagua (16,360'), and Quilindana (16,134'). Before entering the park, we drive south from Cayambe and stop for a night of rest at a seventeenth-century hacienda, from which we enjoy great mountain views of Illiniza Sur (17,268'), Illiniza Norte (16,861'), and Cotopaxi.

The next morning we leave the fertile and richly green central valley and drive east into Cotopaxi National Park. We travel through pine forests, then through drier and more open country as we ascend a rugged escarpment and finally reach a small altiplano beneath the park's towering summits. As we make our way up to and across the plain, we are fairly likely to get good sightings of wild horses, llamas, and condors. Following a rather remarkable track in our vehicle, we are able to drive to 15,100 feet, and from there, a forty-five minute climb with full packs takes us to the Josa Ribas Hut on Cotopaxi's flank at 15,729 feet.

On summit day, we again leave long before dawn in order to have firm snow conditions. We first climb non-glaciated slopes and then ascend a series of uniform snow and ice ramps of 30 and 35 degrees to reach a glacial platform at 17,000 feet. As dawn approaches, we enjoy one of the most spectacular color displays in the Andes. Almost every morning, the sun rises over a low trail of clouds which drifts in from the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. As the sun moves further above the horizon, we are treated to a magnificent array of colors in the clouds, on the multi-hued soils and rock faces of the parkland, and on the massive glacial slopes of 18,714-foot Antisana, which rises to our north.

We belay across occasional snow bridges, skirt large crevasses, and ascend moderate terrain and occasional short steep slopes towards the huge summit cone. We reach the base of the 400-foot rock wall that is called Yanasacha (which means "black wild place" in Quechua), and to its side encounter a gaping bergschrund at the base of the final glacial slopes that we must climb to reach the summit. We traverse out to the far end of the bergschrund, make an easy descent to its floor, and then return to a point below our original position to reach a climbable section of its upper wall. A belayed ten-foot move on steep ice puts us on the 55-degree face, and from there we belay up some of the most enjoyable snow and ice climbing pitches in Ecuador. The gradient eases off as we reach the crater rim, and from there it is an easy ten-minute climb to Ecuador's second highest summit. From the top we enjoy views of nine major equatorial peaks, the seemingly limitless Amazon Basin to our east, and Cotopaxi's spectacular 1000-foot deep summit crater.

High on Cayambe. Dylan Taylor

Chimborazo is Ecuador's highest peak. It is a massive, five-summited mountain rising nearly 11,000 feet above Ecuador's central valley in the western of the country's two parallel cordillera. It is visible from Colombia in the north, from near the Peruvian border in the south, and from far out on the Pacific Ocean. This is a much more complex volcanic peak than most all others of its type, showing many faces that offer a wide range of challenges to alpine climbers.

Chimborazo