Day 4-6- Ecuador

In short - our attempt on Cotapaxi was thwarted by an ice storm. But we´re safe and heading to our next mountain...Here´s how it played out in this land of crazy weather...

After a fitfull night sleep due to smoke inhalation from our room´s wood stove I had a bit of a black day.. Very tired. Doubt. Bad mood. I woke with a feeling of impending doom and it lingered for about 24 hours.

Our short hike up to the lovely Cotapaxi climbers refuge at about 15,000 ft. cleared my head a bit and lifted my mood. It appears the weather is following suit with my sporatic moods. After several days of pretty good weather we were required to hike up in a snow storm today.

The wind generally blows from the east6 and the area of the Amazon. Most of the time it does not actually snow above this mountain, rather the moisture blown from the rain forest turns to a viel of snow when it hit the top of the mountain. The direction of the wind partly determines the consistency of the precipitation - ice, rain, or snow.

Ice direction can cerate a cap of ice on the glacier, rain will turn the snow to glue, and snow, well is snow. The speed of the wind will not only affect the condensation but whether we can stay upright on the mountain, or not.

We are slated to head to the summit in about 7 hours. If the weather remains as it is our glacier will either be iced over or become unstable glue ´- in either case our attempt will be thwarted.

But apparently conditions can change from minute to minute as we are experiencing so what we will have in 7 hours is anybodies guess - even our head guide who has summited this mountain over 500 times.

Cotapaxi National Park houses wild horses, alpaca, llama, deer and an intense array of cactus, wildflowers and shrubs that run the spectrum of the rainbow visually. This mix is quite soothing to the eye and the soul. The is a quiet peace in this place despite is juxtoposition to the looming volcano.

Day 6

Up early in the refuge and good byes all around to our newfound friends. We confirmed that we had made the right call after talking to a guy who tried for the summit last night and got turned around after only 45 minutes of climbing. We´re off to Chimborazo to try our hand.
Once again I will be off email for a couple days. Wish us luck.
Best to all! (sorry for all the typos!)
xoxo
terri