mitch blog

On the Iliniza Sur:

After we already got shut down on our attempt to climb and ride Cayambe and Cotopaxi because of bad weather and scatchy snow conditions  we were getting a little frustrated. When our local friend and guide Gaspar told us that a  lonely Snowboarder made the summit and did ride down the 5300m high Iliniza Sur
we were all getting excited again and headed up to the Refuge of the Ilinizas.

On the 2 hour hike up to the refuge we met the mysterious Snowboarder,  Clark from Idaho who was probably the first ever to ride the steeps of the iliniza Sur. When he told us that he was having a great powder run our motivation level was rising  higher.

Wake up call at  2:15a.m.- light snowfall and fog – hiking to the base of the glacier – putting on the crampons and roping up – climbing higher.
With all the fog that night the temperature was not dropping as we were hoping and even  we were getting  higher we were still breaking through the mushy snow.

When the steep part  of our climb started we were checking the snow layers – 60 cm of wet snow on a bad layer and a quite big, steep face ahead of us. With our group of seven the risk was too big to keep on going for the summit in this conditions. That was it again!? Frustration!!!

Summary:

One day too late? or two days too early? No weather forecasts, fresh snow every day mixed with crazy temperature changes made it impossible for us to climb and ride the summits of Ecuadors high volcanos.

The local people say that it has way more snow than usually which i thought would be good for us. It felt  like we were always very  close to have an epic run of one of the high summits but it just didnt want to be. The line between good snow to ride and too scatchy snow conditions to get up there is get thinner as higher you climb. Also i must say that this trip did show me that riding on a performence level over 5000m is a very difficult mission! Even if you are well acclimatized  it seems that you never feel 100% fit for freeriding and charging the way you would like to.

Even we were defeated in all three attempts in the last 14 days it was a great experience for me to attend the summits4kids project on both sides: on the one hand  learning about the charity side of the project by visiting the Talita Kumi NGO here in Quito and on the other hand the Ski/Snowboard mountaineering attempts on the high volcanos of Ecuador.  Now it is time for me to go back to the northern hemisphere winter. Thanks to the summits4kids team, specially Giulia and Marja, for setting up this great project.

To find out more about summits4kids and how you could support the Talita Kumi place of refuge for teenage girls and young  mothers who are struggling in the difficult reality of Quito please visit: www.summits4kids.org

Bad weather and a lot of fresh snow was what we had to deal with for the last two weeks of this years summits4kids project. When a little weather window came up we were going for it to climb and ride the 5890m high Cotopaxi.

Here a little clip we did put together to share this experience with you.

To find out more about summits4kids and how you could support the Talita Kumi place of refuge for teenage girls and young  mothers who are struggling in the difficult reality of Quito please visit: www.summits4kids.org

After we got used to the altitude with some hikes in rainy mountains we went up to the Cayambe mountain refuge as a base for our first goal to climb and ride this 5790m high volcano. Already on the way towards the mountain our driver told us that the weather has been really good for the last few weeks and it was not until a few days ago that the rainy season started.
So it was no surprise  that the hike up to the mountain refuge was very wet starting in tropical rain and turning into wet snow as we got closer to the refuge at 4600m.
I was really stoked for the snow as this would at least mean fresh snow for snowboarding here right on the Equator at a 0° lattitude.

all pictures by chris figenshau

0° latitude right on the equator, Giulia Monego, you know the water is spinning the other way when you cross this line and all this funny stuff...

The mountain refuge was a really comfartable place to start our first adventure of specially because the big sleeping room of the mountain refuge was almost empty and we were lucky to have enough wood to dry our wet clothes at the fireplace.

The next day it kept on raining and snowing and so it did the day after. We tried to get a hold of any weather forecast and even got an information send via text message from chamonix,  but the mountaineers were only smyling at us and  explaining again that  it would be impossible to predict any weather at this area. Although we didnt see the sun for the last week we packed up everything to be ready to get up at 1am to check if the weather would be good enough to start our climb.

We had differnt shifts for checking the conditions. At 1am bibi and me were checking: heavy snowfall, 2am Sebastian: snowfall, 3am Jacopo: still snowing. After 3am it was too late anyway to make it to the summit in time for a save descent. When i woke up again at 6am all of  a sudden i got a first view of the glacier.
It took us 20min to get ready and to start climbing with our boards on the back. We knew it was to late to go for the summit but we wanted to go higher up on the glacier to check the snow conditions and to get some turns.

Even the weather was not clear already the early sun covered by clouds was burning our faces. By the time we were bootpacking higher up in knee deep, wet snow the visibility was getting worse again and at about 5200m we decided not to climb any higher and to ride back down to get our first turns on the equator.

when the rain/snowfall stopped for a moment we hiked up towards the glacier

the hike up on the glacier goes quite slow because of all the covered crevasses

cream cheese snow in the white out-snowboarding on the equator

Back at the refuge the weather looked the same as it did for the last days. As a pretty big group we had a hard time to decide if we should stay for another try the next night or better go back to Quito to line up for the next mountain on our plan which we were told usually gets better weather conditions.
Finally  we decided to go back and to start organizing our next mission to climb and ride Cotopaxi.

To find out more about summits4kids and how you could support the Talita Kumi place of refuge for teenage girls and young  mothers who are struggling in the difficult reality of Quito please visit: www.summits4kids.org