Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: June 2003
Not well acclamatized and climbing solo. Ran into storm, 2m visibility, happy didn't fall into cravesses. Started at 12am and aborted around 2am around 5000m.
dope climb. thanks gio (representin oakland) and diego "vamos a la playa" castillo for draggin' my a** up. we left the refugio after not sleeping a wink just after midnight and summited around 8:00 am. mad altitude sickness, but made it paso a pasito up the ill 50-60 degree slope at the end. spectacular views from the top, but i think the martian landscape and all of ecuador laid out before you in the moonlight was the dopest. then when you come back down in the light you're like "what the **** did i just climb up?"
Route Climbed: via normale Date Climbed: some time in 1997
Hooked up with a random german guy called Steffen in Quito. Wore jeans and a silk shirt (plus some other stuff, naturally) on summit day. Had to retreat from somewhere quite near the top when a storm swept in and visibility got bad.
After a going back because of bad snow conditions and too much wind on Dec. 20, 2003, we returned to Cotopaxi on Jan. 2, 2004. It was a clear night with a little bit of wind.
The summit was without clouds but when we finally reached it, the crater was coverd with clouds.
Finally I reached the Cotopaxi summit in my 4th try. It was great!!!
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: November 16, 2002
I climbed this mountain with Peter, from Sweden. He had never done any mountaineering before, but managed to summit. It was very crowded that day and we started out as the last group from the refuge. We passed more groups than I could count. The weather started out nice and became really windy and then visibility dropped to about 10 feet. This made the last steep section very hard. Our group and only one other group managed to summit that day. It is a great climb. I highly reccommend it. The picture is of Peter at the summit. Obviously a bit tired! You can see how bad the visibility was. I wish I would have been able to see into the crater or the view. I guess I'll just have to go back.
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: December 22, 2003
Climbed to the summit in 5 hours from the hut with Paul Hudson, arriving on top at 6:30AM. Perfect summit day - clear skies and not too cold. All of the other volcanoes were visible from the summit. The glacier was very complex and would be difficult to navigate with no track. The final 300m to the summit were a beast. Strong smell of sulfur near the summit. Definitely a beautiful mountain.
Route Climbed: Normal route Date Climbed: october 13-14, 2003
Started to climb at 1.00 am. After climbing Misti and Chachani in Peru, I was well acclimatised. Despite the fact that I had no altitude problems, I had to slow down. The weather conditions were fine (good visibility, no wind). The last 200 altimeters are more steep. Reached the summit in 6,5 hours together with my guide Raul (agency: Julio Verne). Nice views on the crater and my next peak (Chimborazo).
On the way down we moved fast (sometimes taking a short cut jumping across a crevasse). Reached the refugio without any problems.
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: August 2003
I climbed Cotopaxi by the normal route. The ice started about 5100 metres high. The glacier was very icy and it was dificult to find the track because there wasn´t snow in this part of the way. It's better to have a guide before you to find the correct way. You can find in the descent some hidden holes in the snow. If you go with a guide you have to be careful: they want to climb quickly, and some of them don't want to get the top.
Route Climbed: South Route and Normal Route Date Climbed: April, 2002
The south route was nice but no better than the north side (normal route). We had to turn around because of an inmense crevease that blocked the route.
On the normal route 2 of the 6 of my group reached the summit. I got sick and turn around at 5.700 m.
Going there again in December 2003 and going down on skis!!!
Jerry L - Mar 6, 2003 4:49 am Date Climbed: Feb 8, 1976
Normal Route / February, 1976 & February, 2003
My first attempt was on February 8, 1976 when I was working there with the Peace Corps. We made it to 17,000' and turned back. I'd forgot about this but was looking through some of my old letters and found several references to our failed attempt.
My next attempt was with my son in February, 2003. We left the refuge at about 1:00 a.m. The weather was terrible with sleet and high winds. It was evident that I had not completely recovered from a virus which I had several days earlier and I felt very weak. I decided to turn around at about 16,500' , short of the glaciers, as I knew I didn't have the energy to summit. My son made it to the glaciers with our guide and then they turned back.
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 15-16 February 2003
Bad luck with the weather as 20 people summited the day we arrived at the hut followed by7-8 inches of snow. We attempted to summit on both days following with both attempts ending around 19,000 due to the avalanche conditions. Tons of other parties climbing with the same results. The day after we left the weather improved and several teams made the summit. It just wasn't my trip.
we camped just to the right of the hut; too cheep to pay to stay. sumit took 5.5 hours. wicked weather. visibility was about 5m at best. covered in ice. no view at the summit but I still love the summit pic.
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: December 30, 2002
Once we finished our acclimatization on two Illinizas we moved to Mt. Cotopaxi. From the base camp our team started to climb at around 2:30 am. It was a short hike to a glassier. Being in the dark we did not see the path. So i decided to go vertically up on the glassier. After 3 vertical meters the glassier become less steep. We roped up and continue to climb. Finally i saw a group of German alpinists ahead of us. I followoed there path and finally we were on the right trail. Some of our member was not acclimatized well. Thus they could not keep up with the tempo. At around 6:00 am i decide to continue summit "SOLO". Once i get out of rope i started to move up much more faster. At 9:00 am i reached the summit. I spent there about and hour, and then came back to the base camp. Unfortunatly i had to come back when the sun was way up. Thus it was enormous heat. I ran out of water, which forced me to eat snow. I return to camp safe, however i have to sdmit it was quite a stranious walk for a total of 9 hours
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: January 11 2003
With my wife Annica Carlsson, I summited the Cotopaxi at about 7:30 AM, after about 6.5 hours. We had light rain and ice showers at the beginning of the climb, and higher on the mountain we had strong wind. We could not see the crater! Once down at the Cotopaxi refuge the mountain was absolutely clear-typical....
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 30 September 2002
Hiked to Cotopaxi in a couple of days after acclimatisation climb of Iliniza Norte, going through El Boliche entrance to national park from El Chaupi.
Left Jose Rivas refuge at 1am and reached summit at 5.30am, so hung around there for 30 minutes to get pictures of sunrise. Back at refuge at 8am. The only difficulties I found were making sure you pick the right entry point to the glacier to get the path to the top (follow a guided party if unsure - I reccied this the day before the climb) and the last crevasse before the summit. This crevasse used to have a metal bridge, but there is now a narrow snow bridge immediately followed by a short steep pitch where care is needed (especially on the descent).
Fantastic views from the top (and indeed on the way up, due to clear starry night with half moon).
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 1 August 2002
Nice climb, no real technical difficulties. beware of numerous crevasses. approx. Alpine PD+
Acclimatise well and wait for the weather. The sound of the wind inside the hut can be demoralising but it's worth going up to the top the scree and reassess conditions.
Engendradodelayuca - Apr 19, 2004 7:33 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: Julio 2001LLegamos a la cumbrebastante temprano(5:30 am)Bastante frio, muy nublado pero bueno. La cumbre fue junto con René MOntero.
roadsidefire - Apr 14, 2004 4:15 am
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: June 2003Not well acclamatized and climbing solo. Ran into storm, 2m visibility, happy didn't fall into cravesses. Started at 12am and aborted around 2am around 5000m.
mookyee - Mar 9, 2004 1:08 am
Route Climbed: normal Date Climbed: july 17, 2002dope climb. thanks gio (representin oakland) and diego "vamos a la playa" castillo for draggin' my a** up. we left the refugio after not sleeping a wink just after midnight and summited around 8:00 am. mad altitude sickness, but made it paso a pasito up the ill 50-60 degree slope at the end. spectacular views from the top, but i think the martian landscape and all of ecuador laid out before you in the moonlight was the dopest. then when you come back down in the light you're like "what the **** did i just climb up?"
Dan Bailey - Feb 10, 2004 12:15 pm
Route Climbed: via normale Date Climbed: some time in 1997Hooked up with a random german guy called Steffen in Quito. Wore jeans and a silk shirt (plus some other stuff, naturally) on summit day. Had to retreat from somewhere quite near the top when a storm swept in and visibility got bad.
Miguel Angel Perez - Jan 24, 2004 4:33 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: Jan. 02, 2004After a going back because of bad snow conditions and too much wind on Dec. 20, 2003, we returned to Cotopaxi on Jan. 2, 2004. It was a clear night with a little bit of wind.
The summit was without clouds but when we finally reached it, the crater was coverd with clouds.
Finally I reached the Cotopaxi summit in my 4th try. It was great!!!
mtnfoto - Jan 20, 2004 7:01 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: February 1993Straightforward climb, good weather.
edouet - Jan 7, 2004 12:36 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: Dec 07 and 14, 2003Climbed Cotopaxi 2 times in 7 days, just to be sure to take good pictures of everything !
Wonderful trek through ice and crevasses; much more snow on Dec 14, making way down dangerous .
6 hours on the way up from the hut, 1.5 hour on the way down .
I climbed with Uli from Austria and her guide Pato Salazar on Dec 07 ( my guide J. Mesias had to go back with the other client of our party ) .
I climbed with Craig Vieth from the USA and his guide Jacobo on Dec 14 ( my guide Flavio had to go back with the other client of our party )!!!!
Thanks to all these people for helping me to climb this fantastic mountain .
Viva Ecuador !
Drifter - Dec 27, 2003 12:45 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: November 16, 2002I climbed this mountain with Peter, from Sweden. He had never done any mountaineering before, but managed to summit. It was very crowded that day and we started out as the last group from the refuge. We passed more groups than I could count. The weather started out nice and became really windy and then visibility dropped to about 10 feet. This made the last steep section very hard. Our group and only one other group managed to summit that day. It is a great climb. I highly reccommend it. The picture is of Peter at the summit. Obviously a bit tired! You can see how bad the visibility was. I wish I would have been able to see into the crater or the view. I guess I'll just have to go back.
Tom Fralich - Dec 22, 2003 8:02 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: December 22, 2003Climbed to the summit in 5 hours from the hut with Paul Hudson, arriving on top at 6:30AM. Perfect summit day - clear skies and not too cold. All of the other volcanoes were visible from the summit. The glacier was very complex and would be difficult to navigate with no track. The final 300m to the summit were a beast. Strong smell of sulfur near the summit. Definitely a beautiful mountain.
Rockhopper - Oct 22, 2003 4:29 am
Route Climbed: Normal route Date Climbed: october 13-14, 2003Started to climb at 1.00 am. After climbing Misti and Chachani in Peru, I was well acclimatised. Despite the fact that I had no altitude problems, I had to slow down. The weather conditions were fine (good visibility, no wind). The last 200 altimeters are more steep. Reached the summit in 6,5 hours together with my guide Raul (agency: Julio Verne). Nice views on the crater and my next peak (Chimborazo).
On the way down we moved fast (sometimes taking a short cut jumping across a crevasse). Reached the refugio without any problems.
Tomás Blázquez - Oct 18, 2003 4:45 pm
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: August 2003I climbed Cotopaxi by the normal route. The ice started about 5100 metres high. The glacier was very icy and it was dificult to find the track because there wasn´t snow in this part of the way. It's better to have a guide before you to find the correct way. You can find in the descent some hidden holes in the snow. If you go with a guide you have to be careful: they want to climb quickly, and some of them don't want to get the top.
Tomás Blázquez, Madrid, Spain
Miguel Angel Perez - Aug 22, 2003 11:08 am
Route Climbed: South Route and Normal Route Date Climbed: April, 2002The south route was nice but no better than the north side (normal route). We had to turn around because of an inmense crevease that blocked the route.
On the normal route 2 of the 6 of my group reached the summit. I got sick and turn around at 5.700 m.
Going there again in December 2003 and going down on skis!!!
Jerry L - Mar 6, 2003 4:49 am Date Climbed: Feb 8, 1976
Normal Route / February, 1976 & February, 2003My first attempt was on February 8, 1976 when I was working there with the Peace Corps. We made it to 17,000' and turned back. I'd forgot about this but was looking through some of my old letters and found several references to our failed attempt.
My next attempt was with my son in February, 2003. We left the refuge at about 1:00 a.m. The weather was terrible with sleet and high winds. It was evident that I had not completely recovered from a virus which I had several days earlier and I felt very weak. I decided to turn around at about 16,500' , short of the glaciers, as I knew I didn't have the energy to summit. My son made it to the glaciers with our guide and then they turned back.
miztflip - Feb 25, 2003 9:20 am
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 15-16 February 2003Bad luck with the weather as 20 people summited the day we arrived at the hut followed by7-8 inches of snow. We attempted to summit on both days following with both attempts ending around 19,000 due to the avalanche conditions. Tons of other parties climbing with the same results. The day after we left the weather improved and several teams made the summit. It just wasn't my trip.
tonybell1 - Feb 23, 2003 8:12 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: January 16, 2003Good weather and great snow conditions
mtnman455 - Jan 30, 2003 11:42 pm
Route Climbed: normal Date Climbed: January 2003we camped just to the right of the hut; too cheep to pay to stay. sumit took 5.5 hours. wicked weather. visibility was about 5m at best. covered in ice. no view at the summit but I still love the summit pic.
Zhenya77 - Jan 23, 2003 7:56 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: December 30, 2002Once we finished our acclimatization on two Illinizas we moved to Mt. Cotopaxi. From the base camp our team started to climb at around 2:30 am. It was a short hike to a glassier. Being in the dark we did not see the path. So i decided to go vertically up on the glassier. After 3 vertical meters the glassier become less steep. We roped up and continue to climb. Finally i saw a group of German alpinists ahead of us. I followoed there path and finally we were on the right trail. Some of our member was not acclimatized well. Thus they could not keep up with the tempo. At around 6:00 am i decide to continue summit "SOLO". Once i get out of rope i started to move up much more faster. At 9:00 am i reached the summit. I spent there about and hour, and then came back to the base camp. Unfortunatly i had to come back when the sun was way up. Thus it was enormous heat. I ran out of water, which forced me to eat snow. I return to camp safe, however i have to sdmit it was quite a stranious walk for a total of 9 hours
El Tigre Valderrama - Jan 11, 2003 2:39 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: January 11 2003With my wife Annica Carlsson, I summited the Cotopaxi at about 7:30 AM, after about 6.5 hours. We had light rain and ice showers at the beginning of the climb, and higher on the mountain we had strong wind. We could not see the crater! Once down at the Cotopaxi refuge the mountain was absolutely clear-typical....
philtower - Oct 1, 2002 1:41 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 30 September 2002Hiked to Cotopaxi in a couple of days after acclimatisation climb of Iliniza Norte, going through El Boliche entrance to national park from El Chaupi.
Left Jose Rivas refuge at 1am and reached summit at 5.30am, so hung around there for 30 minutes to get pictures of sunrise. Back at refuge at 8am. The only difficulties I found were making sure you pick the right entry point to the glacier to get the path to the top (follow a guided party if unsure - I reccied this the day before the climb) and the last crevasse before the summit. This crevasse used to have a metal bridge, but there is now a narrow snow bridge immediately followed by a short steep pitch where care is needed (especially on the descent).
Fantastic views from the top (and indeed on the way up, due to clear starry night with half moon).
chi - Sep 16, 2002 8:04 am
Route Climbed: Normal Route Date Climbed: 1 August 2002Nice climb, no real technical difficulties. beware of numerous crevasses. approx. Alpine PD+
Acclimatise well and wait for the weather. The sound of the wind inside the hut can be demoralising but it's worth going up to the top the scree and reassess conditions.