Lessons from Cotopaxi

Last weekend, I tried to climb one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Probably not a good idea, but I learned a couple of things from that weekend, and enjoyed some of it! We started off Saturday morning with picking up/sizing our gear, then hiking about an hour up to the refuge we would be staying at. Already tired from that, I had a little break for lunch and settling in, before we climbed up to the snow cap to be trained on how to walk with our crampons (basically spikes that you tie to your boots) and ice picks. I really enjoyed this training, since I can much more easily keep up my endurance if there's something technical to it... probably why I was a hurdler in high school. I got pretty excited after the training, thinking of course I'll make it to the top, if it's all like this! We headed back to the refuge, ate dinner, then tried to sleep from 8 til midnight. Setting out in the dark, we starting climbing. Shortly after that piece of snow cap I enjoyed so much earlier, there was a long stretch of sand and dirt that was pretty hard to climb. Right before a giant incline, I finally had to give up because I was breathing too much and getting light-headed. Looking around, I was in an area I would NOT want to fall! The worst part is probably that my climbing partner, Matt, had to turn around with me since we were tied to the same guide.

First thing I learned, is that obviously I need to prepare more for something like this. To be fair, I found out that a group was going (and needed one more person) two days before it happened. I think I could've done it if I knew, say, a month in advance and could train for it. I tend to make decisions like this pretty impulsively and can easily convince myself it's doable, but hopefully next time I'll be able to turn down something cool if I know I'm not ready for it!

Also, once we got back to the refuge, I had hours to kill and it was too cold to sleep. So I put in my headphones and started listening to the flute concerto I'm working on. And I thought, you know, I could start training a lot, climb a lot of mountains, and become this cool adventure girl because I like volcanos and want to see their craters. Or, I could take the limited free time I have, and keep working on something I'm already good at and have already invested a lot in. I can still enjoy hiking and the like without being really good at it, and should be investing my time in flute, because I love it and am already committed to it!

Enough with the writing, here are some of the pictures I got from the weekend!

Looking down from the refuge...

...and looking up!

Enjoying our last warmth for a while!

Lunch in the refuge... part of having guides is that they cooked for us! It was good, even though I felt nauseas after each meal... probably just the altitude!

Sleeping bags! 

Crampons and ice pick.

Charlie and Allison while we're training!

Aaaand the view from the parking lot.