Chimborazo Summitted

We made the summit of Chimborazo early Thursday morning (Feb. 24, 2011). The snow conditions were quite challenging....soft and loose (e.g., taking a step up often resulted in the upward bound foot returning to its original position)....unrelentingly steep (e.g., 35%-45% grade the entire way up the ridge to the top)....and the ice axe was rarely helpful (e.g., constantly plunging deep into the snow up to the hilt) and because of this, the ice axe was a constant cause of loosing one's balance and tipping over). In other words, hard work at 18,000 -20,000 feet.

We awoke at 11:00 p.m. after a less than restful sleep in the Chimborazo Mountain Hut and began the climb around 12:00 Midnight when the sky was perfectly clear with an amazing number of visibly bright stars. Somewhere along the way, however, thunder and lightening developed off in the distance...which was enjoyable to watch, but scary because of the possibility it could move in our direction which would have ended our climb (i.e., the guides were pretty clear about the need to terminate summit attempts in the face of a threatening lightning storm). As the climb progressed, and the snow conditions continued to worsen, the weather on Chimborazo began to deteriorate. While the guides didn't say anything, it was clear they were concerned about the possibility of a lighting storm on the mountain and, as a result, picked up the pace as we neared the top. The combination of poor snow conditions for crampons, the onset of nasty weather, an increase in the climbing pace that was in the center of brutal, and all at 20,000 feet made the effort memorable.

The guides know the average time clients typically take to get to the top of the mountain. Also, for each mountain there is a "turn around time." We told the guides to set a pace for the average time, or a time good enough to beat the "turn around time." This request for moderation was primarily because every client had some version of a cold, except for me....I never came down with the dreaded disease for some reason. Despite this "go up slow" request, when we were recovering at the top, the guides told us we were an hour ahead of the average time. I understood the need for speed on this particular day, but going up slower would have been preferred. In the end, it was a massive day climb that was over by 9:30 in the morning....probably before any of my kids crawled out of bed.

Because of the poor conditions, I did not take a lot of pictures....but above are a few, including a rather ambiguous shot of me on top due to the poor visibility.