13 February 2009

Last night (I hope) on the mountain

Tim and Bram were picked up at 9am this morning by the 4WD, taking them to Chimborazo. It's a 2 hr drive, then another hour hiking up to the Whymper refuge at 5000m. That's even higher than the Mt Blanc! They should actually have reached the lodge at this very moment! They'll spend the afternoon resting, eating and acklimatizing. At 23h they'll start the ascent for the summit, which stands at 6397m. Not a very shy altitude...

Like I always do... I did my research and came across some interesting information about this mountain. There are kind of two summits. Only standing some 50m apart. The first one is the easy one to reach, the Veintimilla summit (right). From here you see the other bump, the real summit, Whymper (left) . But in between there's like a pool of snow and if you get to this point too late in the morning, the snow turns into chrystallized sugar (this is apparently a common phenomenen being so close to the equator), and you'll literally sink into your armpits. Some guides will not even tell their clients that there's a second bump. They hate the 'sugar traverse' since it can be extremely tricky and dangerous. Tomorrow we'll find out if they'll manage to go all he way... stay tuned!

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