New blog of mine...

Hey all, if you'd like to follow my newer adventures visit my new blog: www.natberve.wordpress.com ! Natalie

January?

It is days like today that I am so psyched to live in a place that gets sunny 60 degree days in January! And that I get to get scared on East of Eden in the Poudre Canyon, put up by my good friend and mentor Rodney Ley! I led this climb last year, and will be working back up to it soon :)....it just never gets less scary does it? 

Bits & Pieces

The new Blue Sun "Rogue" Gaiters that I tried out on Cotopaxi, they ROCKED by the way, 0 wear and tear so far, and they added a lot of warmth.

sometimes when you have a 5 hr layover in panama, all you have time to do is go to the mall, go figure!

one of our many little hostel rooms! just imagine when we spread out all our (sopping wet) gear in this place--CHAOS!

Quito!

They said it not me...

How many mountaineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One, they just stand there as the world revolves around them :).

Coffee Tree, we spent QUITE a bit of (delicious) time here.

Jose Rivas Hut-- Cocoa time.

seriously, doesn't this just look like a giant pineapple? I couldn't get over it.

More Coffee Tree deliciousness. We ate them straight out of chicken empanadas, guess that is what happens when you order 4 plates in a couple hours..

mama and baby coca (cola...)

 beware, this bus has very finicky storage doors...

finicky storage door = very cranky gringas. not even ice cream could calm them down.

little peak of Banos through the fog.

Back safe and sound!

Well the Escalitas have made it full circle back to Fort Collins! Looking forward to catching up with everyone, uploading some video clips/photos and of course more climbing very soon :)

How we got to Baños

So, as usual our plans have changed approximately 1,000 times in the last few days. After much deliberation, stress and intesity (which this trip has been full of), we have come to the conclusion that the best option for us right now is to relax in Baños. We don´t want to hire a guide, and barely got into Cotopaxi without one...it is apparently very illegal, and, with only 4 days left, we are running out of time! So, we are going to spend our last few days here hanging out at the hot springs, hiking and maybe even renting some bikes.

Ok, so when we decided to go to Baños, we didn´t think it would be super difficult. Just a few bus rides....and it would have been just like that except....when we got off of one bus to catch another bus in the middle of nowhere Ecaudor....the door to the storage under the bus (where our backpacks with all of our mountaineering gear and everything) was STUCK. The bus driver tried to get us to go catch our other bus without our stuff...and we starting swearing and jumped on the bus and refused to leave until they opened the door!!! You DONT mess with a mountaineer and their backpack. We waited impatiently for one hour...got ice cream...another hour....got greasy french fries...and the final hour...we each drank a liter of Pilsener (Beer)...we chatted with local Ecuadorian girls, and watched as the bus repair people tried to clean out a pipe which they thought was blocking the air pressure for the door opening. We asked the local girls if this happened a lot, and they said...¨Yep.¨ damn. Eventually the door popped open and we hopped back on to the next bus stop and to Baños where we found a super funky hostel. What should have taken 4 hours took 10. Welcome to South America ;) Oh, and did we mention that our entire food bag was nabbed right out from under our noses? Guess we wont be enjoying that freeze dried blueberry cheese cake or the mac-n-chez we have been saving; Hope someone is happy!

The decission to let go of the big mountains has not been easy. In a way if feels like we are compromising our original goals by settling for day hikes and Pilseners, but on the other hand this whole trip has been far more than any of us were prepared for. Its hard to justify letting a giude take us up mountains, paying them to make us hot coco and fluff our sleeping bags, when we know its well without our capabilities. However, there are rules that we cannot get around, time we cannot stretch, and emotional exhaustion that has brought us to a stopping point. Its hard, feeling like we trained so hard, and invested so much time and energy into these mountains, and then have to step down. But maybe that is another great lesson in climbing, maybe it all comes back to the quote that became so real to me (Melissa) after Aconcagua: ¨One cannot always reach the summit, or the mountain loses its mystery.¨ These mountains are still so mysterious; but climbable. I am so motivated to head back home and continue to solidify myself as a climber so that next time, I can tackle these mountains with the respect they deserve. So I guess Baños isnt such a compromise; hopefully it will provide a time for reflection and decompression, and a time to smile and enjoy this beautiful country we are in. Up until this point, its been stressful, and hard. I think we are ready to kick back and just be in the moment, with each other, and still be under the watchful eye of the increadible mountains around us.

Illinizas, Here We Come!

Las Escalitas are together once again, and are off to climb Illiniza Norte and Illiniza Sur tomorrow, the 6th and 8th highest peaks in Ecuador. Wish us luck! 

Cotopaxi: take 2.

Well here is the short version; Melissa and I climbed Cotopaxi yesterday!

Here is the long version: after a few minutes of talking about climbing cayambe, mel and I knew we couldnt move on from cotopaxi without one more try. The weather looked good for wednesday night, thursday morning, so we were hopeful to see cotopaxi for the first time!

So we took a rest day, dried out all our stuff and then set off to cotopaxi; we took the metro, the bus and a pickup truck back to the base of the jose rivas hut, and did the 45 minute hike back up to the hut, again. It was super foggy, we saw foxes and this time we packed smart and didnt haul a duffle up (YES!). When we started our climb at midnight, it was clear, but windy (ice was being blown into our faces for about 2 hrs).

first sighting of cotopaxi from the hut

This time we negotiated the crevasses and semi technical ice with ease (we were scared out of our minds the first time!), and moved quickly. As we climbed, the fog rolled in and the wind picked up....one by one we saw the guides turn around with their clients...one even said, ¨it is impossible to summit right now, there is too much wind!¨. But one guide did not turn around, and we didn´t either.

The wind brought ice and snow and I wore my puffy the WHOLE climb. Prussics were iced up, as was my hair, jacket, rope, backpack...and everything else. When we finally got to the headwall there was only one other party that was there who had summitted (they were also unguided...and french). By this time the poor guided dude was totally wasted, and couldnt make it to the summit (he had been puking and slow going for quite some time)

family of foxes on the way to the jose rivas hut

And by the time we summited there was so much fog that we could only see a few feet around us...but we at least knew we were at the top! We rushed down.....exhuasted from the climb and the wind and the cold, collapsed in the hut for a few minutes and then ran down the trail to catch our truck back to the bus that would take us back to quito, where our sister escalita heather was anxiously awaiting our return!

It was a crazy day, but we did it!

We will try to post some pictures when mels camera recovers...although it died almost immediately from the cold so we only have a few pics :)