P
POB
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I can feel my chest trying to explode. It's only another few meters to go, and I know I can do it, but every part of my body aches. My knees are starting to swell and my head is pounding like it hasn't since my last hangover in UK (about 7 months ago). This is just like the Dome Run in Goose Bay, "Around every flaming corner, there's another flaming hill!"
Every step I take uses energy reserves that I am not sure I have. Breathing though a necessity, is becoming more difficult with every step. To make matters worse it is beginning to rain and hail. I am at 4100 meters and only have another 700 meters or so to go. I had a good high energy breakfast, but seems like hours ago. I need food and I need oxygen. This is hard work, the most difficult climb I have ever done.
Last week a friend and I walked the Quilotoa Loop, no, not walked it, we blitzed it. 4 hours when the guide book says 6. I know I am fit, I know I can do this. We reached about the same altitude, so why is it so difficult this week? I have been running at 2800M for a few weeks now, staying off the beer and generally keeping myself fit. I am ready.
Pride kicks in...There is no way I will not summit today. I will not give in. My ears are ringing now and by my estimates I am at about 4500M. Things are not improving though. Even my teeth hurt. I know, a brief rest. And some energy food. Maybe if I just sit here a while the wind will calm a little, and I can press on. Then a miracle, a break in the wind as I move round to the north west of the volcano. A break in the clouds and the temperature immediately begins to increase. Is that real or induced by altitude...I don't know. I am sweating like mad and have managed to get through 2 litres of water...Better go a bit steady, I only have 3 litres left, and it's still a long way to go.
My chest still feels as if it is about to explode. The pain in my head though is getting really bad. I am hallucinating I think. That looks like the top just there, just past where the track has washed away. Bu99er. I am going to have to get round this somehow, I just don't know how. This is just a training climb though, I have to do Chimboazo and Cotopaxi next weekend. The voice of reason in my head is telling me to give in...My pride, my will to succeed, my bl00dy mindedness will not let me. I will finish this today.
As I round the corner, towards the south side my mobile goes off. WTF??? How does that work up here. It's Anna. The latest love of my life. She wants to meet up for a meal in the new French restaurant in La Mariscal. WTF? I ask myself again. She knows how important this is to me. Why interrupt? Turns out she has decided that I am sensible about these things and as the weather in Quito is so bad there is no way that I will be climbing today...Is there?
Well I am. It starts to rain again and visibility drops to about 10 meters. It is now not funny. And it's starting to get dangerous. OK STOP! Think. If this was just any other ridge walk would you carry on now? If this was The Snowden Horseshoe, would you now be getting back on the bus at Pen Y Pas? Maybe heading into town for a fry up? Would you have taken the Pyg Track back to the car park? The answer is, "Yes." I would.
So that means I have to turn round now. Have to give up the altitude that has been so hard to attain. What do I tell them back down in town? Does it matter?
I know what I will tell them. I will tell them that I was sensible, that the track had washed out three times, and that I will live to do it again. Now all I have to do is get back! The walk down is so much easier. Every step down has air rushing back into my lungs. I am light headed again, not from a lack of oxygen, but from an excess. It is kind of bizarre, the three hours I have taken so far ascending is very quickly seeming stupid. Surely it wasn't that difficult? I meet a couple of Dutch girls on the track. They are so inappropriately dressed I have to ask them what they think they are doing. FFS, trainers and hoodie sweatshirts. They ask if it's far to the summit. "Girls," I say trying to sound condescending, " I have been training for the last few months, I am an experienced and qualified mountain leader, and I have turned back. It is sh!t out there, and dangerous. Don't go. Walk back with me and go up another day." They ignore me, and I take a sneaky picture as they round the corner, hoping against hope that it is not the last ever picture of them, hoping I won't have to pass it on to their parents...
Twenty minutes later I hear them again behind me. Cold and wet...Shivering and rushing to catch up with me. They scared themselves and are rushing back to find me so that we can all walk down together. We near the end of the track but they are suffering from exposure. I can only offer them some food and water but they take it greedily. Only another twenty minutes to the top of the Teleferiqo. Then they can get a cablecar down for the last 1000 meters. I am going to join them. Not because I think I can get anything, be their hero, or even cop a quick grope, but because I am exhausted. I get a signal on my mobile again, and call Anna. She is so relieved to hear my voice again. She says something inappropriate. And I respond. Whoops...
I mention that I am bringing down two girls that are really suffering, and the darling that she is, she organises a taxi from the bottom of the cablecar. We get in and the driver takes us back to town, and the new French restaurant.
Anna hugs me, the girls hug me. Meg and Marcello hug me. They have all been worried about me. WTF? Then I catch a glimpse of myself reflected in the restaurant window. I look terrible. Is it possible that I have lost weight in 5 hours walking? Could I look any worse? Well it seems to me that I couldn't, but it seems to Anna that I could not look better.
Well I failed, but I like to think that I actually passed my own kind of test. I proved that even though I was fatigued beyond belief I was and am capable of making the correct decision. My first ever solo attempt on a 5000 meter peak and I didn't complete it but I am calling it a success.
I am going back this week, but not before Anna and I go to the thermal baths tomorrow morning. I have a very important question to ask her!!!
(Pictures to follow!)
(Thanks to those that have been pestering me by PM to start putting on some of my travel stories, I am hoping that this is just the first of many. LittlePOB sends his best and will be completing his own version of events later...)
Every step I take uses energy reserves that I am not sure I have. Breathing though a necessity, is becoming more difficult with every step. To make matters worse it is beginning to rain and hail. I am at 4100 meters and only have another 700 meters or so to go. I had a good high energy breakfast, but seems like hours ago. I need food and I need oxygen. This is hard work, the most difficult climb I have ever done.
Last week a friend and I walked the Quilotoa Loop, no, not walked it, we blitzed it. 4 hours when the guide book says 6. I know I am fit, I know I can do this. We reached about the same altitude, so why is it so difficult this week? I have been running at 2800M for a few weeks now, staying off the beer and generally keeping myself fit. I am ready.
Pride kicks in...There is no way I will not summit today. I will not give in. My ears are ringing now and by my estimates I am at about 4500M. Things are not improving though. Even my teeth hurt. I know, a brief rest. And some energy food. Maybe if I just sit here a while the wind will calm a little, and I can press on. Then a miracle, a break in the wind as I move round to the north west of the volcano. A break in the clouds and the temperature immediately begins to increase. Is that real or induced by altitude...I don't know. I am sweating like mad and have managed to get through 2 litres of water...Better go a bit steady, I only have 3 litres left, and it's still a long way to go.
My chest still feels as if it is about to explode. The pain in my head though is getting really bad. I am hallucinating I think. That looks like the top just there, just past where the track has washed away. Bu99er. I am going to have to get round this somehow, I just don't know how. This is just a training climb though, I have to do Chimboazo and Cotopaxi next weekend. The voice of reason in my head is telling me to give in...My pride, my will to succeed, my bl00dy mindedness will not let me. I will finish this today.
As I round the corner, towards the south side my mobile goes off. WTF??? How does that work up here. It's Anna. The latest love of my life. She wants to meet up for a meal in the new French restaurant in La Mariscal. WTF? I ask myself again. She knows how important this is to me. Why interrupt? Turns out she has decided that I am sensible about these things and as the weather in Quito is so bad there is no way that I will be climbing today...Is there?
Well I am. It starts to rain again and visibility drops to about 10 meters. It is now not funny. And it's starting to get dangerous. OK STOP! Think. If this was just any other ridge walk would you carry on now? If this was The Snowden Horseshoe, would you now be getting back on the bus at Pen Y Pas? Maybe heading into town for a fry up? Would you have taken the Pyg Track back to the car park? The answer is, "Yes." I would.
So that means I have to turn round now. Have to give up the altitude that has been so hard to attain. What do I tell them back down in town? Does it matter?
I know what I will tell them. I will tell them that I was sensible, that the track had washed out three times, and that I will live to do it again. Now all I have to do is get back! The walk down is so much easier. Every step down has air rushing back into my lungs. I am light headed again, not from a lack of oxygen, but from an excess. It is kind of bizarre, the three hours I have taken so far ascending is very quickly seeming stupid. Surely it wasn't that difficult? I meet a couple of Dutch girls on the track. They are so inappropriately dressed I have to ask them what they think they are doing. FFS, trainers and hoodie sweatshirts. They ask if it's far to the summit. "Girls," I say trying to sound condescending, " I have been training for the last few months, I am an experienced and qualified mountain leader, and I have turned back. It is sh!t out there, and dangerous. Don't go. Walk back with me and go up another day." They ignore me, and I take a sneaky picture as they round the corner, hoping against hope that it is not the last ever picture of them, hoping I won't have to pass it on to their parents...
Twenty minutes later I hear them again behind me. Cold and wet...Shivering and rushing to catch up with me. They scared themselves and are rushing back to find me so that we can all walk down together. We near the end of the track but they are suffering from exposure. I can only offer them some food and water but they take it greedily. Only another twenty minutes to the top of the Teleferiqo. Then they can get a cablecar down for the last 1000 meters. I am going to join them. Not because I think I can get anything, be their hero, or even cop a quick grope, but because I am exhausted. I get a signal on my mobile again, and call Anna. She is so relieved to hear my voice again. She says something inappropriate. And I respond. Whoops...
I mention that I am bringing down two girls that are really suffering, and the darling that she is, she organises a taxi from the bottom of the cablecar. We get in and the driver takes us back to town, and the new French restaurant.
Anna hugs me, the girls hug me. Meg and Marcello hug me. They have all been worried about me. WTF? Then I catch a glimpse of myself reflected in the restaurant window. I look terrible. Is it possible that I have lost weight in 5 hours walking? Could I look any worse? Well it seems to me that I couldn't, but it seems to Anna that I could not look better.
Well I failed, but I like to think that I actually passed my own kind of test. I proved that even though I was fatigued beyond belief I was and am capable of making the correct decision. My first ever solo attempt on a 5000 meter peak and I didn't complete it but I am calling it a success.
I am going back this week, but not before Anna and I go to the thermal baths tomorrow morning. I have a very important question to ask her!!!
(Pictures to follow!)
(Thanks to those that have been pestering me by PM to start putting on some of my travel stories, I am hoping that this is just the first of many. LittlePOB sends his best and will be completing his own version of events later...)
Last edited:
DT_Xtremez_28: