Skiing Cotopaxi

I lay awake in my bunk inside of the refugio below 19,334 ft. Cotopaxi. My mind races through all the possible scenarios and I worry about what could happen on the mountain. Other climbers begin to rise around 11:oo pm for their midnight starts. We don't plan to leave the hut until 2:00 am. The noise and the shuffling around of the other climbers would normally bother me, but I can't sleep anyways.

A few minutes after 1:00 am Tor and I rise, dress, and force down a quick breakfast. Our gear had been readied the night before so we can make a quick exit from the refugio. All is quiet and we are the last ones to leave. When we step outside, the sky is clear with only a hint of wind. As we set off, the fears of the night quickly disappear with the uphil progress.

After the initial snow slope we reach the toe of the glacier. We are roped up and weave through and around large crevasses and seracs. Luckily it is dark and we can't see into depths of these large holes. The darkness makes it far less menacing. We continue on and the sun slowly starts to lighten up the eastern sky. As we gain a long broad snow slope we can see the other parties up ahead. It feels good to have caught them and we are given added incentive to continue our good pace and catch them. At the base of a small ice-step we pass the other parties as they take a rest. We think that we will be near the summit once we clear the ice-step, but there is still some vertical to cover before we reach the top. The going is slow at nearly 19,000 ft., take a step and breathe, another step and breathe, and repeat until you must lean your head on your ice axe and take several breaths.

After what seems forever, we crest the summit. A few parties have made it to the top before us. We can see for miles and look down into the huge active volcanic crater that makes up the top of Cotopaxi. We snap a few pictures and get ready for the ski descent.

After getting our skis on we are off, skiing from 19,334 ft. From the summit we weave through the crevasses making steep turns on soft snow. A few hundred feet below the summit we make a few high consequence turns above deep crevasses. A fall here would ruin your day, but by now the worries are gone and I know there is no way I can fall. We soon reach the broad snow slope and the angle eases a bit. We ski down the ridge until we are forced to take off our skis and rope up again to make it through a crevasse field. After the crevasses field we have our skis back on and the angle is so mild we make large turns on the firm snow all the way down to the hut.