Ecuador - January

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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby coldharvest » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:15 am

The fact his handle is that of a mountain leaves much room for these sort of comments.

We should focus on this more.

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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby Woodsman » Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:16 pm

Sounds awesome. Hope you have a great time!
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby ReptilianKittenEater » Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:46 am

Kurt wrote:
ReptilianKittenEater wrote:
I might do Chimborazo


*snicker*


Oh shit should have seen that coming.

M-A, have you climbed in Ecuador, if so which mountians did you climb and did you find any decent guides?
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby marie-angelique » Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:16 am

that was my first and last guided climb, and it was way back in 2001 - we did Antisana - which totally rocked - we had the mountain to ourselves. the outfit was American Alpine Institute.

they had a Canadian guide and a local guide. the Canadian was good, but has since retired from guiding. the local dude was scary.

here's my $0.02 on mountain guides in South America:

the only country in SA with guides i would trust with my life is Peru because they go through the same rigorous training as guides in Europe and Canada (and many of them go to Europe to work).

in Ecuador i would only hire a guide to show me the route and go prepared to take care of all the technical parts of the climb myself (including ensuring the safety of the guide - so bring an extra harness - lol).

there's a 40% chance your climbing partner will get sick and sit it out in the hut. i would just get myself to the hut and hook up with another climber whose partner is sick. odds are they have way more skills than the local guides. if i were going i would hire a cook and a burro driver to take my crap to the hut and cook for me. then hang out a few days and wait for good weather and a climbing partner to show up.

do you have a climbing partner you are going with?

if you are climbing a popular route you are going to be exposed to the grossest 'toilets' on earth. you might bring some cigs to smoke while you do your thing. or bring some wag bags and pack it out! then you can go where you want. watch out around the huts after a fresh layer of snow - it will hide the shallow graves of poop scattered around the hut.

bring eye shades and ear plugs for sleeping attempts in the hut. nothing like being woken up by euro-trash climbers storming the hut late at night.

oh yeah, did Illiniza as a warm up. was actually a nice climb. kind of busy.
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby ReptilianKittenEater » Tue Dec 13, 2011 11:55 pm

Thanks! I heard that Antisana is one mountain where you would need to depend on a good guide or be very experienced yourself. I'm headed down there alone and deciding whether to go alone or pair up.

Last time I went down I just showed up and set something up. I did do Illiniza and thought that was pretty good (only decent weather the whole trip), I was stupid with my acclimitization and spent a few days in Banos before climbing so I had a mild headache.
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby marie-angelique » Wed Dec 14, 2011 3:55 am

Antisana wasn't very technical - if you have basic crevasse rescue skills you will be fine. the route finding is a bit challenging so you could hire anyone with route info and put them in the middle of the rope and be fine :)

i assume since you are canadian you have above average glacier travel skills.

i would recommend it since it is one of the few base camps that is pristine and the climb is gorgeous.

you could just go and put some notes up looking for a climbing partner and hire an outfit for transportation, what they call "guiding", and cooking. i highly recommend hiring a local cook in south america. they are cheap and have access to stoves that will work with the local crappy fuel and it's sooooo nice to not have to worry about that.

post pix when you get back :)
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby svizzerams » Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:11 am

I'll toss in another vote for Cuenca - cool place - go to Cafe Austria for coffee via a yellow Lada taxi. Cafe Eucalyptus is pleasant as well - except when it rains - then the glass ceiling leaks like a sieve - rearranging the tables though can get you in a drip free zone.
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Re: Ecuador - January

Postby babihutan » Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:03 pm

Sounds like fun!
If u have the time/motivation, don't forget to hook up with a shaman in some remote part of the amazon and try the famous ayahuasca ceremony. Buen viaje!
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