Illiniza Norte, Climb #2

Best part of the climb-rocks!

View of next door-Illiniza Sur (glaciated/more technical)

View of Corazon in the distance

Nuevos Horizontes Refugio/Hut (15,600') which sits in the saddle between Illiniza Norte and Illiniza Sur, which was at one time the same volcano.

This view is taken from the door and shows the entire hut minus a large picnic table out of view.  The man on the right is in the "kitchen" area where the stove/shelves are.

Double and triple bunkbeds, coed of course.  2 toilets outside, bring your headlamp and some toilet paper!

Illiniza Sur

Cotopaxi as seen from the summit of Illiniza Norte

                                                     Taking a break above the clouds

                                          

                                                                   Cotopaxi in the distance

                               The entire team summited Illiniza Norte this morning, elevation 16, 818'
                                                     (see earlier post on mountains details)

Yesterday we had an "easy" day of 3 hours and 2,000 feet + (2500 'possibly?) elevation gain through the paramo up to the refugio/hut at 15,600 feet. The ascent up the last part of the scree slope was painfully steep and I was slower than ever. I think the clouds and the mist hiding the steep ridge in front of me was beneficial to my psyche.The hut is just that, a basic hut with bunk beds that sleep about a dozen people, a stove area to cook, and a table to eat at. Hikers must bring up all food/water themselves or hire horses to do that (what we did). The hut has 2 outdoor toilets and sure enough, it snowed last night making the middle of the night trips slushy. Ossy's friend Eduardo accompanied us up to the hut today and was a fun addition to the group.  Eduardo studied at  Colorado State University and speaks English very well.  He also has a knack for DJing, manning the ipod music mix to everyone's liking on the portable speakers he brought with to the hut. Dinner was--steak! My favorite part of meal time is usually the soup as it helps me hydrate and is nice and salty. I mustve had 5 cups of hot gatorade and hot chocolate as well.  The meal looked beautiful and although I can't eat much meat< I ate what I could.
Most people have a hard time sleeping at altitude. As you lay down, your heart races and your body does funny things almost evoking a panic of sorts with intermittent gasps in your breathing. Sleep, if any, is restless.  I managed about 3 hours total,  in 15 minute increments --in between getting up to go to the bathroom and listening to others roll over in their sleeping bags and wobble the bunk beds. My sleeping bag was so warm I actually unzipped it and left it open for part of the night. I slept with my head propped up on a stuff sack and my ipod on repeat on the "sleepyhead" playlist. I don't take ambien above 12,000 feet so my usually fitful sleep is even worse with rebound insomnia.  At least on this trip I knew this in advance and just sort of made peace with the fact I'd have very little sleep for several days in a row. I'm happy for daylight, it tricks my body into go- mode, discarding the previous night's restlessness to a degree.
 We woke at 5am to a thin dusting of snow. We were on the trail by 6:15am. It was slightly slippery but not too bad. I was slow as usual but managed to somewhat stay with the group and the other guide Pablo. I prefer to keep my heart rate a steady high instead of gasping like others do at times when it pounds out of your chest with increased exertion. But that makes me slower and it sometimes bothers me to fall behind. Its definitely one of the things after lung surgery that I have a hard time controlling at altitude.
The Paso de la Muerte part of the route that I mentioned in a previous post did end up having had snow on it (a dusting) and was super exposed like I thought it might be, but not so much that it freaked me out. I always felt safe with Ossy and Pablo. I am not used to climbing on exposed trails but at the same time it doesn't really bother me. If you don't look up or down but instead concentrate on your next step, its fine. You cant over-think it. The clouds help mask the true drop off. My pack was tight to my body and that makes me feel secure. Ossy had talked last night about possibly short-roping us through some sections if we needed the security, but in the end, we all went unroped.  When I looked at Emma's go-pro from today, it definitely is more precarious than I'm used to and I hope to be able to have a link to it soon so others can see it. I enjoyed the rock scrambling immensely though and I'd say it was maybe about half of the route from the hut or a little less.  I found this description on the internet about class 3 and 4 rock scrambling for reference of what the terrain was like.

Class 3	Scrambling or un-roped climbing. You must use your hands most of the time to hold the terrain or find your route.  This may be caused by a combination of steepness and extreme terrain (large rocks or steep snow). Some Class 3 routes are better done with rope.
Class 4	Climbing. Rope is often used on Class 4 routes because falls can be fatal. The terrain is often steep and dangerous. Some routes can be done without rope because the terrain is stable.

My pictures don't do it justice. At the summit we had partial views of Cotopaxi and Antisana through the clouds.
The descent was a bit slippery and iffier than I thought it'd be. "Skiing" through the scree field saved us a lot of time on part of the route. Everyone else on the team skis so they thought it was great. I still find the method nerve wracking but I'm learning to like it. We grabbed our extra gear at the hut, had some sandwiches and descended another two hours to the car. Almost 7 hours total of hiking. Most of it at maximum heart rate.

Not my video, but a brief video of the same route
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAy4GvxtZs