...does not happen when you have altitude sickness. That's right! When you're at the 4800m refuge and your resting HR is 190 bpm (only to get worse when you actually move, e.g, stand up, ect.), you can't stay awake long enough to put your boots on to go outside and use the bathroom, and you're nauseous and/or vomiting, they don't let you climb the mountain. If fact, they wait for someone with a car to return to the refuge so you can be brought to a lower elevation. I believe it's called evacuation, and it did happen.
The ride to the refuge was perhaps two hours and we drove much through the "Volcanic Hazard" sign territory of the Cotopaxi Provence. Along the way we picked up three of our five guides. Now, these men know the mountain very well, have climbed it probably more times the years that I've been alive. As you're attached to them via harnesses and rope on the glacier, they're supposed to help prevent you from falling down a crevice with their brute strength. So when you see a super skinny guy that maybe reaches your shoulder it makes you think a little "That guy is supposed to hold me up if I slip and start sliding?!"
Two of our guides, 'nueva estudientes'
Reaching the Cotopaxi National Parque, we had to weave along a dirt, well, more like volcanic ash, road up and over hills left by volcanic debris slides in a large tour bus. We had an excellent driver and made it safely to the parking lot. At such high elevations (4300m ~14,100ft) it doesn't really rain, it just hails as the "rain" has frozen due to the high altitude. The refuge camp was a 300m (almost 1000ft) "walk" up volcanic debris. It took approximately 45 minutes to hike up to the refuge with my pack of warm clothes and climbing supplies. Oh yeah, and the boots. What made the hiking extra special were the glacier boots. You need to climb the mountain in glacier boots b/c once you reach the ice you need to attach crampons to the bottom of your boots, otherwise you'll slide right back down. These glacier boots are a lot like ski boots: heavy, limited movement, you curse at them as you climb the mountain and then slide a little back down.
Cotopaxi hidden by clouds
What a beauty!
That's me! Almost there!
The refuge is a large building on the side of Cotopaxi. You 'spend the night' there, although you don't really spend the night, because you wake at 11pm to eat breakfast and start the climb to the summit. The refuge is not heated, although there is gas for cooking and a generator for a few hours of electricity in the evening. Bedtime is usually around 6:30-7pm. The guides are all wonderful and laughing and joking, as many of the clients are probably thinking what the hell they got themselves into.
Where I spent most of my time on Cotopaxi
Within 20 minutes of reaching the refuge the altitude hit me and I became very sleepy, so much that I was zoning out and falling asleep at the table. All I want to do was curl up in my sleeping bag and pass out. Before allowing me to do so, the guides made sure my crampons fit my enormous glacier boots and told me I had a to eat a little food. Altitude also affects your appetite, and just looking at food almost made me run outside. When I finally ate enough to please both my guides and professor, Ben, I was allowed to sleep. It was only 4:30, btw. I awoke around 10:30pm to the pounding of my heart. I was able to count the beats and my resting Hr was 190 bpm! Breathing slowly and deeply (haha, yeah right), I had great difficulty getting it lower than 180 bpm. When it was finally tie to get up and out of my super warm and cozy sleeping bag, just sitting up and standing made my heart race faster and I became dizzy. No estas bien. Now, because altitude sickness is very serious we are supposed to tell someone, preferably Ben and a guide, if something is wrong. After doing this, I was given medication for my nausea and headache (the headaches you can get at these high altitudes are debilitating. Never in my life have I experienced pain such as this), and was told to (yet again) eat something. Usually I really like food. I know the higher the altitude the lower your metabolism, and I also recently discovered (via reading, not personal experience) that at altitudes about 5000m your body's digestive processes slows drastically.
Sunset over Cotopaxi
Another Volcano. We were higher than most of the clouds!
When my partner and I, Jackie, were all ready our guide, Julio, told us we were going to walk very slowly for one hour, then rest for a few minutes, then walk slowly for one hour, rest, ect. Even with my racing heart that didn't seem to difficult. Haha. Yeah right. Leaving the refuge and heading to the left and then up, we weaved very slowly up the montane. Approximately 75m (~250 ft) up my heart was beating so fast I was having difficulty breathing, and my increased HR was making me nauseous and like I was about to pass out. Now, my host brother, the alpinist, warned me about this and told me that if I was going to pass out I had to turn around immediately Because if I didn't, I could die. The only thing you can do to alleviate altitude sickness is to return to a lower altitude. So that's what I did. Back to the refuge.
Within one hour or so three others returned to the refuge, two with altitude sickness. One of my friends who returned had been vomiting along the mountain...she also had to get to a lower altitude. Thankfully, I was able to sleep until morning until we heard a guide, who happened to have a car, was leaving the refuge. Ben wanted us to get in that car and to a lower elevation, so that's what we did. By then my heart rate had lowered a bit and the nausea was gone, but I was left utterly exhausted because my heart had worked so hard for such a long period of time.
Sunrise
Going down 1000m did wonders for my breathing and here rate, and the three of us who had left fell asleep at a restaurant/lodge on couches in front of a wood stove until our amigos met us there for lunch a few hours later. We later found out that out of 12 of us only 4 made it to the top, one of them being my partner (I am so proud of you Jackie!!!! Don't ever forget how amazing you are!) My altitude sickness partner and I have decided we're going to return to Cotopaxi within two years and attempt the summit again. One day I'm going to make it to the top.
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