Niki: “Are we halfway yet?”
Cesar (guide): “Uh…no.”
Niki: “Oh.” (Insert choice expletive here)
Kirsten: “I think I’m dying.”
We may be blonde, but we were the third team and first all-female team to summit Cotopaxi at 6:00am, just in time for a spectacular sunrise. It was a grueling climb, commencing in the freezing darkness at 12:30am. Around 2:00am we separated into teams, and team Bad Ass Blondes showed Cesar (our guide) how Nic School ladies climb mountains. About halfway through the climb, the altitude sickness started to kick in. Neither of us had taken any altitude sickness medication, preferring to prove to ourselves that we could climb Cotopaxi all on our own. Kirsten suffered from blurry vision, light-headedness, and nausea. Niki felt light-headed, nauseous, and the sight of sheer drop-offs into oblivion, coupled with deep crevasses only further induced yearnings to vomit.
But the Bad Ass Blondes persevered despite feeling awful and exhausted. Luckily we had an amazing guide, Cesar, who let us stop to desperately gulp the thin air in search of oxygen to fuel our burning muscles. Upon hitting the crux of the climb, the last 90 minutes, which consisted of never-ending steep climbs at over 5000m, Cesar gave us some wise advice: “it’s going to be really hard. Think about things that make you happy, like sex, or your boyfriend, or your family.” Niki pushed through the false summits by focusing on putting one foot in front of another. Kirsten was inspired by Niki’s perseverance and continued on despite the pain. At long last Cesar announced: “only 10 minutes, you can do it!” And before we knew it, we were standing on top of Cotopaxi, closest point to the stars, watching the sunrise over the smaller volcanoes.
Kirsten felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment; tears welled up in her eyes and her face was blue and purple fromthe cold. Niki stood on the top, unsure of how she’d come to be there, but once realization dawned, she quickly unzipped her jacket to fish out her camera. The climb had been frigid and windy, her iPod had frozen halfway through, and she found a layer of frozen moisture inside her jacket. She managed to take some pictures of the crater and surroundings before she noticed that she couldn’t feel her fingers and they were starting to turn purple and white (woo frostbite!), but once again Cesar came to the rescue and offered to document the descent. It was on the descent that we noticed how epic, sketchy, and awe inspiring the landscape was. After a few hours we reached the Refugio once again; barely able to move, but with the most empowering sense of accomplishment. We did it!
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