The triple headed group, “Heroes in a Half Shell”, formed the night before with Ryan being the late addition to the cohesive Andrew/Barrett combination. Our guide, Rafael, turned out to be quite the whip cracker. As the first hour came to an end and the groups began to rope up with their guides, we knew we were in for a work out when Rafael quickly ushered our group to the front. With Rafael leading the way, Andrew followed with Barrett in the middle and Ryan taking the caboose. The first four hours was no walk in the park, but the stars were shining, our lungs were acclimating well, and a steady pace allowed us to reach the final leg by around 4:30am.
We were warned that the last hour was by far the toughest, so we had to mentally prepare for the final push during our last chocolate break near the summit. It was during this break that we realized we may reach the summit well ahead of sunrise, so we delayed our continuance just long enough to feel the cold bite through our four layers of clothing. Trodding onward, the inclines steepened, oxygen was scarce, and our muscles began to feel the effects of hours of grueling exercise. Nevertheless, Rafael pushed us to our limits and we finally reached the summit around 5:35am. The feeling was euphoric. See the video below -
The sun was still making its way up the horizon, so the early morning light mixture was quite a treat. We had an incredible view of Quito's lights to the north, the cloud layer thousands of feet below us, the many peaks of the Andes dotted in the distance, and an ominous view of the crater. Perfect weather afforded us an unusually long stay atop Cotopaxi's summit, and minute by minute the sun began to expose us to more breathtaking views. Our excitement was contagious; even the mild mannered Rafael began to scream with joy and join the hugs. After about 25 minutes on the summit, Dietrich and Tripp had made it up and the moment was well documented.
Yet very quickly thereafter Rafael resumed his whip cracking ways, telling us it was time to descend and clearly he wanted to set a land speed record in doing so. While we were relishing our triumph of Cotopaxi, being the first ones up on the mountain for the day, our superhuman guide Rafael clearly had other people to see and other volcanoes to climb...Upon arrival at the Cotopaxi base camp he was planning to drive directly to Ecuador's highest mountain, Chimborazo, to lead a another group of climbers on that same day. As we began to descend we saw the rest of our teammates making their final push and we assured each of them that the summit view was well worth the effort!
Written by Ryan Still, Andrew Nourafshan and Barrett Bohnengel
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