Illiniza Norte 16,817 ft

We goto sleep at 8:30pm I wake up with noise of people moving around thinking it must be the guys from Colorado who were supposed to leave at 4:00 am. I look at the watch and its 5:00, I slept through the commotion which is a sign of getting acclimatized.

We are ready to go by 6:00, I get some help getting my crampons on. No headlights required, it looks like a nice day. Its beautiful and as we start walking the clouds lift up and all the peaks appear. Today is the first time that I have seen any of them. We take some pictures and keep walking. Segundo and I take the lead and are soon ahead of the rest; it almost feels like we have the mountain to ourselves.

The solitude, the views, the complete break from civilization (phone, email, cars, pollution). Yes, this is why I do it.

We reach higher and there is fresh snow which has covered the trail. As things warm up every step has to be strong, we have to make sure that a strong foot hold is established before taking the next step. It was hard-work, but I really, really enjoyed it.

We make it to the summit in about four hours; the last part called 'Paseo de la Muerte' lived up to its name. The track was steep, there were lots of rocks, so we abandoned the ice axe and scrambled our way to the top. We sat for a few minutes and relaxed, by now a lot of people were getting close so we make our way down the rocky part and then wait for them to pass.

Now its all down hill, its supposedly a shorter route but it seemed to take a long time. The snow started getting slushy and the going was slow, but like all things it was over, at 11:20 am or 7 hrs after we started we were back in the parking lot.

Rest, talk to the wife and thats the end of another glorious day.