A New Adventure

Just realized that my last post was more then 2 years ago. I guess, sometimes you just don't have a lot to say.

Anyways, I am getting ready for a new adventure, this time mountaineering in Ecuador. It took me a while to figure out the terminology; you see mountaineering means climbing mountains, however, going to the top of a mountain may not include any 'climbing'. So, as long as you get to the summit you have climbed a mountain and you do whatever you have to get there (hike, tackle snow, ice, rocks etc). If you think this discussion is worthy of your time the Brits (who by the way don't have any mountains) have written a whole page on this topic, there is also a discussion topic on Yahoo.

For everyone else who doesn't care; here is the deal. I will be climbing four mountains in Ecuador, starting with El Corazón (15,702ft) the heart shaped mountain, then moving onto Illiniza Norte (17,218 ft), followed by the Cotopaxi which at 19,347 ft is the second highest mountain in Ecuador and finally Cayambe (18,996 ft). The trip starts on X-mas eve.

To prep for the trip, I started off with Touching the Void a wonderful book/documentary by Simon Yates about surviving a near fatal climb of Siula Grande (20,813 ft) in Peru; then No Way Down about the tragic accident on K2 (28,251 ft) that killed 11 climbers in 2008; On the Ridge Between Life and Death about the fanaticism of climbing.

Fortunately, I am not doing anything even remotely close to what these guy did ; I will never enter the death zone (above 24,000 ft), I am not out to carve out a new route; all the mountains are a day climb (you can be up and back to the refugio in less then 12 hours) so no chance of getting lost and my favorite part, no climbing. All, I need to worry about is altitude and be prepared to walk; should be fun!