Went to Ecuador and summitted both Cotopaxi, 19,388 feet (5,911 m) and Chimborazo 20,565 ft (6,268.2m).

Only had 10 days in Ecuador so went to the Cotopaxi hut the day after we landed in Quito and climbed it unguided. Was an easy climb for the most part except the wind was blowing 60-80mph and bone chilling cold.

Explored Quito a bit and went to a two day glacier school to learn some skills then hired a guide and climbed Chimborazo.

Excellent weather on Chimborazo with minimal wind. Chimborazo was a much more technical climb with some vertical ice walls that had fixed ropes on them but we opted not to use the rope and climbed it the old fashion way. Going down was extremely difficult on the last section because of icy conditions over rock that made cramponing difficult and almost impossible to use self arrest techniques with the ice axe.

I was surprised how good I felt at high altitude and easy climbing situations in Ecuador. Staying in the hut was a luxury hotel compared to snow expedition camping. Sept on beds in my -20deg bag and food were served in the huts.

All in all a fun trip and looking forward to 8201m on Cho Oyu!

Where do you live/climb?

Going from sea level to Quito (9000ft), and then the next day sleeping @ 15K and summitting 19K the 3rd day? Do I have that right?

If so, then damn, you do have the blood for high altitudes.

congrats mel!

Who's Mel? Anyway, we came from sealevel in California, landed around 9pm into Quito and stayed in a hostal at about 10k ft. Left around 10am for the Cotopaxi hut at 4800m and arrived around noonish. Took a nap and did a summit push at midnight that day for 19.5k ft. We did spend 2 days climbing in the sierras at 12-14k ft directly before the trip for acclimation purposes.

Please write a trip report!

harpner wrote:We did spend 2 days climbing in the sierras at 12-14k ft directly before the trip for acclimation purposes.

Ah, ok. I was gonna say... 0 to 19K in 3 days is death!

Please post report

I am still struggling to comprehend someone going to 5900m on day 3 even if the week before spent a couple of days at 3000-4000 m.

Well it might depend partly on where harpner's from. We came from Colorado and were fine. We did about the same thing but with a few more days spent in Quito. We climbed Coto and Chimbo as well. I'm interested what days you climbed, harpner. Sounds like we might have passed like ships in the night (climbers in the night, more likely... since we do all the climbing at godforsaken hours).

While reading mountaineering books to pass the time, I noticed in Medicine for Mountaineering that trying to acclimate too far beyond the 1000ft/day rule will cause the body to deteriorate instead of improve! We were planning on staying a night at the hut, but scrapped the idea shortly beforehand (I think we had the book with us). An additional night at ~16000ft could have ended us! To be sure, it helps to be acclimated up to around 16000ft like all the guides are, but with a limited schedule it's better to take the plunge immediately if you want to reap the most benefits.

http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/322283/Finally-more-than-14ers-High-Altitude-in-Ecuador.html