I am very sorry to hear about your experience in Ecuador! I am also very sorry for those two women who had to experience what they unfortunately experienced - that is horrible!

I am also shocked that you had this experience there. I believe it was 2005, we had the opposite experience... However, we decided not to go to the Pinchincha area due to bandit reports and fear for our safety. We instead climbed El Corazon as our acclimatization hike which was a great option.
We also traveled through the city (Quito) day and night and had no issues. But, we were very aware of choosing the safest streets - and as it so appears just got lucky.

I hope your experience is isolated and Ecuador is not going down hill. I had an amazing time there and have nothing but great things to say about the people of Ecuador (especially in the smaller towns - banos in particular)... and fond memories to look back on. Like anywhere though, it is important to head warning and not go into areas that are known for bandit/robbery encounters. We checked with the American Embassy on arrival and read reports of recent robberies and bandit reports before choosing routes in the city and on the mountains...

Be safe out there and I hope that this is not a sign of a changing Ecuador, because it is a remarkable country!

Now that I've had a couple hours to get settled back in to the US, there are a few thoughts I'd like to add. As Joe noted, I managed to avoid being directly involved, but only by sheer dumb luck. The bandit had already chased two people off the trail in front of me and was apparently distracted by them when I blitzed by. I didn't see him and he didn't see me, but he had been watching us earlier, knew I existed, and repeatedly asked Joe and our other friend where I was.

First off, the most disturbing thing about this incident as it relates to future travelers is the utter failure of the Ecuadorian authorities to proactively deal with this situation. The upper slopes of Rucu Pichincha have seen a surge of violent crime over the last several months, and should be considered off limits by any rational foreigner. The incidents the embassy told us about were not simple robberies; in one, the husband was held with a knife to his throat while his wife was raped, in the other, police guarding a nearby antenna complex responded and exchanged fire with the bandits. I imagine there are many robberies that simply go unreported.

I did not expect serious police follow-up on individual crimes, but there is not even so much as a warning sign when you depart the touristy area around the gondola and make tracks for the summit. Further, a lot of these crimes seem to be perpetrated by the same individuals. I expect a pair of armed police on dirt bikes patrolling the northern slopes of the mountain for a week or two would be able to catch these guys and make a tremendous impact on mountain safety, but no such effort has been made. I, and I'm sure many foreigners, would be quite happy to pay a permit fee to fund such an operation. Hell, even though we're now safe, I'm sure everyone involved that day would be more than willing to pitch in for a private security contractor to hunt this guy down and bring him to justice, if we knew how.

Second, I get the feeling that there is not a strong relationship between safety in the city and safety in the mountains. If you are careful about where you go and when you go there, you can no doubt be pretty safe staying in Quito. Most crimes are likely to be snatch-and-go operations, and you're unlikely to lose more than cash. Through lots of rumor and innuendo and unsubstantiated gut feelings, I got the feeling that rural areas, including the popular volcanoes, are more likely to see prolonged or violent confrontations like this one. Coming from the United States, I expected the opposite. The thought of having to be eternally vigilant towards more than petty theft after leaving the nearest town in a 4x4 destroyed much of the beauty and attraction the mountains held for me.

Third, I should note that our decision to hightail it back to the US was not based entirely on crime safety. Mountaineering takes a lot out of you, and we felt that a safe summit was contingent on us being able to give these peaks 100%. Forget being robbed and held at gunpoint; Joe and our other climbing partner were both forced to passively abandon two women with this guy knowing full well what was going to happen. I think it was the right decision, and everyone came out alive, but what a horrible thing to live with. There was simply no way we would be able to give these mountains the attention they deserved. Earlier this year I went on a less serious trip to the Sierras immediately after a less serious event (break-up of a serious relationship) and almost lost it descending Russel's E Ridge. We decided that we couldn't afford someone flipping out at 20,000', and that if we couldn't climb any mountains, we might as well come home.

Although I'm not sure I have any desire to return unless conditions improve, it would be a mistake to take our decision to bail as a blanket statement about the safety of the country.

Fourth, the embassy staff were simply amazing. Despite being pulled away from their families around dinnertime and kept up until after midnight, they were tremendously kind, helpful, and genuinely cared about our situation. A side story resulted in the embassy gaining possession of my passport, and a different official drove to the embassy on the weekend just to deliver it to me. I'd expected them to tell us to pound sand, and seeing the US Gov't jump to help us - including several non-Americans on the mountain that day - was an inspiring experience.

Write down your embassy's emergency number, and memorize it in case some jackass steals the sheet of paper. Call the embassy ahead of time to find out about current conditions, but be prepared for them to tell you that it's dangerous everywhere. If you get connected to the right person, you can get a wealth of information not available in official travel advisories.

Separately, for those looking at going, we learned that the US helped buy a high-altitude helicopter for on-mountain rescues. If you're dealing with a major injury on-mountain and have cell reception, calling your embassy's emergency # is probably the fastest way to get that thing airborne.

Sorry to hear about the incident. We were thinking about heading to Guagua Pichincha, which is close by. We'll re-think this now.

Yossi Brain's chapter on Guagua Pichincha specifically warns against Rucu Pichincha:

"Warning: On no account try to climb Rucu Pichincha alone or in a group--the incidence of robbery (including armed), assault, and rape is far too high to justify the trip."

This was written back in 1999/2000 and specifically for this area, so it's hard for me to apply this impression against the rest of the country, or conclude a negative trend is occuring... I guess I'll find out!

Rice Climber wrote:Yossi Brain's chapter on Guagua Pichincha specifically warns against Rucu Pichincha:

"Warning: On no account try to climb Rucu Pichincha alone or in a group--the incidence of robbery (including armed), assault, and rape is far too high to justify the trip."

This was written back in 1999/2000 and specifically for this area, so it's hard for me to apply this impression against the rest of the country, or conclude a negative trend is occuring... I guess I'll find out!

According to the SP page, the gondola opened in 2005. Our impression was that crime on the mountain was concentrated in the lower elevations, near and in civilization, and that riding the gondola and then hiking to the top should be relatively safe. I believe I've encountered this quote verbatim, but referring to routes starting from street level to the North, not to the mountain as a whole (lessthanjoey has the guidebooks, so I can't back this up with a cite).

Mattyj is right. All the comments in both climbing and regular guidebooks refer to dangers on the lower section of the mountain. All the comments written after the teleferiqo was completed refer to it as completely safe.

I left before the teleferico was completed. The upper mountain was generally safe and as far as I could tell usually not frequented by foreigners. Now with easy gringo access it looks like crime has come up the mountain.

I wouldn't have wanted to stay in Ecuador one more minute either.

I was there recently and based on your description (20 minutes from the summit) can imagine about where you were when you ran into trouble. Chilling. Not many options to run ... I'm also really surprised how far up there he was.

Violent crime seems to be a recurring problem in Ecuador and Bolivia, but both countries have amazingly accessible and beautiful mountains, so climbers will always be heading down there. Any other advise you (or anyone else) could share?

Because it's such a popular mountain to acclimate on, spreading the word on SP and similar venues about Rucu will hopefully save a lot a people a lot of grief. Very sorry to hear about your experience, but thanks for posting it.

Be sure to let Ecuador know why you will be passing them by this year.

http://ecuador.org/contact.htm

mattyj wrote:Write down your embassy's emergency number, and memorize it in case some jackass steals the sheet of paper. Call the embassy ahead of time to find out about current conditions, but be prepared for them to tell you that it's dangerous everywhere. If you get connected to the right person, you can get a wealth of information not available in official travel advisories.

Mattyj - I totally agree with contacting the embassy to verify safety, etc....

When we were in Quito we went to the US embassy and found a wealth of information posted on a bulletin board... It explained robberies and other issues in and around the city. It explained what happened and how to minimize risk...
A great idea to keep in mind when traveling in any unknown place...

As others have said - I think these people had a horrible experience, however, there were a ton of warnings about this location.. It is important to heed to the warnings provided... and take the necessary precautions.

Sara_Matisse wrote:As others have said - I think these people had a horrible experience, however, there were a ton of warnings about this location.

Actually, what happened to us was entirely out of line with any warnings we'd seen; the primary purpose of posting our experience was to warn people about Rucu Pichincha specifically, as it is a very popular acclimatization hike which appears to have recently become dangerous. State Department information online consists of vague, wide-reaching statements about large regions of the country; at the time, I did not think the US embassy would be able to give us information on specific peaks, routes, etc. I'm still not sure to what degree this is a crapshoot that depends on who you get to talk to. There were at least 14 people on the upper reaches of the mountain that day, some of whom had been in Ecuador for months, and all of whom were blissfully unaware of the recent crime wave.

Secondarily, we wanted to warn people that a mountaineering trip to Ecuador may have gotten more dangerous recently, and that information from old trip reports and guidebooks may be outdated. For example, our 2007 general travel guidebook states that single women should have no trouble traveling freely throughout the country, a position I now strongly disagree with. We were only in the country several days, and can only report on what we experienced and what we learned while talking to others.

Obviously we're in no position to make authoritative statements about the country, or to tell anyone where they should or should not go on vacation. However, with all the warnings about crime in less developed countries, it's difficult to tell what's really dangerous and what's only pickpocket dangerous. Just know that Ecuador seems to be the real deal, and plan accordingly.

On a more positive note, this incident seems to have lit some fires, and it looks like the US Embassy is going to make sure it gets pursued aggressively. I don't know if it will lead anywhere, or if previous incidents were met with similar zeal and then fizzled, but here's to hoping that Rucu Pichincha will be safely hikeable sometime soon. It really is a fun hike and a great mountain to acclimatize on.

Drizzlepuss wrote:Because it's such a popular mountain to acclimate on, spreading the word on SP and similar venues about Rucu will hopefully save a lot a people a lot of grief. Very sorry to hear about your experience, but thanks for posting it.

So sorry to hear about this experience! I agree with Drizz and thank you for sharing the information. The SA forum in the thorntree on www.Lonelyplanet.com is another good place to post/research for current conditions/vibe of a country. Also the South American Explorers at www.saexplorers.org as they have a chapter house in Quito near the embassies and can provide beta. Best wishes to you and your team.

mattyj wrote:Actually, what happened to us was entirely out of line with any warnings we'd seen; the primary purpose of posting our experience was to warn people about Rucu Pichincha specifically, as it is a very popular acclimatization hike which appears to have recently become dangerous.

Yes, Mattyj, as I said in my first post - I traveled there in 2005 and there were warnings about the Pichincha area back then... It seems like the safety concerns for this region have only gotten worse.
When we were there we opted to hike a mountain closer to Cotopaxi on our route to there... It is called El Corazon - a great warm up peak and a nice 'safer' hike.
There are many other peaks to acclimatize on is my point.

I hope that you all had an isolated experience there... as basic pickpocket robberies and assults are common in any city - I had such a great trip there I don't want this experience to prevent others from having the same awesome trip to Ecuador that I did...

However, it is KEY to heed the warnings and I hope that your experience, as horrible as it was, is only an isolated case in an area that should be avoided.

"We continued to see signs of violent crime (a large amount of fresh blood on the corner next to our hotel, and more fresh blood on another street a couple of blocks away)".

wow, what an experence you guys had. I am heading down there mid Jan. was wondering what hotel you stayed at? One other thing do cell phones from the US work down there? I was not going to bring mine but I might have to after reading this.

I am sorry you had this problem.
I just got back from Ecuador on the 10th and was there for 10 days. We had no problems on our entire trip.
We did however pay quite a bit of money to RMI to provide us with a safe and enjoyable trip. Apparently money well spent. On one of our hikes (Pasa choa), we did run into two guys that were carrying machetes. Our Ecuadorian guide (RMI provided us with a local guide as well) handled the transaction. Apparently all these guys wanted was for us to pay a park access fee and the guide paid it. Any way I looked at it, it looked sketchy, but whatever, that's what the guide told us, so that must have been it.

It's also appreciated that you post this information so that others can be forewarned about this location.

I am totally not disagreeing with anything you wrote and totally understand your position, but I would like to add that every local we ran into was totally cool. Once again, I can only assume that by us paying for a professional guide, they were able to shield us from know trouble areas.
GW

kommish wrote:One other thing do cell phones from the US work down there? I was not going to bring mine but I might have to after reading this.

This is a hell of a thread to bring me out of hiding for my first post... I'm JD, the other climber with Mattyj and lessthanJoey. To answer your question, my ATT / Cingular phone worked fine without any changes or issues whatsoever, while Verizon and TMobile phones proved worthless. ATT has a webpage for confirming that your phone will work in whatever country you may be visiting:
http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide

As for the comment above about crime on Rucu Pichincha in 2005, the Teleferiqo only opened in July '05, so I believe that the improvement in route safety likely was not reported until later. Of course, that safety has now disappeared, so any reported pause in violent crime is fairly irrelevant.

Last but not least, it appears that this crime spree has been going on for more than three months - longer than anyone we met had heard, according to an article Joe found, here:

http://www.dominion.co.nz/stuff/4182862a6510.html

I wholeheartedly agree with all posters that state it is up to every individual to gauge their own level of risk. However, realize when evaluating that risk that a crime epidemic in this one constantly climbed area of Ecuador can be met with indifference by the authorities and exist without any posted warnings, anywhere, and consider whether the route up the next popular mountain you're shooting for might be better. It probably is, but you might not know otherwise until you become a statistic.

If anyone has the stones to hike off-route up there (it does appear that obtaining a permit for concealed carry is possible for US Citizens in Ecuador and armed guards are fairly inexpensive) I dropped my nearly new Canon SD700 IS at UTM 773239m E 9982006m S while we were fleeing...

JD