Tyler's Blog

Mt. Cayambe, Ecuador

January 24, 2016

My climb up Mt. Cayambe was a great but tough trip. We arrived in Quito, Ecuador (9,300 feet) and immediately began with acclimation climbs to help prepare for the altitude of Mt. Cayambe (19,000 feet). The day after we arrived we did an acclimation climb up Rucu Pichincha (15,541). This was a traverse climb and we started at about 12,500 feet and we reached the summit of Ruco Pinchinch 7 hours later. This hike was especially hard because I only had 2 hours of sleep since leaving Los Angeles, and my body was not adjusted to going from sea level to such high altitude in less than 36 hours.

While I was in Quito, Ecuador before the climb, I met a 9 year old Juan who has Duchenne. When I go to my climb I like to try and meet a family with with Duchenne. I was also supposed to meet Juan’s older brother Pablo who had Duchenne, but he sadly passed away two months before I arrived. I talked with the family about how Duchenne has affected their lives and the impact Pablo had on them. Juan gave me Pablo’s favorite Superman toy to leave at the top of the mountain so his family could look up and remember Pablo on the mountain forever. I really admired Juan and how he always had a positive attitude. I cannot imagine the things he is going through but he was always smiling.

After another acclimation hike, it was time to head to Mt. Cayambe. We went to bed at 6pm to get as much sleep as possible because we needed to wake up again at 10pm (4 hours later) for the climb. I did not sleep well because I had a hard time falling asleep at a time that I am usually getting ready for dinner, and I was so excited for the climb. After getting my gear on, we went to the little cafeteria inside the Refugio to eat something before the long climb ahead. We started up the trail at 11:30pm on December 24th.

After an hour of climbing, I realized that it was now Christmas Day. This was cool because it was my second Christmas Day on a mountain. The first was when I was on Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. But this Christmas was also special because I was going to do something special for Juan and his family by burying Pablo’s Superman toy on the mountain. It was amazing how clear the skies were and that it was almost a full moon. It was peaceful on the mountain because there were no winds. It seemed like a warm night and I did not have to wear all of my heavy gear to stay warm.

When we got on the glacier there were immediately some small crevasses in our way that we had to cross. They weren’t too big so I could just step over them. The next big obstacle was a humongous glacier slope. It was hard to see far ahead but the moon reflection off the glacier made it look never ending. The winds began to pick up because the glacier slope was so exposed.

The sun soon started to come up and made me feel a better because I could take off my head lamp which was giving me a headache. I was not feeling well and getting really tired from lack of sleep and the high altitude. We were still hours away from the summit and the Ecuadorian guides wanted to turn around because they thought the snow bridges over the crevasses would melt and become dangerous to cross over on our way back from the summit later in the day. The rest the climbers decided that they were too tired to continue and were having severe altitude problems.

However, I was now feeling better and my American guide (that I have been training with for years) knew that we had the ability to keep going and see how the conditions developed. We came to a junction where the huge crevasses made you choose between 2 routes. The Ecuadorian guide decided to go up a more direct route because it was faster. We walked inside a huge crevasse and then climbed out one of the shorter sides. After walking along the edge of the crevasse, we came to a point where the crevasse was too wide to get across and we were trapped on the other side by a steep slope. We were forced to turn around because we did not have the equipment to get across the crevasse and do it quickly. This was extremely disappointing because we had been climbing on a route that did not lead to the summit.

I knew that to get back to the junction would take hours and the temperatures were getting warmer where snow and ice were falling into the crevasses. Getting to the summit it would be too dangerous later in the day when I had to cross over the crevasse snow bridges on the way back down. Making it to the top is optional, but making it back down is mandatory.

However, before we headed down I wanted to bury Pablo’s Superman toy. I found an amazing place on the mountain with a view of two other volcanoes in the distance. It was amazing to know that on Christmas Day, I was able to give Juan and his family the gift of burying Pablo’s Superman toy in ice forever on Mt. Cayambe.

www.crowdrise.com/climbtocureduchenne