Ecuador 2001/2002

At the end of 2002 Neill Gilhooley, Ewen Tanner, Bob Cooper, Paul Moorhouse, Mr. Bean and I went to Ecuador to climb a few mountains. the idea was that as they were on the equator they'd be warm and easy to climb. they weren't. We couldn't complete Cotopaxi due to the avalanche risk, and didn't start Chimborazo due to black ice, but here's some pictures of what we did do. It's been a while so some of the commentary is either wildly inaccurate or missing. Not recorded here are El Beaņo's amazing acrobatics in front of fast moving trucks or any of the antics on New Year's Eve (save one shot of Bob's arse), but then that's probably a good thing. Hover over the pictures for an explanation.

(Copyright Notice)

Around Quito:

WW1 NeillBeano Baggins of Baggy End.Scenes from our daywalk in the Quito area.

El Altar:

The amazing 4WD bus we took to the start of our walk to the El Altar crater lakebefore we started with some canadians who came along for the ride.Neill's secret. A rucksack with legs.I don't know why Neill looks so happy.Andy contemplates another fag. The cloud coming up the valley would soon engulf us.After a very tiring and steep ascent we hunted for ages to find somewhere to camp and ended up here, with one inch of mud to drive the pegs into before hitting solid rock and a 200ft drop to one side. Nice one....but it was pretty in the morning, below the El Altar crater.El altar is a collapsed volcano, with a lake in the old crater. we would walk up to this the next day, but we had to drop down into the next valley to be able to walk up to it.Neill sleeping with the crater in the background.A composite picture of the crater lake.A long walk back to civilization....of sorts. We arrived too late to get a bus but the boys managed to convince a famer to give us a lift in his truck for a couple of dollars.. he drove the the village making sure everyone knew he was going to town to get hammered while we sat in the back with his shit.Steamy shit.

Riobamba, Latacunga and Iliniza Sur:

Chimborazo.Our accomodation in Riobamba, staffed by a bit of a nutter and his family. Lovely people though. Garden full of Llamas.Riobamba market.The park outside our hotel at Latacunga.The hut on Iliniza Sur, where we woke on Christmas Day.Not quite as good as good as the crapper at Minto's (see Kenya) but still a two thumb dump.The view from Iliniza. Chimborazo on the left, Cotopaxi on the right.Christmas Pixie.

Cotopaxi:

View from the Cotpaxi car park with the hut visible just below the snowline.Outside the hut at 3pm, before the snow came in. It would snow until just before we set off at midnight and this would lead to the avalanche conditions that would force us to turn back 150m from the summit.Roping up just above the snowline at about midnight. We were the first to reach this point and it was cold.Mr Bean with a now slightly vomit stained balaclava.Deiciding whether we can continue. The icicles above come from a massive glacial overhang.Before starting down again.Our genial hosts outside the lovely Hotel Cotopaxi, Latacunga.a day walk around a lake whose name i have forgotten. all i can remember is that we were warned about all the banditos there.


Otovalo:

Fat Bastard!

Quito and around:

New Year's Eve.La Virgen.The countryside through which we mountain biked for a day.The 'experts', shortly before a mysterious israeli damaging incedent.Fixing a puncture in Paul's tyre.Stand back ladies. Calm yourselves.How to get stopped by airport security. Except you don't need a mask if you're as pissed as Mr. Bean was.