To reach the refuge we had to drive through a tiny track carved in the side of the mountain full of massive holes and sheer drops towards the valley, it was pretty scary but Marco was the most amazing driver, when it got really bad he got off the car, inspected carefully the way and we moved on. The refuge was very cold but relatively comfortable. We settled ourselves in the sleeping bags to get a bit warm and talked about the plan: eating at 5, going to sleep at 6pm and getting up at 9pm to be in the mountain by 10pm.
The weather wasn't on our side from the start, the temperature was too high to totally freeze the surface of the glazier and it was so foggy that the light of the head torches reflected back. We knew that the day before no one had been able to summit but we were feeling really strong and were willing to give it a go provided it was safe. We had total confidence in our guide Marco.
After about 1 hour we reached the glazier, put on our crampons and roped ourselves. We were making really good progress when Marco asked us to stop. He dug a triangular shape in the snow and looked a bit concerned, then checked his barometer and commented that the pressure was going down and that was bad news, he muttered something about avalanches but suggested we continued. By the time we reached 5,100 mt we had climbed 600 mt and were half way up when he asked us to stop again, he repeated the digging in the snow, looked at us and told us that in his experience with the conditions of the snow and the relatively high temperature there was a 50 per cent chance of avalanches further up when the slope would be just over 45 degrees. He stated that it was too dangerous to continue and we should turn back. We felt really disappointed as both of us were feeling really strong but at the same time were clear that we didn't want to take unnecessary risks as we were well aware that avalanches had killed climbers in Cayambe. Here is the photos of that moment. It is hard to turn back when you know that you could have done it!
When we began descending we were above the cloud and as in Cotopaxi, the night sky was breathtaking. What made it even more special for us is that, as we were right on the Ecuator, we could see the Big Plough and the Southern Cross. Neither of us had ever seen the Southern Cross or any of the stars of the Southern hemisphere and as we had time we took our time to watch the sky.
Back at the refuge at 3.30am we got into our sleeping bags with a touch of sadness because in other circumstances we should have been on the mountain.
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