Standing on the equator, by Romel Sandoval

Chimborazo, an Equatorial Ascent

by Wayne Pettigrew

Wayne climbed seven peaks in Ecuador in July 2021, including Cayambe and Cotopaxi. This is his account of climbing Chimborazo.

Chimborazo is the highest mountain on Earth (almost 2.5 Km higher than Mount Everest) when measured from the Earth’s centre. The geoid shape of the earth (slimmer at the poles, wider at the middle) means that our planet is a squashed sphere not a round one, so peaks close to the Equator get an extra few kilometres. Because of this, Ecuador’s tallest peak emerges supreme as the point on Earth closest to outer space.

A special and rare breed of llama called a Vicuña resides at the base of this massive mountain, and the natives jokingly refer to it as a “fancy llama” since its wool is sold for much more than typical alpaca or llama wool. They’re beautiful and very easy to spot as they climb the rocky, arid highlands surrounding Chimborazo.

At 6310m high, this mountain is definitely one to be reckoned with due to the risk of avalanches, falling rock, crevasses and lack of oxygen. Being already acclimatised from the other mountains on this trip certainly helped as my body was already used to the oxygen-depleted air. Even so, this was the first mountain where I had altitude effects (headache, slight dizziness) from climbing.

We made our ascent from a high camp that we climbed to the day before to ease the “Chimborazo Effect” and maximize our chances of a summit success. Wakeup call was before midnight and we started the climb shortly after 23.30 zig-zagging our way upwards at a gentle plod. As with the other high mountains, Chimborazo climbs are done at night to avoid rock falls, and after a couple of hours, we hit the glacier, put on our spikes and roped up.

Then we hit the crevasses. Savage blue gashes disappearing down into blackness that we had to jump or negotiate via snow bridges. This is when you are glad that your guide has done crevasse rescue training! We had to leap a three-foot gap and land on an unknown ledge of ice in full gear several times. My guide, Romel Sandoval, with the trekking company AndeanFace was the best! We ascended the long, steep snow climb that took us to Cumbre Veintimilla, the broad summit plateau before the true summit, Cumbre Maxima. The final summit achievement was gratifying but exhausting when we achieved it at 08.30. We arrived back at high camp at noon after being on our feet on 40-70% incline for over 12 hours! There went 5000 calories!

At the top I also placed mementos of my brothers James Wesley Martin and Samuel David Pettigrew. Both were victims of COVID-19 during the past year but they were with me every step of the way to the top of the world.

Chimborazo & Vicuñas by Wayne Pettigrew; Not that cold at 6400m by Romel Sandoval

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