Chimborazo

Warning: This is long and is probably going to be boring to anyone who: wears a bra or is not related to me.

We hired a tour guide and headed up to Chimborazo today. It was a spontaneous trip, and ended up being one of the funnest days of our lives. Chimborazo is a dormant volcano that is conveniently located 45 minutes from our apartment. Because it is located on the Equator, Chimborazo is supposedly the farthest point from the center of the Earth {the Earth is not perfectly round, it bows out at the Equator}. Chimborazo rises to a massive 20,700 feet {the highest peak in Utah, Kings Peak, is just over 13,000} and can be seen from 5 hours away.

Golo {our guide} drove us from our apartment to Chimborazo, it was extremely rainy, snowy, and cloudy, so even though we were on Chimborazo...we could not see a thing {I did not take the above photo, I found it on the internet - it is strictly for illustrative purposes}. On the way up to Chimborazo Golo gave us an amazing tour of the surrounding area. Usually I am way too impatient for a tour guide, I am the person who is constantly wandering away from the group trying to pet the endangered species and such, but Golo was actually interesting. Here I am, having a surprising amount of fun on a guided tour {this photo is mainly for my Mom, so that she knows I am still alive}:


Our first stop on Chimborazo was at first base camp. Here we ate lunch and acclimatized a bit. From the first base camp we suited up in our rain gear and hiked to the second base camp. The hike was extremely easy, but I kept getting lightheaded from the altitude. By the time we reached the second base camp we were sitting at roughly 17,000 ft. Here we are nearly passing out from the altitude:

And us inside the second base camp.

To Oliver's dismay we weren't really able to go up any higher without a mountaineering team, so we headed back down to the first base camp. Our original plan was to mountain bike from the first base camp back to Riobamba {25 Miles}, but it was still snowing pretty hard when we got back to the first base camp. Of course that didn't stop Oliver so he started mountain biking, while the guide and I followed him in the Land Cruiser.

After about a kilometer there was no longer any snow pack on the road, so I didn't have an excuse for riding in the warm car anymore. I got on my bike and continued the rest of the 24.5 miles to Riobamba with Oliver. The trails were absolutely awesome; it was the most fun and amazing experience ever. The fog was really bad, we could not see 5 feet in front of us, but the lower we descended the better it got. We rode through amazing green fields, Bull farms, small villages, herds of Vicunas and Alpacas, Incan Ruins, and amazing ravines. Sure Oliver got attacked by a pack of dogs, we rode in the rain for 4 hours, it was white out conditions most of the day, and my butt is eternally bruised - but it was all worth it. {The photo at the top of the post shows our route. Click on it to see it bigger.}

Here we are on the trail. Left to Right: Random Guy From Washington, Me, Oliver.

We would recommend this tour to anyone, it was fantastic.