Ecuador & El Altar

[Jonathan3]

I'm Looking for Beta & climbing partners in Ecuador during the end of August and Most of September. I'm wanting to Climb El Altar first and foremost, but then mabye one of the bigger cones after that; Chimbarazo or Cotapoxi. Guides in Ecuador, would they be found in Quito or closer to the mountain.

 

After putting up with the Chaos of Bolivia the past few seasons I am looking forward to Ecuador being a bit more laid back. Anyone with experience at altitude and mountaineering that is serious should shoot me a line.....Jonathan3

[paramagic]

Jonathan:

El Altar can be be soggy, but a great goal. There's no hut so you'll probably have the place to yourself. The hassle with El Altar is that you have to go through private property to access it, and they're pretty adamant about not allowing passage without the proper permission. The guide services have this taken care of, and you could probably find out the appropriate channel to do this, but as with most things in Ecuador it helps to have a connection. Look up Eduardo Agama in Quito, or type Cotopaxi Cara Sur in your search engine. He's a veteran independent guide who operates a recently opened climbers hostel/high camp on the South Face, which is a vast improvement over the goat-rope at the hut on the main route. Enjoy Ecuador!

[salamander]

I think you will find Ecuador to be less 'chaos'. Super-easy approaches and huts at the more popular mountains make it very easy to hit multiple peaks in a short period of time. Never did make it out to El Altar so I can't give you specifics there. I did not use a guide, but there are a bunch of guide services in Quito. I don't think there is much once you leave there. You can also arrange transport through some of the tour operators/ guide services if you are short on time and don't want to deal with public transport. Public transport, however, is quite good in Ecuador. Comfortable buses and we never had a problem hiring rides to get us to where the buses didn't go. I thought Cotopaxi was a more aesthetic climb than Chimborazo but it was definitely more crowded too. I would highly recommend one of the more technical climbs on Illiniza Sur. It is lower elevation but the climbing is spectacular.