Video with Cotapaxi Climbing Tips, Cotaxpaxi Summit information, Cotapaxi Excercise routine, and the Cotapaxi Summit Experience. If this video helped you hit the thumbs up, comment on what part was helpful and subscribe!
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Weather
Weather is wholly out of your control, and something that you CAN’T agonize about. Don’t obsess about the forecast and check every single day the way I did the week before. My forecast said it was going going to drop a few cms of snow while climbing along with 10km/h winds, and I thought “*#$%, this is going to make the climb much harder.” Guess what? No snow during the climb, and no wind. I was actually toasty most of the way up and I zipped down my jacket.
There was no snow from the parking lot up until the refuge when I first arrived to the mountain. Hours later, it snowed a fair amount covering the entire mountain in white. My thoughts again turned to the negative, but my guide assured me. Let Pachamama (Mother Earth) throw everything she has tonight so it is clear tomorrow. And he was right. Perfect conditions.
If the weather is bad and it is the reason you couldn’t summit, DON’T beat yourself up about it.
Acclimation – Cotopaxi Climbing Guide
This is tricky, as acclimation has aspects that are both in your control, and outside. The part out of your control is genetics. Some people are better at handling the high altitude. There is no way of knowing until you try. As a beacon of hope, the first time I went to the Cotapaxi reserve was a year back. In the night after the visit, I was sleeping at the hostel became very nauseous and threw up over five times. During the summit, no problems.
With proper preparation and medicine, you can prevent the worst.
Acclimation Hikes
During the month leading up to the climb, I thrice summited Ruco Pichincha, a volcano in Quito with 15,728 feet. I took the Teleferiqo, a ski lift, and hiked to the top. The round trip will take between 3-5 hours depending on your physical fitness. The final summit I managed the climb in an hour and forty-five minutes and ran back down in an hour.
Medicine
I took two medications on the mountain. I never got a headache or felt dizziness or nausea. Before considering medicine, consult your doctor. On the mountain, I never got a headache or dizziness.
Diamox
I took Diamox (Glaucomed in Ecuador), splitting the 250 mg pill in half as instructed by a few climbing websites. This medicine decreases headache, tiredness, nausea, dizziness, and shortness of breath that occurs when you climb quickly to high altitudes (generally above 10,000 feet/3,048 meters).
Warning, it did have some odd side effects. Urinating frequently, (drink tons of water to replace), tingling fingers, tingling lips for a few minutes, and head felt a petty different for twenty minutes or so. After about three doses the side effects decreased. However, my fingers started tingling and going numb on Cotopaxi for a little while, but only for thirty minutes or so.
Ibuprofen
I took 600m of Ibuprofen right when I got to the reserve and then again the morning of the climb. Again, check with a doctor.
Physical Conditioning – Cotopaxi Climbing Guide
I believe this is crucial to your success. I trained for only a month and a half, but I trained like an animal. I got a gym membership and went five days a week. I started by doing a normal weight routine, hitting every part of the body.
I made sure once a week I did squats and leg press until my legs felt destroyed. After exercising, I would go to the treadmill. I filled up a backpack with ankle weights, and put the treadmill on the maximum gradient (15 percent) and walked for about an hour.
Some days I could only do thirty minutes, so I’d remove the backpack and finish without weights. Try your best not to cheat and hold the grips on the treadmill!
Tips – Cotopaxi Climbing Guide
Play mind games. Even if it lasts a few minutes, they help.
Count each step until 100 and start over.
Do multiplication in your head. 2×2 2×4 2×8 2×16 as far as you can go and then do it again.
Think about your families, friends, and significant others and some of your favorite memories.
Tell a couple of people, but don’t announce to the world your attempt. That way you have some people to hold you accountable, and you can surprise everyone when you successfully do it. I remember thinking in my head I can’t return and tell my friends that I couldn’t do it, it wasn’t an option.
Buy the 25 dollar bottle of oxygen at Condor Trekk’s shop. It’s great for those two-minute breaks to catch your breath.
Bring your own tennis shoes. Those rubber crocs at the refuge are freezing and don’t warm up.
My guide told me numerous times, just look at my footsteps. Stop wishing the next peak is the summit, it probably isn’t.
