Footsteps on the Mountain
Last week was one of those weeks when a mountaineering story is so big that it makes it into the popular press. On the face of it, it was a straightforward story of someone smashing a record to smithereens. But if you dig a little deeper, there is another side to it.
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In local Ecuadorian legend, the god Taita Imbabura is said to have fought the god Mojanda for the affections of Maria Isabel Cotacachi. Imbabura won this battle and took Cotacachi for his wife. As I reported in a previous post
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If, like me, you’ve never wondered why Google don’t feature mountaineers on their daily Google Doodle, then you would have been surprised to open your web browser on Wednesday to find a cartoon line drawing of somebody in a pith helmet tugging on a rope.
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According to the Urban Dictionary, the word ‘Fuya’ is a portmanteau whose meaning equates to the popular phrase ‘Fuck, yeah!’ If this is true, then the volcano Fuya Fuya was clearly going to be one of the most exciting climbs in Ecuador.
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Ecuador has some impressive volcanic craters. Some, such as Cotopaxi and Tungurahua – both of which I’m going to talk about later – take a bit of effort to get to. But first, a more relaxing interlude. Not all volcanoes
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Acclimatisation is a funny thing. On the face of it, it seemed like we had a good plan. After a full day acclimatising at 2850m in Quito, we would climb a 4258m volcano followed by a 4640m volcano. Then we
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A quick update from the road in Ecuador. Edita and I have finished our first two acclimatisation hikes exploring the northern part of the country. We started with Mojanda, a sprawling massif a 2-3 drive northeast of Quito. Mojanda has
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Life has been hectic in the Horrell household recently and I’ve been finding it hard to keep on top of my writing. It is time for a holiday. We are returning to Ecuador for a couple of weeks to hike and climb some less-frequented peaks.
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The shortlist for this year’s Boardman Tasker Prize was announced this month, and once again five out of six books on the shortlist are about climbing. You can be certain that the winner will be one of the five. [*]
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Queues of slow moving traffic, people who don’t know how to drive, human faeces by the side of the road – are we talking about Everest again? No, it’s the North Coast 500, a magnificent road trip in north-west Scotland which I once pedalled round.
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