100% on the top of Cotopaxi!

Congratulations to our entire Ecuador Volcanoes team for reaching the summit of the second-highest peak in Ecuador, Cotopaxi!  Here’s the details from expedition leader, Terray Sylvester:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition on January 30th.  Over the last two days we had a great climb on Cotopaxi, the second highest volcano in Ecuador.  It’s 19,347 ft. (5897m).

Yesterday we went up to the Jose Rivas refuge at 16,000 ft.  In the evening, before going to bed, the clouds opened up and we had great views of alpenglow on Antisana and Cayambe.  We started climbing at about midnight and we had just great weather.  We climbed under a full moon with perfectly starry skies and then got to the summit with beautiful blue skies and headed back down.  The whole climb took a little less than nine hours, which was just a great time.

Now we have made our way to the little town of Chugchilan where we checked into our hacienda.  Tomorrow we are looking forward to exploring the crater lake Quilotoa and heading on the the hot springs town of Baños.  We’ll be in touch!

Enjoying the José Ribas Refuge at 4800m/15,750ft

Heading up Cotopaxi!

Above the clouds and going for the Cotopaxi summit

Team on the summit of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi (1/30/2021)

Specular ice formations on Cotopaxi

The happy descent on Cotopaxi

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @terray_s
• @GarrettMadison1