Cotopaxi

BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL

I was sooooo excited that I summited Cotopaxi.  I actually nearly cried when I reached the summit as it was such a hard work to get up there and I never gave up and just kept pushing myself to the top.  

We had to use ropes and harnesses and crampons, ice axe and my hiking stick.  In fact, it wasn´t really hiking, it was more glacier hacking.  Yes. Just hacked out way to the top of the glacier in Cotopaxi!  We had to go up cliffs that were more than 60 degrees in angle, and had nothing to hold on to, except relying on our crampons and ice picks.  

We also had to cross several big crevasses that were like 60-80 metres deep.  It was really scary as I had to concentrate really hard although I was exhausted to make sure I didn't fall in.  Can you imagine stepping around the crevasses on a 30 cm wide path with your big shoes and crampons etc?

The view on the top was quite nice.  Although I didn't really care too much about the view.  I was just that glad that I made it to the top, I hugged a few people who also made it and took some pictures.  I was the 2nd tourist on the top today.  Mike was the third.  Only an very old Japanese man beat us.

I am extremely extremely exhausted now even after about 3.5 hours nap this afternoon.  I managed to squeeze in 30 minutes sleep last night although I went to sleep like before 7pm.  We had to get up at 12am for 12:30am climb although we didn´t leave till 1:10am.  We also beat the average climbing time of 6-7 hours?  We made it in 5 hours and 20 minutes.

It was a really really big achievement for me.  I just cant believe that I really made it.