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Cotopaxi and Chimborazo Photo Gallery - Chimborazo (6310m)

In August 2007 we traveled to Quito, Ecuador, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo, and the Galapagos Islands

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-00 Nasa Here is a very clear view of Chimborazo from Nasa.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-00 Nasa

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-01 Driving To Estrella del Chimborazo After breakfast at Tambopaxi, our driver Patricio arrived to drive us down the Avenue of the Volcanoes to the Estrella del Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-01 Driving To Estrella del Chimborazo

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Main Building In The Afternoon With Chimborazo Behind Perfectly situated at the foot of Chimborazo is the mountain lodge

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Main Building In The Afternoon With Chimborazo Behind

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Accommodation In The Afternoon With Chimborazo Behind The Estrella del Chimborazo has two separate buildings with four double rooms each. Here is the outside of our building with Chimborazo in the background.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Accommodation In The Afternoon With Chimborazo Behind

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Inside In addition to the main building, the Estrella del Chimborazo has two separate accommodation buildings with four double rooms each. Here is the inside of our building and rooms, and the eating area in the main building where we ate our delicious meals next to a roaring fireplace. Cozy.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Inside

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-05 Estrella del Chimborazo Alpacas Alpacas roamed around the Estrella del Chimborazo grounds.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-05 Estrella del Chimborazo Alpacas

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-06 Estrella del Chimborazo Chuquiragua As I walked around the Estrella del Chimborazo grounds, I spotted this shrub with bright-orange colors called Chuquiragua. It is the symbol flower for the hikers and climbers in the Ecuadorian Andes. It is also used as medicine by taking an infusion to help for kidney problems.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-06 Estrella del Chimborazo Chuquiragua

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-07 Estrella del Chimborazo Flowers I walked around the Estrella del Chimborazo grounds, and noticed a riot of colour if you looked closely at the ground.

Ecuador Chimborazo 01-07 Estrella del Chimborazo Flowers

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-01 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Four Summits Chimborazo, located 150km south-southwest of Quito, is the highest mountain in Ecuador at 6310m. From left to right are four of the five summits of Chimborazo - Ventimilla (6267m), Whymper (6310m, Main), Politecnico (5820m, Central) and Nicolas Martinez (5570m, Eastern).

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-01 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Four Summits

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Closer View Chimborazo's majestic summit rises 2500m above the surrounding highlands. The top of Chimborazo is completely covered by glaciers with some north-eastern glacier arms flowing down to 4600m. With an elevation of 6310m, Chimborazo is just one degree south of the equator and the earth's diameter at the equator is greater than at Everest's latitude (nearly 28° north), with sea level also being elevated. So, despite being 2540m lower in elevation above sea level, it is 6384km from the Earth's center, 2.1 km farther than the summit of Everest.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Closer View

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Whymper Route Close Up The Whymper route goes to the left of the rocks. This is now subject to avalanches and rockfall and is seldom used.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Whymper Route Close Up

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up Until the beginning of the 19C it was thought that Chimborazo was the highest mountain on Earth. Chimborazo's summit was first climbed by Briton Edward Whymper and the brothers Louis and Jean-Antoine Carrel in 1880.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-05 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Whymper Route Close Up At Sunset Here’s a close up of the rock band and the glaciers of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit of Chimborazo at sunset viewed from the Estrella del Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-05 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Whymper Route Close Up At Sunset

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-06 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up At Sunset Here’s a close up of glaciers and the Whymper (6310m, Main) summit of Chimborazo at sunset viewed from the Estrella del Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-06 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up At Sunset

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-07 Charlotte Ryan and Jerome Ryan Sitting Next To Fireplace At Estrella del Chimborazo Charlotte Ryan and Jerome Ryan enjoyed some pre-dinner drinks at the Estrella del Chimborazo, sitting next to the roaring fireplace.

Ecuador Chimborazo 02-07 Charlotte Ryan and Jerome Ryan Sitting Next To Fireplace At Estrella del Chimborazo

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-01 Herd Of Wild Vicunas On The Way To Chimborazo After an early breakfast, our cook Eusebio turned into a guide and drove us toward Chimborazo National Park, with wild vicunas grazing next to the road. Vicunas form social groups and can survive on very sparse vegetation.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-01 Herd Of Wild Vicunas On The Way To Chimborazo

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-02 Chimborazo Entrance Here is the entrance sign to Chimborazo National Park where we turned onto the 8km good dirt road that leads to the lower Refugio Hermanos Carrel (4800m).

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-02 Chimborazo Entrance

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-03 Chimborazo And Refuge From Dirt Road Here is a view of Chimborazo from the dirt road in Chimborazo National Park. To the left are the glaciers of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit, to the right the Whymper (6310m, Main) summit, and below the Carrel Refuge (4800m).

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-03 Chimborazo And Refuge From Dirt Road

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-04 Carrel Refuge Outside The Carrel Refuge (4800m) has a small number of basic beds and other facilities.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-04 Carrel Refuge Outside

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-05 Peter Ryan and Charlotte Ryan Inside Carrel Refuge Having tea Peter Ryan and Charlotte Ryan stopped at the Carrel Refuge (4800m) and had some tea.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-05 Peter Ryan and Charlotte Ryan Inside Carrel Refuge Having tea

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-06 Carrel Refuge Inside Fireplace The Carrel Refuge (4800m) has a nice fireplace.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-06 Carrel Refuge Inside Fireplace

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-07 Monument to French, Colombian and Swiss Climbers Just behind the Carrel Refuge (4800m) are monuments to those who have died on Chimborazo. Here is a monument to 3 Colombian, 6 French, and one Swiss climber who died on Chimborazo on November 10, 1993. The monument is titled Estos jovenes murieron por amor a la montana – these young people died for the love of the mountain.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-07 Monument to French, Colombian and Swiss Climbers

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-08 Monument To Humboldt And Bolivar Just behind the Carrel Refuge (4800m) is a large monument to liberator Simon Bolívar and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt’s party set a new world altitude record in 1802 and had the summit in sight when blood vessels in their eyes burst and a crevasse forced his party to retreat.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-08 Monument To Humboldt And Bolivar

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-09 Late 2006 Monument To A Climber Just behind the Carrel Refuge (4800m) are more monuments to those who have died on Chimborazo. Here is one from late 2006.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-09 Late 2006 Monument To A Climber

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-10 Chimborazo From Carrel Refuge The normal route goes to the left to El Castillo and then climbs along the long snow slog right or northwest toward the Ventimilla summit. From the Ventimilla summit (6167m) head towards the main Whymper summit (6310m) by crossing a large snowfield.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-10 Chimborazo From Carrel Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-11 El Castillo From Carrel Refuge Here’s a close view of El Castillo from behind the Carrel Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-11 El Castillo From Carrel Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-12 Chimborazo Summit From Carrel Refuge Here’s a close view of the summits of Ventimilla (6267m) and the main Whymper summit (6310m) from behind the Carrel Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 03-12 Chimborazo Summit From Carrel Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-01 Hiking To Whymper Refuge We hiked uphill for 35 minutes from the Carrel Refuge to the Whymper Refuge (5000m).

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-01 Hiking To Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-02 Whymper Refuge Outside Whymper Refuge (5000m) is a tin-roofed A-frame building with some basic accommodation and facilities.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-02 Whymper Refuge Outside

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-03 Whymper Refuge Sign We stopped at Refugio Whymper for some tea, and also had our pack lunch. Here is the sign for the Whymper Refuge (5000m).

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-03 Whymper Refuge Sign

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-04 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge Here is a view of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit from the Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-04 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-05 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge Closer View Here is a closer view of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit from the Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-05 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge Closer View

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-06 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge Close Up Here is a close up view of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit from the Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-06 Ventimilla Summit From Whymper Refuge Close Up

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-07 Eusubio And Jerome Ryan 30 Minutes Beyond Whymper Refuge Eurebio and Jerome Ryan hiked for 30 minutes up the Thielman Glacier to get a slightly closer look. Here we are at our high point.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-07 Eusubio And Jerome Ryan 30 Minutes Beyond Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-08 Jerome Ryan On The Thielman Glacier Beyond The Whymper Refuge Here is Jerome Ryan on the Thielman Glacier, 30 minutes beyond Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-08 Jerome Ryan On The Thielman Glacier Beyond The Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-09 El Castillo From Thielman Glacier Beyond Whymper Refuge Here is a view of El Castillo on the normal climbing route from the Thielman Glacier beyond the Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-09 El Castillo From Thielman Glacier Beyond Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-10 Ventimilla Summit From Thielman Glacier Beyond Whymper Refuge Here is a foreshortened view of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit from the Thielman Glacier beyond the Whymper Refuge.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-10 Ventimilla Summit From Thielman Glacier Beyond Whymper Refuge

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-11 Jerome Ryan, Peter Ryan, and Charlotte Ryan At Estrella del Chimborazo After A Great Day Jerome Ryan, Peter Ryan, and Charlotte Ryan are enjoying dinner at the Estrella del Chimborazo after a great day hiking to Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 04-11 Jerome Ryan, Peter Ryan, and Charlotte Ryan At Estrella del Chimborazo After A Great Day

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-01 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up At Sunrise When we awoke early the next day, the mists had cleared and Chimborazo shone beautifully in the early morning sun from the Estrella del Chimborazo. Here’s a close up of glaciers and the Whymper (6310m, Main) summit of Chimborazo at sunrise.

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-01 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit Close Up At Sunrise

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit At Sunrise Here’s another view of the glaciers and the Whymper (6310m, Main) summit of Chimborazo after sunrise viewed from the Estrella del Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-02 Estrella del Chimborazo Chimborazo Main Summit At Sunrise

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Ventimilla and Whymper Summits At Sunrise Here’s a view of the rock band and the glaciers of the Ventimilla (6267m) summit and the main Whymper (6310m) summit of Chimborazo after sunrise viewed from the Estrella del Chimborazo.

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-03 Estrella del Chimborazo Ventimilla and Whymper Summits At Sunrise

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Main Building In The Morning With Chimborazo Behind Perfectly situated at the foot of Chimborazo is the mountain lodge Estrella del Chimborazo (4000m, also called Chimborazo Hill Star or Chimborazo Base Camp). Here is a view of the main lodge with Chimborazo basking in the early morning sun.

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-04 Estrella del Chimborazo Main Building In The Morning With Chimborazo Behind

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-05 Chimborazo Main Whymper Summit From Road To Riobamba We hired a taxi from Riobabmba for $100 to take us from the Estrella to Quito. As we drove towards Riobamba, Chimborazo looked larger then ever.

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-05 Chimborazo Main Whymper Summit From Road To Riobamba

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-06 Valley Near Riobamba Here is a view of a fertile valley as we drove from Chimborazo towards Riobamba

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-06 Valley Near Riobamba

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-07 Carihuairazo In The Clouds As we drove past Riobamba on our way to Quito, Chimborazo’s neighbour

Ecuador Chimborazo 05-07 Carihuairazo In The Clouds


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