Ascent of Volcán Pichincha-Rucu on 2013-04-18| Date: | Thursday, April 18, 2013 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Volcán Pichincha-Rucu | | Location: | Ecuador | | Elevation: | 15354 ft / 4679 m |
Ascent Trip ReportClimbed the peak in April when the weather in Quito is especially volatile, normally clearer in the morning with frequent thunderstorms in the afternoon. My wife and I both went up the cable car and I went on from there to climb to the top while she waited for me. I had done some homework on the route and did not have any trouble finding my way up, although there are a lot of alternate paths once you get to the scree slope. When you reach the ridge, go left and the summit is only a couple hundred feet higher on easy class 2 rock scrambling. If it's foggy, as it was for me, pay attention to how you came up so you can reverse it coming down. It's a confusing landscape and you could be cliffed out coming down in the wrong spot.
I heard distant thunderstorms as I approached the top, and had no views while I was there. As I descended it cleared a little, but right after that I was caught in a a hail storm. Fortunately the stones were small and added to the mystique of the trip. It was raining by the time I got back to the cable car.
I enjoyed this climb very much. I had spent a week in Quito prior to attempting it and did not have any unusual problems with the altitude -- I just took more frequent short rests when my heart rate got higher than normal. I wasn't trying to push it, but it only took me a couple hours to summit from the cable car. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 2411 ft / 734 m | | Quality: | 7 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail, Scramble | | Weather: | Thunderstorm, Cool, Calm, Partly Cloudy
Hail storm on the way down | | Ascent Statistics | | Gain on way in: | 2411 ft / 734 m | | Distance: | 3.2 mi / 5.2 km | | Route: | SE ridge, then scree/scramble to summit | | Start Trailhead: | TelefériQo 12943 ft / 3945 m | | Time: | 2 Hours | | Descent Statistics | | Time: | 1 Hours 10 Minutes | GPS Data for Ascent/Trip
 GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks:  climbed and  unclimbed by Monty VanderBilt
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