Climbing Fuya Fuya and Imbabura

Mountains southwest of Cotacachi - with Fuya Fuya on the right, with the double peak

In the last 8 days I've tackled 2 nearby mountains, both of which I can see from the windows of my casita here in El Ejido.

Mount Fuya Fuya rises above the city of Otavalo to a height of 13,986 feet.  I arranged for my friend and landlord Alfredo to drive me and my friends Kristin, Clare and Janette up to the Mojanda Lakes at the foot of the mountain on Friday the 29th of July.  Alfredo's son Inti also came along; the 6 of us set out at 7:00 am to drive up the long, rough and steep cobbled road to the lakes.

Fuya Fuya.  We climbed to the peak on the left.

From Caricocha, the largest of the Mojanda Lakes, we headed up the mountain - whose peak was up in the clouds.

Starting up - with Kristin & Janette looking down, Clare going up.

 

Clare - hiking in the paramo up into the clouds

Taking a break by the big boulder

The higher we climbed, the steeper the trail - and the cloudier.

An occasional break in the clouds would give us a view

The saddle between the twin peaks

The saddle was very narrow - and from here the trail went up steeply, with a bit of vertical ledge to get over to get to the top.  I almost didn't go up the ledge to join the others at the summit - it was a bit scary - but with a bit of assistance in foot placement from Alfredo, up I went!

Alfredo, Janette, me, Clare and Inti on the summit.  Kristin took the photo - and I guess I forgot to smile.

Alfredo and his son Inti on the summit.

Bird at the summit.  I bet getting up there was easier for him!

We were still up in the clouds when we reached the summit, but occasionally the clouds would part briefly and we'd get a gorgeous view of our surroundings.

This is supposed to be a video of the view from the summit when the clouds parted, However, it doesn't seem to work.  But the pic shows that we were able to see the lake from the summit.

Heading back down to Lake Caricocha

We got to enjoy lots of lovely paramo flowers along the trail:

Purple paramo flowers

Chuquiragua flowers

Lupines

Tiny white flowers and red berries

I believe this is a form of potentilla - what we called Tundra Rose in Alaska

Not a flower - but love the pattern of the leaves and the white spines

Me (with Janette and Kristin behind) above the lake

We were glad we had set out early - because as we were nearing the end of our descent we came upon a group of about 200 young school children from Quito heading up the trail!

Only a part of the group of kids!  Straight ahead is Black Mountain, which I'd also like to climb someday'

A smaller group of young people from England was also starting up the mountain:

The Brits are in the foreground.  Those are more of the school  kids in the background.

Then we came upon a group of 48 Ecuadorean Special Forces, who were out on a training mission.  They had already walked around the often steep shore of the lake, and were carrying 60 pound packs.  They looked like they were struggling, so I was glad to learn that they weren't going all the way to the summit.

Looking across the paramo near the end of the trail to Cerro Negro (Black Mountain)

It was a wonderful hike with good friends.  It took us about 1 hour and 50 minutes to get to the top and 1 hour and 20 minutes to hike down.  And it was good practice for the next challenge:  climbing the Imbabura volcano.

Barley Fields and Imbabura

On Wednesday, August 3rd, I climbed the Imbabura volcano, which rises to a height of 15,120 feet!  It wasn't easy to get to the summit on the long, steep and sometimes scary trail, but I did it!  A group of friends and new acquaintances drove to the village of La Esperanza, where we met our guide, and then drove up a long & steep cobbled road to the start of the trail.

As we started hiking, much of the mountain was in the clouds. Happily the clouds did rise quite a bit as we climbed and revealed some wonderful vistas - but the summit remained in the clouds.

The trail goes up this back side of Imbabura

View of jagged peaks off to the north

We quickly gained elevation and were climbing up through the grassy paramo

The trail went up and up - and then got much steeper than this.

In this detail from the above photo you can better see Isaac, our guide Emerson's dog.  He has accompanied Emerson on about 200 treks to the summit!

View of El Cubilche, a side volcanic cone of Imbabura. Hope to climb this, too, someday

Mountain view with yellow flower

Lower slope of Imbabura.

Higher and higher we go, with aview back down to the valley and the Cubilche volcano - which looks a lot smaller from up here!

Heading into the clouds

As we got closer to the summit, the mountain was much more rugged. The fortunate result was that there were lots of good handholds in the volcanic rocks for getting up through the rough spots and getting past the scary drop-offs!

At times it dropped off steeply on both sides!

Getting closer to the summit. There were definitely some hairy spots - and I almost turned around at one of them - but with help from our guide, Emerson, I kept on going, despite how much I was huffing and puffing at that  high elevation.

The summit - finally it's in sight!

At the summit - exhausted and happy after 5 3/4 hours of climbing and about 5,500 feet of elevation gain!

I didn't get a group pic at the summit - so I'm sharing Janette's.  We ranged in age from 12 to 68!  Above are our guide, Emerson, Kristin and Brian. Below are Michael, me, Jesse, Wendy and Justin.

Kristin and Janette at the summit

Heading back down the rugged trail

Great shot by Janette of what some of the upper trail was like. Notice the drop-off on the right!  I was very happy that on the way down, unlike on the way up, I wasn't really bothered by the heights

Down out of the clouds - which were piled up to the left of the ridge

Looking back toward a rock wall which I'm glad we did not have to climb!

Photo by Michael Bramble of me resting on the way down

View from the lower slopes of Imbabura of the city of Ibarra and Yahuarcocha Lake

Of course while we were hiking I stopped repeatedly to photograph many of the beautiful flowers and other plants along the trail:

Fuzzy-leafed White Flowers

Lots of these coral-like fans at higher elevations

The waxy-looking flowers reminded me of columbine

Love this combination of colors

Tiny alpine flowers on pillows of green

Purple flower in bud....

....and others in full bloom

White-flowered pillow with pink spikes protruding

We made it back to the cars after 9 3/4 hours of hiking!  Back in Cotacachi, I joined many of our great group at La Vaca Gorda for dinner and a well-earned beer.

I head back to the States just one week from tomorrow!  I'll try to get in one final post before I leave - or at least shortly after I get back.

Parting shots:

Fuya Fuya from Cotacachi (with zoom)

Imbabura with quinoa foreground