Summit Part II

Wes said they left for the summit this morning at 12:30 am. He said it was pretty challenging. They had to meander through a lot of crevasses and some of them were really huge - you could fit a mobile home in them! He said you couldn't even see the bottom of a lot of the crevasses. There were also a few snow bridges to cross. This was kind of creepy because as they crossed over they couldn't see to the bottom of the crevasse and weren't sure if some of them would hold. As they got closer to the summit they came upon a section where they had to use their ice axe and the tips of their crampons to climb up - it was that steep. They summited at about 7:00 a.m. Wes and Curtis were the only two people up there. Wes said he thinks about four people summited yesterday. He said the weather was great - not too windy, the clouds were all below them, and it wasn't too cold, maybe around 10 degrees. He took a cool picture of the shadow of the mountain that looked like a pyramid. The guys got back to the hut around 9:30 am. Freddy came and picked them up at noon and they got back to Quito at about 3:30 pm. They rested for a little bit and then went out for steaks! Tomorrow they plan on relaxing and enjoying their last day in Quito (although Wes said he is ready to leave because his allergies have been so bad there). Their flight leaves at 12:20 am on Saturday morning but they have to be at the airport three hours early to go through customs (so they will be there at 9:30 pm tomorrow night). They also have to pay $40 each to leave the country. Wes said they had a lot of fun climbing and it was a great trip!