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Climb Cotopaxi Summit in a 6-day tour. This program offers the full Ecuadorian mountain climbing experience, with the opportunity to summit many of the gorgeous volcanoes that lie in Ecuador’s Avenue of the Volcanoes, such as Pasochoa, El Corazón and Iliniza Norte. These hikes are also important in preparing your body to summit Cotopaxi, as each hike aids in acclimatization. In preparation for the 2-day Cotopaxi climb, climbers enjoy a relaxing day at Quilotoa Lagoon, hiking around an amazing volcanic crater filled with water tucked into the Ecuadorian highlands.
Finally, the trip concludes with Cotopaxi, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful volcanoes in the world, and one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The climb up to the summit of Cotopaxi is not highly technical, but it does require the use of crampons, ice axes and ropes. Leaving from the refuge around midnight, climbers begin ascending the volcano and will arrive at the top of Cotopaxi after sunrise at 6 a.m.!
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Itineraries
Day 1
Summit Pasochoa
We will pick you up at 8:00 am.Then we will drive for two hours to get to Pasochoa parking lot. We will then hike through a large forest and when we are in the middle of it, the 4230-meter summit will appear. There is a steep sloop on the ascent, but once there we will have beautiful views. We will drive to El Chaupi village. Overnight at Andes Alpes base camp.
Meals: (-/ Box Lunch/ Dinner)
Accommodation: Andes Alpes Hostel & Café
Day 2
Summit Corazón
From El Chaupi village. We will start early in the morning after breakfast 7:00 We will be driving up to the trailhead (13,120ft/4.000m), where we start our hike. The first part of the hike takes us up through the small Andean grass. Then we will get on the sandy and scramble section, which leads to Corazon summit. We will have lunch during the hike that is about 6-hour long. Return to the hostel.
Meals: (Breakfas/ Box Lunch/ Dinner)
Accommodation: Andes Alpes Hostel & Café
Day 3
Summit Iliniza Norte
We start early in the morning after breakfast 7:30 We will be driving up to the “La Virgen parking lot” (12,795ft/3.900m). Once there, we will start a 3-hour hike up to the “Nuevos Horizontes Refuge” (15,580ft/4.750m). We will relax for couple of minutes and we took the opportunity to put our helmet and harness for continue hiking up towards the saddle formed between both peaks and then head up to Illiniza north summit; it will take us between 2 to 3 hours to get to the summit, the way back to the parking lot it will take us between 2 hours. Drive back to El Chaupi. Overnight at the Lodge.
Meals: (Breakfas/ Box Lunch/ Dinner)
Accommodation: Andes Alpes Hostel & Café
Day 4
Quilotoa Lagoon Rest day
We’ll leave from El Chaupi in the morning and drive the Quilotoa Lagoon. During the tour we will stop at an Indian hut and visit the Tigua community to observe the leather crafts that they make here. The tour will about 4 hours, then we’ll arrive the viewpoint and admire the size of the crater and its lagoon. We will then descend along a varying road which will take us an hour until we arrive at the bottom of the lagoon. There we will take photos and rest, then after lunch we will be back in El Chaupi after 3 hours driving.
Meals: (Breakfas/ Box Lunch/ Dinner)
Accommodation: Andes Alpes Hostel & Café
Day 5
Hike to Cotopaxi Refuge
From El Chaupi will drive south through the Avenue of the Volcanoes until getting to the Cotopaxi National Park entrance. From here will drive east to the Cotopaxi parking lot (4.500m/14,763 ft) then we’ll hike up for around an hour to the Jose Ribas Refuge. Then we will have dinner and rest until midnight. At this point we will pack our belongings and get ready to make our final ascent.
Meals: (Breakfas/ Lunch / Dinner)
Accommodation: Cotopaxi Refuge
Day 6
Summit Cotopaxi
Midnight will be our wake up time and the departure to the top will be around 01h00, not before having a light breakfast and get our stuff ready for the ascent, the climb will take us about 6 to 8 hours. Once at the summit we’ll take our time to take pictures of the crater and surroundings, and then we’ll head down back the refuge, which it will take us 2 to 3 hours. Once at the refuge will pack our belongings, have something to eat and go down to the parking lot, where our transportation will be ready to take us to Quito.
Meals: (Breakfas/-/ -)
Accommodation:
- Qualified and experienced Ecuadorian local Mountain Guide (ASEGUIM/UIAGM - max 2 climbers per guide)
- Registration in the System SIB (System Information of Biodiversity)
- Technical mountain equipment (Mountaineering Boots, crampons, ice axe, harness, helmet)
- Land transportation and transfers to Cotopaxi National Park
- Accommodation as described in the itinerary
- All meals during the hikes and climbs
- Personal mountain gear (warm cloths, sleeping bags, sunglasses, head lamp, etc.)
- International flight tickets
- Hotel in Quito
- Tips
- Insurance of any kind
- Travel accident and health insurance
- Luggage insurance and trip cancellation
- Other non-specified expenses
We kindly refer to our Terms and Conditions page which can be found in the footer of our website.
In Ecuador you can hike all year, but these are the seasons:
- High Season: June to August / December to January
- Low season: February to May / September to November
No prior climbing experience is required. Climbers should be in good physical condition and it is highly recommended that they have some backpacking experience.
