Day 01: Quito– Cotopaxi National Park.
In the morning you depart from Quito on the Pan-American Highway south, to El Chasqui and from there on to the Cotopaxi National Park. You will make a short stop at the small Museum of Nature to learn about the flora and fauna of the region before you continue to the high plateau to the lagoon Limpiopungo on a height of 3.800 at the foothills of 4.712m high extinct volcano peak Rumiñahui. Here you will have a spectacular view on the giant volcano cone Cotopaxi. You continue over the plateau uphill to the parking lot at a height of 4.600m. Driving over the plateau and foothills uphill you will reach the parking area at a height of 4.600m. From here it goes for about 30 minutes by foot ca. 200m. up to the Jose-Ribas-hut, a high mountain refuge at approximately 4.800m height. After lunch we will trek in about 20 minutes to the glaciers which lie on the same height as the refuge. We will spend the afternoon with some practices in the glaciers preparation for tomorrow's climb. You stay at the Jose-Ribas-refuge (dormitory bunks) where you will have dinner and go to bed early. -/L/D

02. Day: Cotopaxi climb – Quito
After a small breakfast at midnight the climb to the top begins. You hike up the scree slope from the hut to the glacier at about 5000m where you put your crampons on. From here the route has varied in the last years and will depend on the conditions. In general you climb up in a wide curve to the right (west) before climbing up quite straight to Yanasacha (black rock) and then steep snow slopes up to the summit. When the weather conditions and the physical health (acclimatization!) permit, you will reach the peak (5.897m) in ca. 6-7 hours! With good weather you can enjoy breath-taking panoramic views and of course photograph all peaks of the snow-covered volcanoes of the Ecuadorian Andes. After the descend of ca. 3 hours back to the refuge and on to the parking area you will drive back to Quito which you will reach in the afternoon. B/L/-

B= breakfast; L= Lunch; D= Dinner

Note: The itinerary of the adventure tour can be changed by the guide due to security reasons (climate, conditions etc) as well as by the national park administration due to changing national park rules. Nevertheless the security and the interest of the participants will always have first priority.

If you make reservations for a group, for several concurrent services or on certain dates we are usually able to offer special prices on these occasions – Please contact us!

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