When I finally reached the top of Ruminahui I felt the most incredible feeling I’d ever felt in my entire life. Completely indescribable, I felt on top of the world. Quite literally because I was 15000 feet above sea level. I was 50km south of Quito in Ecuador over looking the famous Cotopaxi volcano.
I was 17 years old and I was with a group of 13 friends spending a month in Ecuador. We had trekked for three days in Cotopaxi National Park and we were camping each night. We had to find our own water and beforehand we planned all our food for the week. Trekking had been extremely draining due to our lack of sleep and the altitude. The night before we were due to climb Ruminahui we sat down over dinner to discuss which members of the team were going to climb it because if one person couldn’t make it, we’d all have to turn around. In the end it was nine of us who were setting off at 6am with an Ecuadorian guide leading the way.
Waking up at 5am is never something to be enjoyed but when we woke up there was a massive sense of excitement in the camp. We had some Ecuadorian porridge and a hot drink before setting off to climb a volcano. We were all extremely determined to make it to the top. Not one person could be left behind; we all had to get there. Normally we’d walk for 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then stop to stretch and adjust any equipment that needed adjusting. However, after an hour we were still climbing the step ascent to the volcano.
When we reached the top of the first hill one girl was already crying. We were all panting like we’d just ran a marathon and exhausted already but we had an energy sweet, helped Emily to calm down and convinced her that she’d make it to the top. There was definitely an element of pressure on everyone not to be the one person to make everyone turn around before the top. The walk up the volcano was at an extremely slow pace; I was in the lead walking slow enough so that everyone could keep up. We could barely take one step without being out of breath due to altitude sickness. It was the hardest thing that any of us had ever had to do. The worst part was our Ecuadorian guide wasn’t out of breath at all – it was like a casual walk in the park for him!
We stopped for five minutes every half hour of so and when we stopped for the last time I felt like I could run to the top it looked so close. But in actual fact the ash of the volcano was so loose that every time we stepped forward our foot slipped backwards. The last push to the top was the hardest of all but it was more than worth it when we reached the top. We dumped out bags and used our hands to get to the highest point of the volcano and look down on the world. It was the greatest feeling I’d ever experienced. We’d all done it, we’d climbed a volcano!
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Victoria Gleeson