Almost 40 minutes away from the summit, the cold and fog stopped us to countinue climbing, likewise strong it is our yearning to be able to crown this excellent mountain. The view from this point of the Cayambe makes us remember the old legend of the pre Colombian cultures of the north of Ecuador that says although taita Imbabura is married to mama Cotacachi, he fills the Cayambe dressing closet with long dresses.

The Cayambe (5790 meters above sea level), it is the third highest summit in Ecuador after the Chimborazo and the Cotopaxi. To arrive to this place we take the highway until arriving to the city of Cayambe and then, for 28 Km crossing the Andean forest trough the Wymper road, named it after Edgar Wymper, a visionary German who was first one in conquering Cayambe volcano. Once in the refuge, we take a moment to meditate, each member of the team speaks to his way with the mountain, as requesting it it’s blessing to step on its slopes. We enter in the previous hours to the ascent.

It is necessary to practice the techniques that we will use in the mountain during the climbing, and also the gear that we will be using the entire night during the ascent: thermal clothes, crampones, front lights, strings, piloets, pickaxes, gloves and glasses. With this armor we challenge to beautiful glacier located behind the refuge Ruales berge located to 4600 meters high. We practice the techniques that we will use in our expedition that will begin in a few hours. The evening announces that we should rest, since the ascent begins to the stocking night.
After a brief and slight lunch, the lights of the refuge go out at 18h00 o'clock.
The excitement is too much, thinking in what we are about to face in the mountain we can hardly sleep.

At 1 am, and after getting dressed up with our mountain gear, we leave the refuge. Between each member of the group there are almost 8 meters rope, our only lifeboats in the height.
After an hour of walk, we anchor our crampones and we begin the ascent to the glacier. Strong winds and a snowfall that suddenly becomes a storm hit us strongly. Suddenly a crack catches one of our partners. I fall to the floor despaired to anchor my ice axe. The rescue and the terrible storm are taking quickly all our energy.
With the sunrise, we get to Picks Jarrín to 5400 meters. The view in hallucinating and in spite of our desires of continuing, the fog and the ice melting due the sunrays force us to descend before we reach the summit.
The descent is quick; the soft snow allows slipping quickly for the glacier that little by little melts for the sunbeams that falls perpendicularly on the mountain because it is located exactly in the parallel 0 of latitude.

Exhausted and sad we arrive at the refuge after 13 hours of coexistence with the volcano. We don't have anything left but the latent challenge of being able to return some moment, and with the permission of the mountain, we will dare to step their eternal ice again.

A jealous mountain from ancestral times awaits us.

The Cayambe or “Cayamburu” witch means “the road to the sun” are one of the supreme challenges of the andinismo in Ecuador.