Jan 5-6: Illiniza Norte... FAIL!

Today's mission was to reach the summit of Illiniza North at 5160m above sea level. Our guide got us set up with camp at 3900m while Illiniza loomed overhead:

We went for a practice hike up to 4100m where it began to rain. When we got back to camp we were soaked. Then it rained some more. We huddled in the dining tent for dinner. Then it rained some more. We went to bed at 7PM since we had to get up at 3AM to start the climb in the dark. Then it rained some more.

At 3AM it was still raining, so we went back to sleep.

At 4AM it was still raining, so we went back to sleep.

At 5AM it was still raining, so we went back to sleep for good.

We got up for breakfast at around 8AM and it was still raining. Fortunately, by the time we had finished packing up camp the sky had cleared and we could see the new state of Illiniza:

It was now too late in the morning to do the full climb, and we had not brought snow climbing equipment, so the summit was now out of reach. Instead, we hiked up for a couple hours, peaking at 4400m, then got the heck back to Quito.

That mountain simply didn't want us there.