The mountain of Carihuayrazo rises out of the Abraspungo valley, about a four-hour drive from Quito. Its tongue-twister name is Quechua and means "Mountain of much wind" - this is your chance to find out how true that is!
This trip is designed to give you some gentle trekking as acclimatisation before we push on and head for the summit of Carihuayrazo. At 5,100m it's a great opportunity for even inexperienced trekkers to summit a 5,000m mountain, and offers some truly beautiful trekking as well.
Avenue of the Volcanoes
We will leave Quito after lunch today and head south down the Pan-American Highway past Latacunga and Ambato. We'll have some great views of the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" on way to the Posada La Estacion. We'll be staying the night here and having a traditional dinner in the Posada as we get used to the higher altitude - 3,680m to be precise.
Abraspungo Valley
After breakfast today we will head out towards the Abraspungo Valley. We'll be trekking for about 6 hours before we reach our camp in Plazapamba, passing through several variations in the local ecosystem as we climb. If the weather is good we'll have good views of the Altar and Tungurahua volcanoes.
Plazapamba to Carihuayrazo
We'll have another 6 hours trekking today as we hike through the Abraspungo valley on our way to our base camp on the slopes of Carihuayrazo near Black Lake (Laguna Negra). Our camp is at 4,800m so we're well-placed to attempt the summit tomorrow.
Climbing Carihuayrazo
It's a very early start today as we breakfast before sunrise and begin trekking uphill to the summit of Carihuayrazo. It's a steady but non-technical route to the summit and we'll reward ourselves with lunch at the top - we challenge any restaurant to offer views like these! After this we will descend and head back through Ambato to Quito.