Cotopaxi - Ecuadorian Volcano

Cotopaxi - Ecuadorian Volcano

This article relates to Look Alive Out There

Among other things, Crosley is a travel writer, and one of the most enjoyable essays in her new collection Look Alive Out There recounts her near-disastrous attempt to summit Cotopaxi, a volcano in Ecuador, more or less on a whim.

Cotopaxi, part of the Andes mountain chain, is the second-highest mountain in Ecuador (at 19,347 feet), and one of the world's tallest active volcanoes. It has erupted more than fifty times in the last three hundred years, most recently in 2015 and 2016. Hundreds of thousands of people live in relatively close proximity to Cotopaxi, close enough to be significantly affected if (and when) it erupts again.

The most recent eruption put a temporary halt to climbing activities on the volcano, which reopened for climbing in October 2017. The mountain was first summited in 1872 by a German geologist and his Colombian climbing partner. In recent years, climbing Cotopaxi has been a popular recreational activity, with as many as 100 people attempting to climb it each weekend. In Ecuador, climbs higher than 5000 meters now require a guide, and Cotopaxi is no exception; an avalanche in the late 1990s resulted in the deaths of several recreational climbers, and other fatal accidents occurred in the following decade, so Ecuadorian officials are now careful to treat this dangerous and daunting mountain with the respect it deserves.

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi erupting, courtesy of www.galapagosislands.com

Filed under Nature and the Environment

This "beyond the book article" relates to Look Alive Out There. It originally ran in April 2018 and has been updated for the April 2019 paperback edition. Go to magazine.