Quito Skyline. Oil on Canvas by Andy Chapman
I’ll never forget that Christmas. I had been in Ecuador six months and walked multiple times up every volcano in the country that wasn’t erupting. My glacier slogging game was perfected: self-arrest, rest step, French technique, setting up Z-pulleys and hip belays were all on speed dial. Unfortunately, I had become genuinely tired of being a mountaineer and just walking in crampons. I wanted to be an alpinist. I coveted the few “steep” lines those volcanoes offered. There was only one problem: I had but a lowly mountaineering axe. Read More …
