Cerro Negro 4260m

Last Sunday, with Maria and Carla in Cali, Ramon and I joined his classmate Daniela, my former student Martin, and their father Jose, for a short scramble up Cerro Negro, a 2 hour drive south from Quito.
The beaten path is not the route up, but rather a big, slick bum ride down on the long, slippery grass! An unexpected treat! The Andean counterpart of the boot skiing scree ride down in the Canadian Rockies. Ramon, Martin, Daniela Jose and Daniela on their way up. Spot Jose's truck wayyyyyy down there. Up throught the long paja...andean paramo grass. Such precision signposting, although the sign we needed most was missing and did a bit of backtracking as a result. Up into the clouds... Martin tackles the unexpectedly steep crux. Looking back down the crux to Jose, Ramon and Daniela....awaiting their turns. Scrambling with ski googles.... Snuggling up to keep warm on the summit. The gang on the false summit. The ridge down and up to the true summit was too exposed for the wee ones to tackle. Mojanda lakes above Otavalo. Ramon's too cold to stick out his tongue. Ramon heading back down....ready for a big bum slide. Martin is the main star in this slide, roll, tumble down the mountain....with many squeals of delight! They all climbed part way back up many times and Martin was lucky enough to find his dad's glove.