El Corazon (15,700 ft)

Dry route with well marked trail once you are above 14,000 ft. No clear trail from the road to 14,000 feet. There is one section of class three climbing with some significant exposure but there are plenty of good holds.

Iliniza Norte (16,800 ft)

Dry route with well marked trail from the hut to the summit. Returning from the summit to the hut it's possible to lose the trail if you are not careful. (A Czech climber disappeared after reaching the summit of Norte two months ago. There is a $10,000 reward.) The climbing is claimed to be class three, four, or 5.3 but we saw nothing we'd rate beyond 2 or (maybe) 2+.

Iliniza Sur (17,200 ft)

Technical ice and snow. Route finding was difficult when we climbed this. Since this requires a 3 AM or earlier start and since the weather was foggy when we climbed it (the fog was very common during our Alpine starts). We'd strongly suggest getting a local guide for this mountain. (We used "Safari Tours" for our guides and had *much* better experiences with our guides than some of the other climbers we encountered. (I'll provide more details about this in my detailed narrative.)

Cayambe (18,996 ft)

The guidebooks say this mountain has bad weather and we had terrible weather on this mountain. Route finding was very challenging with no clear trail once above 17,000 feet. Again I'd strongly suggest climbing in good weather and/or using a local guide. The angle of the climb of Cayambe was the mildest of the glaciated peaks we climbed so it was less of an exertion but the weather and the crevasses on this mountain make the climb challenging. Just below the summit there is a bergschrund that requires a long circumnavigation to the right in order to reach the top.

Cotopaxi (19,300 ft)

This was the most heavily climbed mountain that we did. The hut (15,750 ft) was crowded and quite noisy. Cotopaxi had a well-established trail. Close to the summit there is large crevasse that is now spanned with a very sturdy (and well anchored steel ladder).

Chimborazo (20,700 ft)

When we first arrived and asked about Chimborazo, our guides told us this mountain was "out of condition" and unclimbable. This is not quite true but it's now somewhat technical and has some steep icy sections. The upper 2,000 feet of the mountain (including summit) are covered by thick forest of penitentes. The start of the glacier requires a three meter slightly overhanging vertical ice climb. Route finding becomes tricky just above the first glacier. (At least one ice tool is needed here in addition to an alpine ice axe.) The Veintimilla summit is reachable but due to the Penitentes, the Whymper summit would require several hours extra to reach. An 11:30 or midnight departure seems standard for Chimborazo. The icy sections were turning many climbers away from Chimborazo. Our team was the first to reach the summit in a week and a half.

I hope this information is useful to others planning to climb in Ecuador. Overall, I felt VERY privileged to climb these mountains. There were all very different and beautiful mountains. Just being on the mountain is a huge treat (even if you don't reach the summit). These mountains are further special in that they all have easy access (in the case of Cayambe you can drive directly to the hut in a 4WD) and comfortable huts (no need to lug a heavy pack for days to climb these mountains).