Ecuador is a fairly small, but incredibly versatile country. In the east it touches the Amazon, the center is dominated by mountains & volcanoes and in the west is the pacific. In 2017 I spent almost six weeks in Ecuador visiting most of the „must-see“ places that every guidebook recommends. So this time, we mainly looked at climbing destinations and reached out to the local slackline community, hoping that they would be interested in going highlining together. We got a positive answer and they even invited us to their base in Ibarra, a town just two hours south of the Colombian border.
From travelers you often hear, that the landscape is very pretty, but the Ecuadorians are hard to get in touch with and so you get an impression of the nature, but very little of the culture or the people. I have to admit, this was also the experience I had when I visited Ecuador some years ago as a backpacker. The Ecuadorian slackline community though welcomed us with open arms and it felt like I visited a different country. But it wasn’t just this – it was also a journey to myself or better, a battle against a part of myself, but more on that later…
We arrived with a warm welcome from Oskar, Gerson and Juan – the core of the local crew, called Monoslack – their HQ is even marked on google-maps!
Already for a while, they were looking at the volcano Imbabura, towering above Ibarra. They had scouted it already and found lots of potential. However, missing mountain experience had held them back from giving it a try so far. Knowing, that mountain highlines are our strength, they proposed this project to us. We could maybe rig Ecuador’s highest highline and they could have a little guidance on their first mountain project, rigging highlines of not just trees, but rocks, bolts and all that comes along with it. No question, this was exactly a project as we like it.
It was Friday and we would start the big project the following Thursday, so we had some days to get to know the slackliners and the area. We joined them on a weekend camping trip to the Laguna Cubilche and rigged two freestyle highlines at the nearby impressive waterfall of Pelguche.
Initially, I talked about a battle against myself and right there, it was: In Pelguche, it was the first time we had to deal with the Ecuadorian mentality of time and planning. Leaving in the morning first turned into midday and then into afternoon and people we thought would join in the end did not, but others did. While everyone was relaxed, I felt pretty stressed out by this.
Just before I left for this one year journey, I had the annual employee conversation with my supervisor, back home. While I am known to be very organized and structured, she observed me as very impatient and at times unrelaxed, when plans aren’t executed as scheduled. She thought that to be something I could work on.
I was smiling when I realized, that only a few weeks later I found myself in THE boot camp „Learning how to relax with Ecuadorians“. I was thinking about her words a lot, especially when the days at the waterfall turned out to be just fine and actually REALLY nice. We had a great time with the monoslack crew, many friends who came by and everyone had great sessions on the lines.
However, the „just relax“ challenges continued with the Imbabura project on Wednesday evening. Their plan was to leave the next morning at 3.30 am on a three day camping and highline trip to the volcano Imbabura (4640 m). At 9 pm only a third of the people were there and we left for Pizza. On the way back, shortly before midnight we derigged a nearby highline, because we needed the gear. We still had the plan to leave in 3,5 h, without having planned or packed anything. Also, half the crew hadn’t arrived yet.
This was the point where my resolution to „practice patience“ resolved into thin air. I simply felt that what we were doing was irresponsible. Especially, because this was their first mountain project and also our first highline mountain project with so many people. At 1 pm the rest of the crew arrived at the mono slack house. We had a short discussion with everyone and together we agreed to postpone the start and use the next day to prepare everything in detail.
The next morning, we met to talk it through. The energy in this room was amazing!
We were a total 17 people, so it was quite the logistical challenge. Together we made sure everyone had the necessary personal equipment and enough food and water for three days. In addition we brought two complete highline setups, so everyone left with a backpack of at least 20 kg.
With four taxis we left at 3.45 am on Friday morning, and from there everything flowed, even though it was raining 50 % of the time. We arrived in the camp, first rigged a highline at the summit and then another one in the camp and everyone had plenty of time to walk the lines. With so many people, everyone could enjoy the mountain at their own rhythm. Together we had set up Ecuador’s highest highline(s) and the local community felt ready to try more lines like this.
My personal highlight was the meta level of this experience. We started the hike with asking permission to the mountain, Taita Imbabura and Diana shared a Cacao ceremony with us. Back home, we tent to focus on the technical part of such a project, and don’t take time for the spiritual part of the mountain. For me it felt, like the energy of this trip was limitless.
In the height of all this, when we were about to start the decent, suddenly Fernando fell to the ground. While lifting his backpack, he hurt his back and could not move anymore. From previous incidents he knew that it was probably a nerve and it was clear that he couldn’t descent by himself. They called a rescue team. We split our huge group, 6 stayed with him and the rest, including us, descended.
In the morning we heard, that he was still up there with his girlfriend. The rescue crew gave him some medicine and sent all the other ones back and left as well. The bombaderos (firefighters) would get him in the morning – that’s what they told us.
Half of us were still in the mono slack house, waiting for better news. At 11 am there was still no finite answer from the responsible firefighters when they would rescue him and little by little we realized that there must have been a miscommunication with the rescue. Knowing that the night would come, we decided to try rescue him ourselves, still hoping that the firefighters would come, too. With an improvised carrier we arrived at 2pm at the camp. The first 100m of altitude were a rocky and muddy trail and it took us almost 2h to get him across this section.
We were incredible happy so see the lights of the firefighters finally coming closer. A doctor took care of him. With proper equipment and ten more people carrying him was a lot faster, but still surprisingly hard. The trail was steep, slim and extremely muddy. We were surprised how hard it is to carry someone immobile, even with 17 people sharing the weight and taking turns. At 9pm we finally arrived at the parking were the truck of the firefighters was waiting for Fernando. His girlfriend told us about the communication, and indeed a misunderstanding had happened.
Nevertheless, it was a good reminder for us that, even though mountain rescue exists and somehow works, it is not comparable to the well organized and quick helicopter rescue we have in the Alps.
Sebastian, a guide in Colombia was once joking: „Sure, we have helicopter here! You see this horse? His name his helicopter!“
This was our first mountain rescue ever, and for sure some very intense moments. Within hours we felt a very strong bond to all the people we shared this experience with. I can already say that the time in Ibarra will be one of the most memorable of this trip! Fernando has meanwhile recovered and is back on the line.
Thankfully, there was not another adventure „like this“ waiting for us any time soon, but the highline community kept surprising us with their open hearts:
Already during our shared slackline trip we got invited to Quito, particularly to „La Cumbre“, a climbing and slackline gym. They had asked Lukas to give a keynote at the gym and he was happy to share his insights with them. From a guided tour to the accommodation, everything was taken care of. It was so cool to see Quito through their eyes and get to know the hidden gems, especially in terms of food. The best place was the market corner with delicious Ecuadorian empanadas and a hot fruit drink called morada colada. We even got the chance to see and try their highline and rope jump spot at a nearby bridge.
Then it was time to move on, because the slackliners had told us a lot about a stunning gorge just below Chimborazo, the highest mountain of the country. We had a new goal: Slacklining at the gorge, Acantilando de San Juan, and climbing Chimborazo. Half way there, we stopped for an acclimatization hike to the Illiniza Norte and then moved on to the famous Acantilado.
Climbing and slacklining in this scenery was amazing. Only the height of 3800m and the according temperatures made life a little harder. Oskar, Gerson, Daniel and Damian came all the way down and joined us for some days. Unfortunately, strong winds destroyed our longline planes for the weekend and we had to take the newly rigged Line down earlier than planned.
Those winds also kept us waiting for the Chimborazo. After looking at this mountain for days, we were incredibly exited to finally climb it. On the summit, we will be at the closest point to the sun on earth. Lukas has been talking about this for weeks!
We were in contact with a guide, since it is mandatory to climb the mountain „con guia“. The hut was closed, so we slept together in the van. Well, sleeping in this case meant going to bed at 5 pm and leaving at 10.30 pm. At 6 am we arrived as the first group at the first summit, Punta Veintemilla. Instead of continuing to the second, higher summit, our guide suddenly told us that this was the end of the track, because we were too late to continue. We didn’t see any objective dangers and had still 4 parties behind us ascending, so his decision was not clear to us, but arguments didn’t help. Being tide to the same rope, we had to follow him back down. The whole way down we had mixed feelings, being on the one hand super happy about our first 6000m peak and on the other hand quite depressed of not reaching our goal – the actual summit, for reasons we simply couldn’t understand/agree with. So we made it to the second highest point on earth?
Back down came the second bummer. We had parked the car at the Refugio Carell at 4800 masl. After some trouble starting the engine, it went directly in the DPF regeneration mode. Since Colombia we knew what to do and kept driving, but only 5 min later the limb mode and engine warnings switched on. With this, a regeneration wasn’t possible anymore and we rolled back down into the next big city, Riobamba.
It was just 2 pm and in theory we had still plenty of time to find a mechanic. But we had learned from previous experiences: For once we did not try to be efficient and make use of every second without sleep and being exhausted from climbing Chimborazo. We relaxed first and dealt with it the day after. Mental boot camp successfully accomplished?
It was definitely the right decision. The problem could not be fixed easily and we had the choice of cleaning the DPF again manually, like in Colombia, or removing it completely. Since the real heights of Peru and Bolivia were still in front of us and our car always went directly into the limb mode, we decided to remove it. Also because we had several recommendations for a good mechanic in Quito who could also do the necessary reprogramming of the engine ecu. And so we booked a transport company that brought Barú back to Quito and we spent the next days at the EP3 Chip Tuning garage.
We knew that they have lots of experience with this process, but the chief mechanic wasn’t around. So he instructed his employees and communicated with us via phone. The communication wasn’t ideal and not all employees seemed to be that confident and had the chief mechanics skills, so we were a little nervous. The DPF was already gone, the cat destroyed and we had no clue about the programming part ourselves. We couldn’t do anything else than trust and wait – relax! Once again, the slackliners gave us a little escape – we visited their community base in Quito, the beautiful Casa Capuli.
However, four days later, all the warning lights were finally gone and we were good to go.
Our time in Ecuador was coming to and end and from Quito we drove South, this time via the Amazonian region. For three days, we drove through this evergreen landscape. Before moving on to Peru, we had one last stop in Cuenca and Cojitambo, to go climbing.
The slackline community showed us the true heart of Ecuador, changed my perspective of this country completely and taught me a lot about myself. Patience!
Highlife is something truly special. Un abrazo fuerte! Gracias!
