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El Altar Ice Climbing

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Routes in El Altar

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El Obispo, Italian Route (Modern) AI4 M4 Steep Snow

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Elevation:	14,845 ft	4,525 m
GPS:	-1.67072, -78.42298 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	2,414 total · 28/month
Shared By:	Chris C on Oct 18, 2017
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Description

El Altar is a remote and rarely accessed extinct volcano in Ecuador in the Sangay National Park. It was first climbed in 1963, making the last of the major peaks in Ecuador to be summited. It stands at 5,319m, with its highest point being El Obispo (The Bishop). El Altar is considered as Ecuador's gem of technical climbing, but between it's difficult routes and access, it is rarely climbed.

Getting There

The closest city to El Altar is Riobamba. There is signage to the mountain, but it is very incomplete and will likely not lead you to the correct location. The trailhead begins in what looks like a person's personal small ranch, and is not clearly visible from the street. The best indicator is a water dam by the road. It is best to hire somebody who knows there way to get here.

Getting to the Campo Italiano is quite straightforward from the trailhead. All roads lead to Rome, as they say. (Get it, Italiano..?) The trail is very muddy and knee high rubber boots are essentially required. There are surprisingly trail markers on the trail, but they begin a little to late and end a little too early.

Between the trail markers and the incomplete street signage in Riobamaba, it seems like at some point there was an effort to make this an actual trail. The thick mud likely thwarted all efforts in the end to make this an enjoyable hike though.