once I got in to bed I started to get the most intense sharp pains across my chest every time I took a breath, I put it down to the thin air and tried to go to sleep, but the pain just got worse and it made it imposable for me to sleep, to the point that I was curled up in a ball almost crying with the pain, It must have been about 4am and I really started to think that if I did manage to get to sleep I would not wake up, so I decided to go downstairs to where our guide was sleeping to tell him that there was something wrong, when I woke him he shit himself, not because there was sommert wrong with me, just coz he wasn't expecting to be woken up at 4am, when I explained the problem he reassured me that there was nothing to worry about and that it was just the altitude and that I would be fine in the morning, now at this point I have to say its amazing when you don't know a person but because of there job there reassurance makes a big difference, now our guide wasn't a doctor but as soon as he told me I would be OK I managed to fall asleep, and yes I did wake up in the morning!!. First thing we had to do was to make sure that our bags were properly packed, so we had to empty out all bags and spread all our kit out on the floor so that we could see every piece of it to make sure it was all present and correct, then we had to repack it all in the same order as the guide, once we had all packed we went down for breakfast (which was the usual tea, bread roll and jam). Once we had breakfast we got in to our 4x4 and were on out way! After about a 30min drive we got to the car park at the base of Cotopaxi unloaded on put on our backpacks and headed for the refuge at 4800 mtrs, It took us about 50mins to get to the refuge but once there I felt great, I really felt I could actually do this, I could make it to the top!.

At the refuge there was lots of people, must have been about 30ish, but all but 3 where only there to visit Cotopaxi and walk to the refuge, and by 3-4 o'clock they had all gone just leaving me, Ryan and a guy from Germany who had his own guide, there was another couple there who were experienced climbers and were going to attempt to climb the same night as us but one of them was really ill so they did not bother in the end.

Once we had sorted our bags in the refuge we had to do a “training” climb up to the glacier that was about 5000mtrs, it only took us about an hour and a half to reach the glacier and was good to get used to the Crampons, Ice Pick, and the deep snow, once we got back down to the refuge we had dinner then all went to bed even though it was only 9pm, but we did have to get up at 12am to start our climb, We went to bet with with the mountain having perfect conditions for our climb, but when we woke at 12am it was a different matter...! in the four hours that we had slept there had been a lot of heavy snowfall that was looking to make the climb difficult for us, but we were all in positive moods and were ready for whatever the mountain could throw at us!, as we set of it was pitch black and our headlamps were only lighting up about 4 mtrs ahead, also because of the snowfall the route that we were supposed to be following was hardly visible. Because this was out actual hike our guide was making us take it very slow so that we did not tire ourselves out before we reaches the hard section, as we were walking the snow was getting deeper and deeper and the path was getting steeper with every step it was an absolute amazing feeling though, I felt like I could keep on climbing for hours the snow that was falling was getting heaver and stronger but that did not at any point make me think “i cant do this” I just had this feeling that I would definitely be able to make it to the top, it was only after three and a half hours of climbing that our guide stopped and said to take a rest for five mins, while we were resting he was talking to the guide that was with the German guy (they were following behind) and after a few mins he said that we were not going to be able to go any further as the snowfall had made perfect avalanche and it was too dangerous to go any further, at which point he said to me to lead the way down! Because the snow had been continually falling as we started to make out way down it became apparent the the tracks we had made on the way up were now gone so our decent was a little bit tricky,but with my skill as a climber we made it back to the refuge no problem, both myself and Ryan were absolutely gutted not to have got to the summit but there was not much that we could do about the weather so all we had to do was to go back to bed and then head back to Quito the next morning. On the way back Ryan and I had discussed the possibility of meeting up in Cuenca in a few weeks to possibly travel on to Peru, so we exchanged emails and agreed to message each other with possible plans.