Chimborazo

Chimborazo in the morning light

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The inactive volcano Chimborazo ( [ ˌ tʃimboɾaθo ː ], [ ˌ t͡ʃimboɾaso ] ) is 6310 m ( according to recent data 6267 m) above sea level, the highest mountain in Ecuador.

• 2.1 Name and mythological significance
• 2.2 First ascent
• 2.3 Missing Flight SAETA 232
• 2.4 More

• 3.1 routes
• 3.2 huts

Geography and Geology

Location

The Chimborazo is located in the Western Cordillera of the Andes, in the province named after him. His neighbor peak is 5018 m high Carihuairazo. The majestic summit of Chimborazo rises 2500 m from about 3500 to 4000 m high surrounding plateau. Its diameter is at the base of about 20 km. Under ideal conditions, mostly in the winter months ( December to April ), the summit of the coastal city of Guayaquil can be seen. The main towns in its vicinity are Riobamba ( about 30 km southeast ), Ambato ( 30 km northeast) and Guaranda ( about 25 km southwest of the mountain ). The Chimborazo is within the nature reserve " Reserva de Produccion Faunistica Chimborazo ", which serves to protect the habitat of the native species of the Andean camelid vicuña, llama and alpaca.

Glacier

The upper part of the mountain from about 5100 m is glaciated. Individual glacier arms reach down to 4600 m. The glaciers of Chimborazo provide the water supply for large parts of the provinces of Bolivar and Chimborazo. Chimborazo glacier have significantly lost Tungurahua ( Schotterer et al 2003) and the El Niño phenomenon of mass in the last decades due to global warming, ash cover as a result of the current volcanic activity of its eastern neighbor.

As with other Ecuadorian mountains and the ice of the glaciers of Chimborazo of so-called Hieleros is reduced ( from Spanish Hielo for Ice ) to be sold in the markets of Guaranda and Riobamba. Previously, the ice was down in coastal lowland cities like Babahoyo or Vince transported ( Borja 2004).

Volcanism

The volcanism at Chimborazo is a result of the subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American continent and has predominantly andesitic to dacitic - character. The stratovolcano has erupted around the year 550 ( ± 150 years) for the last time.

Height

With 6310 m of Chimborazo is the highest mountain of Ecuador and northern mountains higher than all of America. In a 1993 exercise differential GPS measurement, a height of only 6267 m was found. Also SRTM data suggest that this height is more likely than the widespread elevation of 6310 m.

Chimborazo was considered, before the measurement of the Himalayas than the highest mountain on Earth at all. The measurements George Everest in 1856 showed, however, that many Himalayan peaks, especially the Mount Everest are significantly higher than Chimborazo. Even in the Andes you've seen many of the higher mountains and volcanoes. The highest mountain in the Andes is Aconcagua 6962 m above sea level, the highest volcano on Earth is also located in the Andes Nevado Ojos del Salado with 6893 m height.

Distance from the axis of the earth and from the earth center

The summit of Chimborazo is because of its proximity to the equator, the point of the earth's surface, which is away from the center of the earth farthest. That he the much higher Mount Everest outperforms, is that the earth is not a sphere due to rotation and the centrifugal force resulting, but a spheroid whose radius is smaller and bigger at the equator to the poles. Taking the center of the Earth as a reference point, so surpasses by Senne (2000), Chimborazo (1 ° south latitude, 6384.557 km from the center of the Earth ) Mount Everest (28 ° north latitude, 6382.414 km from the center of the Earth ) by more than two kilometers.

On the one hand, because of the maximum distance of the Earth's axis, the centrifugal acceleration due to the Earth's rotation was greatest, on the other hand, the least because of the maximum distance from the center of the earth, the gravitational acceleration, both of which contributes to the summit of Chimborazo is the point of the earth's surface with the lowest gravitational acceleration of 9.767 m / s ².

History

Name and mythological significance

Regarding the origin of the name Chimborazo exist several theories. It can be a combination of Cayapa word for woman - Schingbu - and the Kichwa word for ice / snow - Razo - be what would result in something like Icy woman, or with Chimbo for throne / God's throne from the Shuar it would Icy throne of God. From the indigenous people living around the mountain is also called Urkurasu ( Urcorazo ); with the Quichuawort urku - Mountain - gives the simple mountain ice.

In local indigenous mysticism about the Puruhá Chimborazo is a sacred mountain. Taita Chimborazo ( Kichwa for Taita 's father) represented as a man of Mama Tungurahua the progenitor of the Puruhá.

First ascent

Chimborazo was first described in 1565 by a European, Girolamo Benzoni. The Frenchman Charles Marie de La Condamine and Pierre Bouguer in 1742 undertook research on the mountain. A first attempt right ascension already ventured Alexander von Humboldt, Aimé Bonpland and Carlos together with Montúfar on June 23, 1802; they reached a height of about 5600 m ( their own former estimate was 5900 m). The description of the ascent by Humboldt we owe the first accurate description of the symptoms of altitude sickness. Humboldt spent several days on the mountain. He sketched him and let be mapped with him in the background. In December 1831 also failed the naturalist Jean Baptiste Boussingault from France. Reached the top first, a British- Italian rope team consisting of Edward Whymper, Jean Antoine and Louis Carrel on January 4, 1880., The Refuge on the southwest side below the glacier at 5000 m was named in honor of the first ascent " Edward Whymper hut ". As many critics have questioned the successful first ascent Whymper ascended yet to in that year the mountain a second time on a new route (from Pogyos in the west ), with the two Ecuadorians David Beltrán and Francisco Campaña ( Whymper, 1892).

Missing flight SAETA 232

On August 15, 1976 SAETA - flight was 232 with 55 passengers and 4 crew members lost on the 309 km long route from Quito to Cuenca. Immediate searches in possible crash regions were unsuccessful. Although a crash at Chimborazo was considered most likely, no wreckage was found. After the crashed aircraft and its occupants were over 26 years as missing, the remains on 17 October 2002 by Ecuadorian climbers who used the rarely committed Integral route, were found at an altitude of about 5400 m east of the Chimborazohauptgipfels.

More

• Pierre Bouguer made ​​as part of its geodetic and gravimetric measurements in Ecuador end of 1738 experiments first showed that the presence of large mountain ranges caused deviations from the plumb line; However, the deviation was smaller than expected from him, as the concept of isostasy was not known to him.
• The Chimborazo is pictured on the Ecuadorian coat of arms as a symbol of the beauty and richness of the Sierra.
• Simón Bolívar wrote an inspired him poem titled Mi delirio sobre el Chimborazo.
• The name Chimborazo used Tancred Dorst in his play on the Chimborazo symbolic of the Muppberg at the Thuringian- Franconian border at Oberlind.
• A literary representation of Chimborazobesteigung with some historical inaccuracies can be found in Daniel Quinn: Measuring the World. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2005, ISBN 3-498-03528-2.

Mountaineering

The ascent of Chimborazo is very popular with climbers. Despite its height, it is easily accessible and relatively easy to climb the normal route.

• The Chimborazo can be climbed all year round, with the relatively dry and often clear months of December / January and July / August are best suited for advancement.
• A good altitude acclimatization is necessary.

Routes

The simplest and most commonly used route is the normal route ( Difficulty I/F-PD- ) and the Whymper route (II / PD ). Both routes start at the Whymper hut and run via the west ridge and at the peak Ventimilla ( 6,228 m) to the main summit ( Whymper or Ecuador) ( 6,268 m).

There are several other, less used and most difficult routes on the various pages and ridges to one of the following peaks: the main peak ( Whymper, Ecuador ), central peak ( Politecnico ) and East Summit ( N. Martinez ).

There are two cottages in operation, the Carrel hut ( 4850 m) and a little further up Whymper Hut ( 5000 m). The Carrel hut is accessible by a road and can be reached from Riobamba, Ambato or Guaranda. The Zurita hut ( 4900 m ) on the Pogyos route is no longer in operation.

Literature and Maps

• Carmen Borja: Hieleros del Chimborazo. Entrevista a Igor Guayasamín. In: Ecuador Terra Incognita. Vol 29, 2004.
• Isabelle Chaffaut, Marie Guillaume: El Niño and glacier melt in the tropical Andes. on: the innovations- report.com 22 October, 2004, accessed on 22 August 2006.
• Nelson Gómez: Atlas del Ecuador. Editorial Ediguias, Quito 1994 ( 3rd edition, ISBN 9978-89-009-2 )
• Alexander von Humboldt: With an attempt to ascend the summit of Chimborazo. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-8218-0767-9. ( contains, among other things, the diary Humboldt to his not successful ascent )
• Günter Schmudlach: Guides Ecuador. Walks around Quito, trekking tours, Middle mountain tours, snow mountains, climbing mountains, combined tours, jungle mountains. Panico Alpinverlag, Koengen 2001, ISBN 3-926807-82-2.
• Ulrich Schotterer, Martin Grosjean, among other things: Glaciers and Climate in the Andes in between the Equator and 30 ° S: What is Recorded under Extreme Environmental Conditions? In: Climatic Change. Vol 59, H. 1-2, 2003, ISSN 0165-0009, pp. 157-175.
• Edward Whymper: Travels Amongst the Great Andes of the Equator, John Murray, London 1892, ISBN 1-904466-24-9 (various editions ).

• IGM (Instituto Militar Geografico, Ecuador ), Chimborazo Ecuador, CT NIV C1, Quito, 1991, accessed on 22 August 2006 ( the Chimborazo map at a scale of 1:50,000 ).
• Association for Comparative High Mountain Research on: Orthophoto map Nevado Chimborazo, Ecuador 1:20,000. Department of Geography, Heinrich -Heine- University Dusseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-86780-141-6.