Sangay

West side of the volcano in January 2006

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The Sangay is a 5,230 m high active volcano in southeast Ecuador.

Location

The Sangay is located on the eastern edge of the Cordillera in southeast Ecuador and is named for the Sangay National Park. Its eastern slopes fall away to the Amazon basin, in the west borders the páramo highlands of Ecuador at. The landscape in the vicinity of Sangays is characterized by labyrinthine mountain ridges with a unique flora and fauna.

Name

The name Sangay is mostly attributed samkay to the Kichwa word that " scare " stands for. But there are also other theories.

Volcanic activity

The Sangay is one of the world's volcanoes with the highest continuity of volcanic activity. Since 1934, the volcano throws almost constantly from boulders and ash. Due to the eruptions that take place at a distance of 15 to 60 minutes, the volcanic cone builds on. The summit has three craters, the main crater in the southwest has a diameter of 100 m.

Routes to the summit

The ascent is technically easy, but through the frequent eruptions with Steinau throws and subsequent avalanches dangerous. The usual ascent is from the west with a starting point in Food or Alao. Up to the Base Camp at 3,600 m (La Playa, Spanish for " the beach " because of a nearby creek with shallow banks ) there are three days and stages through some challenging terrain with many crossings of ridges and river crossings. From the base camp one (La Ventana, Spanish for " The", as can be seen from here for the first time in the Amazon Basin ) initially increases with rubber boots on several of the typical ribs towards the southeast up to a striking rocks in about 4,200 m above sea level. The further ascent is with mountain boots from the south side first on scree and snow fields to the edge of the crater. The summit success depends not only on the weather and visibility conditions, but in particular on the current activity of the volcano.

First ascent

On August 4, 1929, the Mountain by Robert T. Moore, Terris Moore, Waddel Austin and Lewis Thorne was first climbed.