Ski Ecuador

Equador does not have any ski lifts but it does have high mountains of the Andes, some of which are permanently snow-capped so for those wish ski mountaineering experience who are happy to hike up thousands of metres in order to ski an off-the-beaten-track ski nation, Equador is certainly on the hit list.

The best known ‘ski mountain’ is in fact a volcano in the Pichincha region towards the north of the country which last erupted in 1786. Cayambe is 5,790m (18,996 ft) high, making it Equador’s third highest peak, and extends more than 2000m above the surrounding landscape including the large farming town of the same name at the base of the volcano, home to some 30,000 people and around 70 km (43 mi) northeast of Ecuador’s capital Quito.

It was first ascended in 1880 by Edward Whymper who was a famous Victorian-era mountaineer who had made the first ascent of the Matterhorn 15 years earlier in which four of his party fell to their deaths. His ascent of Cayambe was in part to study the then little known issue of altitude sickness which of course still affects skiers at these altitudes today.