Sincholagua is an inactive volcano located in
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
northeast of
Cotopaxi
Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a h ...
Volcano and southeast of
Quito.
[Rachoweicki, Rob and Mark Thurber. ''Ecuador: Climbing and Hiking Guide''. Viva Pub. Network, 2008. p.208.] It is the 12th highest peak in the country at but also one of the lesser known ones. The name of the mountain comes from the indigenous language Quichua and means "strong above".
[Brain, Yossi, ''Ecuador: A Climbing Guide'', Seattle: Mountaineers, 2000. p.125.] Due to its close proximity to
Cotopaxi
Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a h ...
, the second highest peak in Ecuador and the most popular volcano, it is far less frequently visited compared to other mountains in the country. It has a sharp peak and at one point had glacial cover year round, but all of the glaciers melted a few decades ago. However, snow can still be seen on the peak since there is sometimes heavy snowfall at the summit.
[http://www.summitpost.org/sincholagua/672776. Andean, Boriss. "Sincholagua: Climbing, Hiking, and Mountaineering". summitpost.com. 8/16/12, 9/29/13]
Climbing Sincholagua
Sincholagua is one of the least frequently climbed mountains in Ecuador because it is difficult to access and less well known compared to other mountains and volcanoes in the country. There is also a long hike to access it compared to other volcanoes like
Pichincha and
Cotopaxi
Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a h ...
, making it more difficult to get to. Sincholagua is best known for views of the surrounding mountains such as Cotopaxi and
Antisana
Antisana is a stratovolcano of the northern Andes, in Ecuador. It is the fourth highest volcano in Ecuador, at , and is located SE of the capital city of Quito.
Antisana presents one of the most challenging technical climbs in the Ecuadorian ...
as well as the
Western Cordillera and the
Amazon rainforest. The climb is of moderate difficulty and takes an estimated three hours and thirty minutes to reach the summit from base camp with ideal weather conditions.
The Northwest ridge is the normal route up the mountain and was used by the first climbers. People who want to climb it usually come in from the south through
Cotopaxi National Park
Cotopaxi National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Cotopaxi) is a protected area in Ecuador situated in the Cotopaxi Province, Napo Province and Pichincha Province, roughly south of Quito. The Cotopaxi volcano (meaning 'smooth neck of the moon' in Que ...
to reach the volcano. It can also be accessed from
Quito.
History
The first ascent of Sincholagua was made by
Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 184016 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. W ...
,
Jean-Antoine Carrel
Jean-Antoine Carrel (1829 – August 1891) was an Italian mountain climber and guide. He had made climbs with Edward Whymper and was his rival when he attempted to climb the Matterhorn for the first time. Whymper ultimately succeeded in making th ...
and Louis Carrel on 23 February 1880.
Whymper is best known for being the first to ascend
Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
mountain in
Switzerland. Sincholagua lost all permanent glaciers on its peak decades ago, but before that had a glacier cover about 1.5 kilometers long.
A river that runs around and on the mountain, the Río Pita, widened due to the last major eruption in 1877. When Whymper climbed Sincholagua, the Río Pita was 200 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and in 1892, after the eruption it was 1,100 feet wide and 50 feet deep at its widest and deepest. Currently it is considered a stream.
Air crash
On 3 May 1995 a private
Gulfstream II aircraft operated by American Jet, inbound from
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
via
La Paz, selected the wrong
VOR
VOR or vor may refer to:
Organizations
* Vale of Rheidol Railway in Wales
* Voice of Russia, a radio broadcaster
* Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race
Science, technology and medicine
* VHF omnidirectional range, a radio navigation aid used in a ...
frequency during a nighttime approach to Quito's
Mariscal Sucre Airport; the jet flew further south than it should have, striking Sincholagua at . All seven occupants were killed. The flight was carrying a number of oil executives from Argentina and Chile to a meeting in Quito.
Amongst those killed was Argentine
YPF
YPF S.A. (, formerly ; English: "Fiscal Oilfields") is a vertically integrated, majority state-owned Argentine energy company, engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, and the transportation, refining, and marketing of gas and petr ...
's CEO and president José Estenssoro, who had led privatization efforts under
Carlos Menem;
Juan Pedrals Gili, the Spanish-born general manager of Chilean
ENAP as well as Manfred Hecht Mittersteiner, chief of production at ENAP's international subsidiary Sipetrol.
Accompanying Estensoro was the controversial economist
Ricardo Zinn, who worked as viceminister of economy and finances during the government of
Isabel Perón in 1975, and is considered the architect of the radical adjustment program known as the ''
Rodrigazo
Rodrigazo is the name given to a group of economic policies announced in Argentina on June 4, 1975, and their immediate aftermath. The name is from the fact that the policies were announced and implemented by Celestino Rodrigo, the Minister of Eco ...
''. This phenomenon contributed to erode the political and social stability of Argentina in the lead-up to the
1976 coup d'état that installed the military dictatorship known as the
National Reorganization Process (to which Zinn also contributed).
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Stratovolcanoes of Ecuador
Inactive volcanoes
Pleistocene stratovolcanoes