Today tue. we have early morning meeting regarding accent of Cotopaxi . I replete with pen and paper propose "modus operandi"so we sing from the same hymn sheet , no discordant voices, so far so good. We decide on route, times, equipment required..even a menu... draw a line on enforceing haggis suppers all round. L@@k Flowers (30) has had some experince of glacier conditions and has worked in an outdoors shop in alberta,& "knows his knots" makes a big deal about crevasse rescue & sounds reasonably knowlegeable, but I suspect it has been all learnt in a classroom & is all theory, doubt he has ever rescued anyone from even a snowball fight. The Colorado kid, just turned 24, is a typical effusive american, claiming experience in climbing & in glacier travel. Enthusiastic* & upbeat & of course does not drink enough, in the belief this is virtuous, " I hae ma doots"
Daniel (32) swiss from zurich ( if it comes to a square go at least we´ll have someone to hawd the coats) 16 months on the road much of it solo on his bike. On reaching a tricky bit on Illianaz (the rest had dashed on ahead) i aked him how he felt about this & he told me he had never scrambled in his life or had any experience of climbing ( and him from switzerland too ! tsk tsk !) All the same I feel I know were I stand with him & he is not full of bull, having not much to prove. So far he has my stamp of approval. could a US v Europe contest be ahead ?
Spent the rest of the day doing some "shopping" ( a word they were all unaware the meaning of ) & to explain "doing our messages" only resulted in blank looks , bewilderment and vague thoughts of a trip to an internet cafe. However all these jobs done ( when in Aberdeen I was once told by the cleaning lady in the union, after mentioning that she seemed particulaly busy that " you canny stand still when you have plenty o wee jobbies to do" oh how true how true!) we then hired equipment for the ensueing expedition ( ice axe, harness, prussacs etc) Last job of the day to uplift washing, whilst waiting in the que I feel my nose, throat & upper resperatory tract cleansed by the soapy soapy air .
We leave for Cotopaxi tomorrow, SS
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You can tell Kit from Colorado that he is living in a virtuous state. The worst according to the news the other night is New Mexico where they have started to fit little tubes to the "motors". You blow into this tube in the morning and if your breath is in any way suspect with the bevi your car won't start! I wonder how many morning roof jobs in the west end would suffer if this particular device was fitted to the postman pat wagon.
Anyway this must be some bivouac to be away for three days, this crew sounds like a right handful. I am sure the leader, whoever is chosen - hmm - will have his patience stretched to the absolute limit.
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