Sincholagua is an inactive volcano located in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

northeast of

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located near 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 (after Chim ...

Volcano and southeast of

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

.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

, 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

, 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 An ...

as well as the Western Cordillera and the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. 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 () is a protected area in Ecuador situated in the Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, Cotopaxi, Napo Province, Ecuador, Napo and Pichincha Province, Ecuador, Pichincha provinces, roughly south of Quito. The Cotopaxi, Cotopaxi volc ...

to reach the volcano. It can also be accessed from

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 and Louis Carrel on 23 February 1880. Whymper is best known for being the first to ascend

Matterhorn The , ; ; ; or ; ; . is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the Main chain of the Alps, main watershed and border between Italy and Switzerland. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, ...

mountain in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. 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. Edward Whymper

Air crash

On 3 May 1995 a private

Gulfstream II The Gulfstream II (G-II) is an American twin engine business jet designed and first built by Grumman, then Grumman American and finally Gulfstream American. It was succeeded by the Gulfstream III. The first Gulfstream II flew on October 2, 19 ...

aircraft operated by American Jet, inbound from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

via

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, selected the wrong VOR 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 pe ...

's CEO and president José Estenssoro, who had led privatization efforts under

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

; 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 Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931) is an Argentine politician who served as the 41st president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the List of elected and appointed female heads of s ...

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 the riots that ensued thereafter. The name is from the fact that the policies were announced and implemented by Celestino Rodrigo, the Mini ...

''. 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 The National Reorganization Process ( PRN; often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship") ...

(to which Zinn also contributed).

References

External links

* {{Authority control Stratovolcanoes of Ecuador Inactive volcanoes Pleistocene stratovolcanoes