Day I - Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sunset over Huascaran
After a celebratory dinner with the boys at cafe Andino, a pricey but upscale gringo joint in Huaraz, I got a good night´s sleep in a real bed (my only over the course of this week). I woke up, packed everything I needed for the trip and headed out to meet Roger.
We walked 5 or 6 blocks to a parking lot where we were able to get a ride to Yungay in a colectivo - an overgrown minivan crammed full of Peruvians. The bumpy, crowded ride took us and our gear about 80km north to the town of Yungay, where we would have to catch another colectivo up to the actual trail head. Our second ride was even more exciting. We shared the van with locals who were heading up through the high pass to the villages on the other side. We were crammed in next to a mountain of cargo, the most entertaining of which were three cardboard boxes filled with live chicks.
36 chicks bound for the remote western Andes via our collectivo
As we climbed up the bumpy, dirt road, the chicks squealed with unhappiness and their owner looked increasingly concerned. It became the unspoken collective duty of everyone on the bus to try to keep the boxes of chicks flat and stable and thus keep the birds alive.
It was a long ride to the trail-head and my culo - butt - was glad to get out and stand up. Roger and I lugged all of our gear out of the van and off the side of the road where we had a quick picnic lunch. Finally, it was time to divide up the gear. Despite my anxiety, we managed to make it all fit. Roger had brought a suitcase scale so we could divide things relatively easily. My pack weighed 25kg (55lb or nearly half my body weight), while Roger´s weighed almost 30kg.
Loaded up with half my body weight on my back, the bumpy dirt road in the background
The hike up to basecamp was thankfully quite short and we arrived in les than an hour. The campsite was essentially a cow pasture, complete with cows and cow poop. Still, it was nice to get the heavy packs off and relax. We had a long day up to campo moreno - the moraine camp - the next day, so we ate a hearty dinner and got to sleep early.
Troublesome vacas at base camp with Nevado Huascaran in the background
Day II - Thursday, June 16, 2011
The night was interesting, as the cows tried to invade our tent, in search of our salty pans. Sleep came in batches and I was glad to wake up for a (very cold) breakfast. The camp was nestled in a valley such that we didn´t get much sun and the morning was freezing. We ate quickly and packed up and headed up to the campo moreno.
Early morning wind over the summit of Chopicalqui
The trail was long and steep and proved to be one of the hardest days, thanks to our packs. Despite having eaten most of the heavy food (yogurt, fruit, etc) on the first day, our packs were still over 50lb each thanks to the remaining 4 days worth of supplies plus myriad climbing gear. With the campo moreno situated at 5000m, the thin air and the heavy packs were a nasty combination.
The trail began as a steep series of switch backs up the ridge next to camp, which luckily quickly flattened out to a sharp ridge along the side of the glacial wash. The scale of this wash is hard to fathom; it kind of looks like G-d just took a giant sandbox shovel and carved a massive divot into the Earth. The glaciers are unbelievably large and powerful.
We then had to cut down and through the wash to the other side where we began the long, continuous climb up to campo moreno. This was one of the more difficult and scarier ridge climbs I'd done. The trail rose not too steeply, but consistently for several hundred meters and the ridge along which we walked was razor thin with a 100m drop down a vertical cliff into the rocky wash just inches to our left. Yikes!
Roger following behind up the steep trail to campo moreno. The glacial wash in the background, with our trail visible on the left and farther back on the right.
Eventually, I looked down and saw we were well above the bottom of the glacier and our ridge was coming to a junction close to the snow line I figured (and hoped) that this meant we must be getting close. I pushed up to the ledge and Roger told me that we had arrived. I felt better after talking with Roger as he told me we had just climbed 800m (half a mile vertically) and were now just over 5000m (16,000´). Not bad for a sea-level dweller like me!
After a lunch and rest, we practiced some belay technique, rope travel, and crevasse rescue on the rocky cliffs near our camp. I felt prepared after taking Alpinismo (thanks to Stolp and Nick!), but it was good to have a refresher and practice it up high.
Sunset at campo moreno
By the time we finished it was time for dinner - instant mashed potatoes, canned tuna, and ramen - yum! A few cups of manzanilla - a popular herbal tea - and it was time for bed. We had the whole campsite to ourselves - no vacas this time. No gringos either. Just us alone in the mountains.
Day III - Friday, June 17, 2011
Today, we woke to thick cloud cover over the peaks and drifting into the valley - a rare sight for this time of year. As we ate breakfast, Roger told me we would have to change our plans. It was no longer safe to travel up to high camp today, as we had planned, so we would spend the day resting at campo moreno and then make our bid for the summit from here, a significantly longer trip.
The day was a typical patience-testing day in the mountains. With nothing to do but rest, I spent most of the day focusing my energy on wishing away the clouds. If the skies hadn´t cleared by tonight, we would have another agonizingly long day of waiting tomorrow and then a last chance to reach the summit on Saturday night-Sunday morning.
The clouds didn´t seem to go anywhere and occasionally storms of nublina - small pellets of snow that didn´t seem to stick - would come through for a half hour or so. As it neared dinner time, Roger said he didn´t think tonight was going to work out. There were just too many clouds to clear out in time for our 11pm departure.
Nublina coming down and keeping us stuck at camp
Still, we went through the motions and had a big dinner and got to bed early. We would awaken at 10pm to check the weather and decide if we would try tonight or wait another day. It was a long, restless few hours in the tent before that.
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