I write this description while wide-awake at 4am [wake up time for the last week] eating a big bowl of oatmeal and very happy to be back after summating the 22,000 foot plus mountain of Mt. Huascaran in the Andes of Peru. I am living in Huaraz, about 8 hours north of Lima, where I have been living for the past 18 months. Today is June 12, 1996.
Our first night of camping was at about 13,500 ft. Here is a photo showing Huascaran taken from near the town of Yungay where 20,000 people died in 1972, when a huge chunk of the mountain came crashing down and mixed with snow and ice. During the entire trip, we had clear weather, great sunsets, each night looking more and more above the Black Mts. to the west and better sunrises. This also meant we had our first sun later and later in the morning, since the mountains block the sun until 10 am. Here is a photo from the granite rocks about 1000 feet below the start of the glacier.
Day 2 we walked over the rocks to the edge of the glacier and put on the gear and walked a few more hours to CAMP I, or the first camp on the snow. Each day was only about 5 to 7 hours walking, but it felt like more. Between where the dirt ends and the glacier is the moraine and the rocks. The moraine is the rocky material left behind by a retreating glacier. Lack of O2 is a strange thing, even more so when in shape. It feels like I have just sprinted and that feeling won't go away. The feeling gets stronger and stronger as one climbs up and up until the entire time I am concentrating on breathing. One step uphill is a huge task. The backside or east side of Huascaran is very dangerous and basically unclimbable. Here is a view from North and East of Huascaran looking at the east side. The closer peak is the north peak.
Snow camping is not for those who dislike cold. Everything is cold all the time; except for brief moments when there is no wind and the sun is strong...Then I could even strip down and take a snow bath. Liquid water is a big problem, since everything needs to be melted and drunk quickly or it can refreeze at night. Sleep is tough and eating just as hard...even with good equipment, camping is a struggle. Sunsets on Huascaran were beautiful and distances vast. The avalanche in the background of this photo was about 1 mile uphill and the snow covering the rock about the avalanche is thousands of feet thick.
Day three we starting climbing up. Getting an early start is important since the snow is harder and not yet thawed. The entire route is not very hard in terms of mt. climbing. Crampons and ice boots (along with glacier glasses, gloves, hats, ski clothing, plus camping gear on the back) are need the entire route, but the few ice faces are not too tough, even less so when roped in. In the snow season here, plenty of dry, dry snow falls up high on the peaks, which means until a trail is created the powder is meters deep. We were one of the first groups to climb Huascaran this year, but not the first, so there was a compacted trail to walk on. Here we are resting almost to basecamp. Clear days mean melting in the day and clear nights mean freezing at night. We had a semi-packed trail the entire time, but one step to the side meant up the waist or at least knee-deep powder. Here is our basecamp at about 19,800 feet.
We arrived day 3 at 19,800 at the saddle of the mt. about mid-day. Most days we would wake up before 6 am, and leave by 7. Even the simplest tasks, such as rolling up the ground cloth take time in the cold and wind and everything is much more bulky when frozen and covered in snow and ice, not to mention being out of o2, wearing gloves and feeling cold. We went to bed early this day to try and sleep to leave at am for the final 2,500 ft. One is supposed to have a headlamp for hiking in the dark, but I have never had one and thought the moon would light the way. Well there was no moon and so the first 2.5 hours I hiked/climbed without one and kept going off the trail, which meant constant exhaustion. Luckily, there was a 300 meter ice wall to climb, which meant going very slowly and not needing to see (it was so steep, I was glad I couldn't see). My hands and feet were very cold and I stopped many times just to warm them. The temperature felt like the Sierras in CA in a cold winter night. All skin was covered, but the nose and mouth. (I am glad I had a full beard for more insulation...to be cut today!) By 5:40am the dim light was hitting Huascaran north across from the saddle from us. Here I am struggling to catch my breathe, with a view looking northeast with Huascaran north to my right, just as the first rays of light reach us. The next 4 hours was a slow, slow march up a relatively flat slope (a beginner's ski slope, but each step was a struggle).
To overcome the last 1000 feet of vertical climb, I would take 10 small steps and count slowly to 10 and try and catch my breath, concentrating hard just to do that. I was lucky. I didn't have a headache or feel sick as some others did. By 10am, the sun was warmer (I was still in my parka and with additional 5 layers of pile and warm clothing under that, while walking!!) We made it to the top about 10am. Check out the view from the 22,200 feet.
It was mild up top, warm enough to drink and eat a piece of candy, about the only thing I ate all day. Eating one piece of candle was a job, since it meant trying to eat and breathe at the same time. To approximate the feeling of being at 22,000 feet, imagine trying to eat or drink right after sprinting and how you lungs beg for air. Then make it worse by taking a paper bag with a few small holes in it. You must breathe all the time through the paper bag. That begins to describe the feeling. We spent an hour at the summit and looked at all the snow covered peaks in the park and over the Black Mts. towards the coast and saw the thick fog, which covers the Peruvian coast at this time of year. A bit like being at the top of Skyline between the Bay Area and the coast, but just 10 time higher! Here is the view looking south towards Huaraz with me holding the "El Instituto de Montana" banner.
The walk down back to basecamp took 2 hours and with skis could have taken 20 minutes. Here we are starting to walk down, looking north towards the saddle of Huascaran. Here my group is as three small dots in the center of the photo and now we are almost back to basecamp. Check out the size of the snow banks. We got there and drank some water and lay down, but sleeping was so tough, just rolling around. We were lucky, for when we got to saddle basecamp, we were the only ones there, but for the second 2 night 5 groups arrived. The bathroom scene is terrible, people just doing their thing around the tents (the powder is so deep and the packed snow limited)...leaving piles on brown and yellow mess!
Yesterday, we left at 7:15 am from 19,800 ft, after taking over an hour just to pack the tents and put on crampons. It was chilly, but gravity does most of the work on the downhill parts. The climb was done with six people and in two groups of three, each roped in by threes. By mid afternoon, I was back in Huaraz at 10,000ft! Make you want to climb?
