Christian's posts with tag: mountain
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|  | I had a faboulus time in the National Park. And the weather was most un-patagonian. Sunshine all the time! Very little wind...
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Not much news. I managed to go straight through to El Chaltén on Thursday, avoiding having to stay a night in El Calafate. Since then, the weather has been spectacular almost all the time - few clouds and lots of sun. And most amazing - very little wind! Besides a little day trip on Friday I have been perfectly lazy, though, reading my book and chatting to the climbers which mostly populate the hostel I am staying at. They all get excited about the next 'window' of good and (hopefully) stable weather just opening up after what now is a day of mixed weather. According to the climbers, some of which are here since months, the last time the weather has been that good was at some stage in November. Even Cerro Torre has been without a cloud for several days now, which is a very rare event.
I might head out into the mountains myself tomorrow or the day after, so don't be surprised if you don't hear much from me for some days.
As I found out just today, I have probably taken the last picture of three climbers only minutes before they died on the wall of Artesonraju. This was when I was climbing Pisco more than a week ago. They were barely visible in the far distance but William, our guide, had spotted them with his impressive eye-sight. I had a look through my pictures again and found one where they are just visible. Minutes later they were nowhere to be seen anymore. William was quite concerned then, but there was nothing to be done. The only way to disappear that quickly from the middle of a 900m ice wall is by falling down. A most horrible tragedy which is the talk of the town at the moment. Their bodies have just been recovered from a crevasse at the bottom of the mountain yesterday. I have uploaded the picture here. There is some news on the accident on the internet here, here, and here.
 Climbing mountains truly is addictive. I know I had promised to leave the mountains behind after Pisco... But look, there were a couple factors that had me change my mind. The weather is perfect and stable now, I am fit and acclimatized, I am here now, the mountains are just out there, I had to watch them all the time (literally from the pillow of my hotel room!), and last but not least I had met Andy, a great guy from Sheffield who turned out to have similar interests... You see, I really had to go and climb one more! So we decided to combine a short three-day course on mountaineering, glacier travel, and rescue with a summit climb. We ended up going with William, my guide from the Pisco climb, who turned out to be a great teacher, too. William certainly knows his stuff. He would spot us putting the carbine the wrong way from more than four meters away and would meticulously and patiently correct all of our numerous mistakes making knots and setting up the rescue systems... But let me start at the beginning. So four days in total, besides Andy and me - William, of course, and his father, Pedro, who would take care of the camp in our absence, cook, and help ferrying the loads. It was actually impressive to see this fit 58-year old fellow carrying a heavy pack swiftly across the steep and ugly trail up to the moraine camp at 4900m. If I would be able to do this at his age, I would feel very fortunate! Speaking of the "trail" - this was actually the ugliest part of the whole trip, partly scrambling up steep rock slabs and slippery mud patches. Not overly bad, but with a 35kg backpack certainly not a walk in the park. The three nights in the moraine camp turned out to be somewhat rough for me, it got very cold immediately after the sun disappeared and I had trouble sleeping the first two nights. The fact that I also got diarrhea was an unpleasant addition to the discomfort. Honestly, a little bit of loose stool would probably not bother me much at low altitude - at high altitude, though, it is severely debilitating. On the third day around lunch time I had to quit the course and go back to camp to spend the afternoon dozing in my tent in order to gather enough strength for the summit day. This, my self-prescribed diet of only a few biscuits and copious amounts of tea for lunch and dinner, and some Loperamide two friendly American climbers gave me were probably responsible I actually made it to the summit. Life at the high camp turned out to be much more demanding than usual trekking. The wear and tear on my body and equipment in these four days was significantly more severe than during the twelve days in the Huayhuash. At some stage you do not care anymore about small bruises, dust, and dirt. And the fact that you are wearing the same cloths for four days, day and night, does not even come to your mind anymore as you have more severe things to worry about. For the course we went from the moraine camp up to the glacier at 5000m to practice the proper set-up of anchors, knots, rescue hoisting systems, ice-climbing, placement of ice-screws, etc. William not only turned out to be a very patient teacher, he really surprised us by his ability to spot the tiniest flaws in our technique even from far away. Well, if you want to survive mountaineering for a longer time, I guess you have to be extremely serious and accurate always. Unfortunately I could not really enjoy the lessons fully since I already felt somewhat weak after the first day. On the summit day we got up at 2 am, had some breakfast - a cup of hot water for me - and set out at about quarter to three. William set a very good and steady pace and although I was pretty much at my limit, we reached the summit at about 7.15 am, shortly after the sun had risen. I did not really enjoy the walk up due to my weakness and the cold, but on the summit I did warm up and the three of us spent a great three quarters of an hour doing silly things and snapping lots of pictures. Andy turned out to be a very keen photographer and he kindly allowed me to show some of his pictures on this site. Have a look here. The photograph of this blog entry is by him as well. On the way down the glacier we could see what a spectacular landscape we had missed on the way up. This included a few gaping crevasse holes right next to the trail we had come up, maybe good we did not see them before... We also met the two Americans who had helped me out with the medicine. They were carrying their skis up to the summit to ski down the mountain! Possible, but given the heavily crevassed glacier not without danger. After arriving in the camp, I took a quick nap in my tent. Then, we had to pack in everything and hike down the trail towards the access road. We were surprised ourselves how we had managed to climb up this gruesome path with our heavy backpacks the first day... At one spot William even secured us with the rope when we had to go down a rock slab. Once back to Huaraz at about 3 pm, I really enjoyed the hot shower!!! It did feel highly deserved. And the first night of nine hours solid sleep in a real bed were truly heaven. You can find my pictures of the trip here.
| | Had to look at this beautiful mountain for far too long from my hotel window in Huaraz... So in the end I just had to climb it! I went together with my guide from the Pisco climb, William, and Andy, a great fellow from England. Since we stayed three nights in the moraine camp at 4900m to learn a few mountaineering skills in the days before the climb, we were joined by Pedro, Williams father who took care of the camp and cooked sumptous meals and seemingly infinite amounts of hot tea. A very enjoyable trip!
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 I just had the most exhilarating mountain climb of my life! A gorgeous day with spectacular weather and stunning views - out on one of the mountains with the most scenic panorama all around. What more could you want?
The day before yesterday I left Huaraz together with Carol and Raymond, a couple from North-Carolina which I had met on the Huayhuash trek, and William, our mountain guide. After a good two hours in bus and taxi we walked the 700m in altitude up to the base camp at 4600m of Pisco. After setting up camp, we had a little time to relax and Raymond and I set out to have a look over the first moraine ridge towards the mountain. A huge field with giant hills of moraine rubble separates the base camp from the glacier where the actual climb begins. Normally, about two hours are required to scramble across this desert of loose rock and scree. After an early noodle dinner we turned in to catch some sleep. I only slept for about two hours and lay awake the rest of the time.
It was a crystal clear night, millions of stars in the sky (and some shooting stars), no wind, cracking cold but dry. We got up at 1am, had a very scarce breakfast, and left camp at 2am. We took on Luc, a Canadian from Quebec, who's climbing partner had gotten sick in the base camp... So we were five in total crossing the moraine in total darkness just illuminating the rocks with our head-torches. I was wearing the plastic mountaineering boots all the way as I did not want to carry the additional load of my trekking boots - all the climbing gear is already heavy enough! These plastic boots are the mountaineering equivalent of ski boots -totally rigid and great on snow and ice, but they did surprisingly well for moraine scrambling and rock-hopping, too.
It turned out that Carol had quite some problems with the moraine rubble and we hence took almost three and a half hours to cross the this unpleasant terrain. Our guide William got a little nervous here, but for me the delay turned out to be a great plus as I had plenty of light for photography on the glacier! When we had put on the glacier gear - additional cloths, gloves, harnesses, boots, gaiters, crampons, ice axes etc. - and finally stood on the snow, the sun began to rise colouring the spectacular rock and ice lanscapes beautifully in all hues of orange and red.
Initially, progress on the glacier was quite slow as Carol was still bravely battling on, obviously being in dire straights. I had no reason to complain - I enjoyed plenty of time to snap pictures during the walk. At the first step after the col (the saddle between Huandoy and Pisco from whereon the walk up the flank of Pisco begins) she finally had to give in. Raymond immediately decided to stay with her, and William brought both back to the col where they waited on the glacier until the rest of us would return from the summit. As the sun was already out and warming, the climb could not have been any more comfortable. No wind and deep blue skies... Not to speak of the gorgeous views into all directions.
We were a little quicker then, and the next two hours climbing through the marvelous glacier landscapes will be one of the greatest memories of my whole trip. Shortly before we reached the summit ridge, a few clouds emerged from the mountain top which obscured the 360° panoramic view. We stood on the summit of Pisco (5752m) at 10am. Regardless of the occasional summit cloud, the views were totally mind-blowing and we spent about 20 minutes on the mountain top taking the great scenery in. The water in my water bottle was almost completely frozen, but due to the sun the climate on the summit was really pleasant and we had a snack of cookies and chocolate - almost the first food for me since getting up in the morning.
On the way down we passed two other groups which had been starring in my glacier pictures on the way up. Walking with crampons on glacier snow can be incredibly easy and quick! Especially downhill. After catching up with Carol and Raymond and reaching the end of the glacier, we took our mountaineering gear off and walked back across the moraine rubble towards basecamp for an other couple of hours. I was very glad to finally take off my plastic boots after a full 13 hours of walking and climbing in them! The longest break had been the summit stop of 20 minutes...
We quickly packed camp and walked two more hours back to Cebollapampa where our taxi to Yungay was waiting. From there we took the bus back to Huaraz. The walking in my heavy but comfortable trekking boots felt like heaven, despite the extra heavy backpack with all the climbing gear in addition to the normal camping stuff.
I do not think I have ever before been walking for 15 hours straight during one single day! But I have not been feeling so extremely happy as well as pleasantly and thoroughly exhausted in a very long time! When I finally fell into my bed in Huaraz after a long hot shower, I slept like a log for ten hours.
I can now perfectly understand why climbing mountains is so addictive! But I feel I have done enough hereabouts in Huaraz and can finally move on. William, our guide, however, tries to convince me to climb Alpamayo together with him... It really is tempting as I am now as fit and acclimatized as ever! But no worries mum, I will probably be sensible and leave the mountains behind for a while.
Have a look at some pictures here, if you like.
P.S.: The mountain was actually named after the local alcoholic drink which the first climbers had in copious amounts when coming back into town after the first successful summit attempt! For me the impressions of the day could not have been any more exhilarating, no alcohol required.
| | Blown away by stunning glacier beauty... The most phantastic mountain climb I have ever done. And many agree - the best views from the summit to be had anywhere! |
 So back I am again. What a great walk! Where to start? Too much to tell - 12 days is a long time. After looking around for companions to do this walk, I finally hooked up with Ashley and Pete, whom I had already met a while ago in Bolivia and who happened to arrive in Huaraz just in time.
We decided to do the trek on our own, that is to say not making use of guides or mules, and taking our time. Most people, however, do go with at least mules and a muleteer. (We did not meet anyone else who was carrying their backpack themselves!) But we found carrying our 30kg+ backpacks, well, what to say... invigorating?! Honestly, if you are fit and acclimatized it is not too bad. One could do the whole circuit in as little as eight days, but then you would not get to see some of the truly spectacular side-valleys (which for me were the absolute highlights of the trip!). So we planned our food on 12 days instead, which turned out to be exactly right.
The landscapes we got to see can only be described as utterly spectacular! Beautiful peaks, glaciers, lakes, and valleys. I fear my pictures do not do the landscape justice, they may be nice but the views were truly breathtaking in reality! The only mountains I have seen so far that impressed me similarly were in the Nepalese Himalaya.
The walking itself is not too bad. About six to nine hours on the trail per day, going about 400m to 1000m up and down. At low altitude this would be only a moderately demanding walk. But since during this trek you are continuously between 4000m and 5000m, this is actually quite a tough daily program. This exercise, however, is only becoming provided you are sufficiently acclimatized! We have met people basically spending the first couple of days throwing up, feeling really sick and nauseous... And you have to cross a high pass of more than 4700m almost every day!
For me the hardest thing were actually the long nights. Due to the closeness of the equator the nights last from about 6pm to 6am. Lots of darkness and cold. Freezing at these altitudes! So you spend almost 12 hours in your tent and sleeping bag every day! I have never been to "bed" later than about 7pm. With temperatures between about -5°C to 5°C in the tent (less outside), there is only one place you are roughly comfortable - inside the sleeping bag!
Although I am typically very happy with my bag at temperatures around zero degrees, on this trip I was slightly cold almost every night which sometimes kept me awake for many hours. The lack of oxygen and the sufficient but not overly rich food supply certainly contributed. So there I was lying awake with all my cloths on inside the sleeping bag - two layers of thermal underwear, fleece jumper, down vest, wool socks, wool hat and fleece gloves - waiting for the morning... Sometimes dozing on and off. My advice: bring a really warm sleeping bag! (Or a mule and hence all the food and cloths you can possibly want...)
One little annoying thing is the current payment system. Every settlement you are passing is charging a few dollars per person for letting you walk by! So people with little ticket books walk up to you to make you pay, sometimes several times a day. It all appears to be totally random and you do get to hear various stories about what is going to happen with money. Track improvement, community subsidy, "security". The latter is particularly interesting, since until very recently the Huayhuash was known to be quite unsafe. The latest major incident was 2004 when four trekkers were robbed and shot by local bandits. So basically now you pay the locals for not robbing you! This is next best thing to robbery in my eyes.
A negative highlight was - owed to my own stupidity - when I arrived on the third day in camp after taking an exhausting "alpine" route variation (i.e. leading without trails through more rugged territory than the normal valley route), just to discover I had left behind my camera when I was preparing for an approaching thunderstorm... I could not believe my own stupidity!!! But in the thinner air your brain does funny things at times.
So I set out immediately again, trying to find back the spot where I remembered I had intended to pack my camera safely into my backpack. Unfortunately this was quite a while before the camp on a very chaotic and very steep slope with lots of rocks and bumps and bushes of tussock grass. Nothing but plenty of animal-trails. And no way to spot anything from further and a couple of meters away. So I criss-crossed the slopes for hours until darkness trying to find back the exact spot. Without any success. Walking back to camp with hurting feet and totally exhausted, it was already dark and I got more sleet and rain into my face from the next hailstorm... When I arrived in camp, Ashley and Pete very kindly comforted me with hot drinks and food. On the walk back I had already mentally prepared for a "let-go-of-you-possessions"-exercise. If it only had not been my camera! Worth a lot of money, too.
When I finally got into my tent - believe it or not - I found the plastic bag with my camera just lying next to the entrance! How stupid can you actually be? I know I had been carefully looking around at least twice... At least that is what I was convinced I had done. So I had put myself through hell just for nothing! I did feel a lot of relief, though. And this way you do get to see a few pictures, too.
One of the greatest views I had from scrambling up Cerro Gran Vista (5152m, very appropriate name!) overlooking Laguna Sarapococha and the Cordillera, see the view here. This is exactly where the horrible accident of "Touching the Void" took place. But there are many other spots, typically on the high passes, from where the views are incredible. Absolutely worth the effort and hardships of the trek! I would do it again immediately!
Being back to Huaraz now, I do enjoy the amenities of being able to take a hot shower and buying all the food I fancy! And I keep eating almost continuously... I guess my body has to recharge a little.
Of course there would be much more to tell, but I have already spent too much time in the internet cafe... As I am now well acclimatized and very fit, I will probably go and climb an other little mountain near here the next days. Stay tuned!
| | Simply one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world! |
Just a brief note to let you know that I will be off for the next ten to twelve days. I am going for a supposedly nice but quite serious hike around the Cordillera Huayhuash together with two friends from Alaska - so don't expect anything new on this site until about two weeks from now.
The walking takes place in altitudes between 4000m and 5000m, so we will feel like slugs in the beginning, especially with all the food we just bought in the local market! But when coming back, we should be quite fit... and ready for other adventures. Unfortunately the weather really sucks at the moment - rain. And this is supposed to be the dry season hereabouts. The locals only shake their heads about the weather. Will post more when back to Huaraz.
| | Beautiful mountain lake at 4450m - nice day trip from Huaraz! |
So I had thought I could just bag the odd 6000m summit.
Leaving La Paz the day before yesterday after a little odyssey getting half-way proper equipment from the agency (half the stuff was broken, they did not have plastic mountaineering boots my size, which we had to rent from an other agency in the end, etc.), we took off to the low camp at the Zongo pass at 4600m in a ramshackle mini bus. We that´s me and Trevor, my English companion on this trip, and Andrés, our Bolivian mountain guide.
After setting up camp, we went up into the glacier to familiarize us with the equipment and practice some ice-climbing which was good fun and a nice acclimatization exercise. It is surprisingly easy to walk up an almost vertical ice-wall with crampons and ice-axe!
Next day - yesterday - not much else to do than packing up camp and walking up to the high camp at 5130m, where the glacier starts. The weather was quite mixed and we waited out the snow and hail during the afternoon in the tent. I was truly fit, full of energy, and did not have any issues with the altitude. In the evening, the clouds ripped open and gave view onto the stunning mountain scenery.
Today, a very early start; we got up at midnight. And after an agonizing time putting on all the layers and the climbing harness in the extreme cold (I'd guess a good -20 degrees), we stood on our crampons on the glacier at 1am. Unfortunately I did not feel all to well, but attributed that to the awkward time to get up. A second guide had appeared the day before and so we took off stomping through the snow in two teams, me and Andrés, and Trevor and the other guide. It was a moonless night and there was hence absolutely nothing to be seen of the glacier or the landscape. Only myriads of stars above and the glitter of the snow crystals in front of my head-torch.
After a while and quite some climbing through snow and ice, the city lights of La Paz in the distance became visible. Occasionally the dark abyss of some giant crevasse showed up which would have easily swallowed a stack of five trucks or more. My boots were allright, only did I have very cold feet. I was still feeling weak. The thought of turning back crossed my mind repeatedly... Our guides were making us to walk relatively quickly, and I did have trouble keeping up the pace. But we were making very good progess. Below us, in the glacier, the flickering lights of a few other groups ascending became apparent. The first obstacle, a 40m high almost perpendicular wall of snow and ice, was still good fun to climb - jamming the ice-axe into the wall and just walking up with the crampons. The mittens I had gotten from the agency turned out be crap, not very warm and certainly not water-proof at all. So I kept walking on with numb hands and feet, having to catch my breath continuously due to the altitude.
Earlier than expected we arrived at the final 200m high ice-wall before the summit at 6088m. Here, a fierce wind made things even worse. The air temperature must have been at -25 degrees or below, the additional wind-chill was tremendous. At this stage I had already full-blown hypothermia and was quivering and shaking. No place to wait, or hide, or warm up.
Maybe this made me go berserk (literally!) - the strenuous climb up this wall seemed the only way for me to warm up somehow. So I had outbursts of quick climbs up for about five to ten meters, often catching up with my guide who was supposed to stay the full lenght of the rope ahead to secure me, and physical breakdowns on the ice-wall for a few minutes, having to catch my breath and gather energy. All that in pitch-black darkness. I was so desperately climbing, that we left the other team behind quite a way. I was amazed to watch the snot coming out of my nose as icicles straight... I was just hammering away with the ice-axe, not much caring for my numb feet and hands. Stopping on the wall was absolutely no option due to the cold.
When I finally arrived at the summit at about 5.45am after a far to long climb through the wall, my fingers and feet were frozen stiff and there still was no daylight yet. Nothing much to be seen, except the glittering sea of lights of La Paz in the distance. I was totally hypothermic and shaking bitterly. The altitude made things worse. No way even to think of taking out the camera. (You know me - this is a very bad sign!) I had the dubious honour of being the first person on the summit today, after my guide.
After only three minutes, Andrés and I started the descent. On the way down, I tried to warm up my completely numbed fingers. And all the way down to camp the only thing I could ever think of was my warm sleeping bag. After the sun had come out, the outlandishly beautiful glacier landscape and the rim of gorgeous peaks around became visible. Unfortunately, I did not have the slightest amount of energy left to appreciate the stark beauty or to take pictures.
Yes, no need to argue, I should have been more sensible and should have turned back earlier. I did have a bad day and should have realized. This trip was certainly one of the most extreme situations I have been putting myself into ever. But by now, being back in La Paz, most of the feeling has returned into my fingers and toes. And after eating, drinking and sleeping a little, I feel almost human again.
But do not get me wrong - I did enjoy the trip lots, despite the suffering!
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