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Published: August 9th 2007
Hey guys
Will leave the caption comp running a little longer, not got a winner yet!!
First of all, I´d like to say a huge sorry for forgetting to put it at the end of my last journal and thank you to: Matt for having unfathomable energy, both mentally and physically to have kept us going right to the very top. The Germans for passing us at that precise moment and granting us the opportunity to go on. The Norwegians for their friendship and advice at camp and for handshakes on the summit!!! Most of all to Martin for hanging back a year and waiting for me, so we could experience all this together, and what an experience it´s been! May it be the start of many more, despite the difficulties I´m glad to have done it. Love you X
Well, what have we been doing since our little mountain adventure???
Recuperating, eating lots of burritos (they´re amazing, so filling and probably full of everything we need to build the body back up, beans, rice, veggies, chicken) drinking lots of banana smoothies (I´m addicted), beer to celebrate and reading books.
Mountain books to be precise. Yes, we´re planning our next summit and the last big thing we do before home, only 20 days to go 😞 It was a toss up between doing a week and a half trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash, maybe go see Siula Grande to pay a little homage to Joe Simpson but the guys we were talking about it with have disappeared. Ah well. So the other option was do another mountain. We´re thinking of one called Chopicalqui, often called the south peak of Huascaran (the highest mountain in Peru) it stands at about 6,300m (some 20,000+ feet).
The route looks simple, well, as simple as a 7 hour ascent on 50 degree ice with incredible exposure to the elements is, apparantly there is only one report of a crevasse opening just before the summit, but other than that and the altitude it´s still nice and early in the season so there shouldn´t be too much trouble.
Much sobered by the experience on Pisco, we don´t expect to summit, but just being up there, camping on the glacier alone will be amazing enough. Matt isn´t coming with us, he´s got his heart set on Alpamayo, a very technical climb to the summit which we just don´t fancy yet. And conditions up ther aren´t too good either at present. Each to their own though. And we´ve learned a great deal from him.
We have spoken to a couple of guys (and guides) about it. There´s an American chap gone up today and will be spending time up there with his compadres pottering between the three camps acclimatising and the like so we should meet them. Another lad who had done it some years ago outlined the differences between it and Pisco. He described Pisco as ´a walk in the park´ whereas this is a ´real mountain´ hmmm... It´ll just be nice to be out there again, I dreaded the day back from Pisco, i just didn´t want to leave!!!!!
Yesterday we went rock climbing with Matt for a cheap day out. It was actually less expensive to rent all the kit, buy food and taxi there and back than it was to spend the afternoon in Cafe Andino!!!!
We had a great day, though there were a few less routes up the walls than we expected, and much harder too, it was fantastic. Our ´warm up´ was large crack, which looked fairly easy yet once you were on it you realised you were hanging out and away from the wall. After two big falls off, swinging like a pendulum from the anchor and unable to get myself back into the crack I gave up, Martin and Matt did it fine. I happily sat and sunned myself, chating to a guy from the Czech Republic and two Israeli´s as they tackled the pitch next to us. It was tough and despite all their experience they were inable to lead climb it (where you take the rope up with you and clip into the protection already placed in the rock, which is only found on a ´sport´ route, and then tie in an anchor from there for the others to follow you up).
After lunch we moved further to the left of them to make a go of another route. It was realy really difficult, I won´t even bother to try and explain the grading system because i don´t know how it works either. Needless to say. Matt, who has had over 3 years rock climbing experience found it really hard, Martin aving to take his weight as he searched for hand and footholds for the majority oft he time. Martin was next up and, incredibly, made it. I couldn´t get off the floor though and after various attempts in various starting places sat and sulked.
Anoth two Israelis were on a wall right next to the river, they´d been there all day and sowe thought we´d pop over, have a chat and see if we could have a go. It was really strange as there is no access to the bottom - it goes straight into the river - you have to rappel down and then climb your way back up. Our anchor was only a tree and a large flake of rock, so if I couldn´t get up this one, it´d be a long slow process of inching my way up with another tiny piece of rope. Fortunately this was really nice and easy and i whizzed up the central crack, practising hand and foot manouvers I´s only read about in magazines, triumphantly at the top in what only felt like minutes. What a buzz!!!!! Glad I´d done it otherwaise I´d have had to abandon my dream of taking it up back home!!! Still, the other walls certainly were beginners ones, and I´d managed to get past the difficult part on the first one. It´s just so strange trusing yourself to a bit of chalky fingertip and rubber climbing shoe on a near vertical bit of wall to take your weight. I reckon my confidence in them has grown now. Watch out Yosemite!!!!!!
Take care and will speak soon XXXX
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Emily
non-member comment
Are Llamas more aggressive than turkeys?
Hey Steph! It's Emily (the clarkesville - just incase all that high altitudeness has affected your memory. hehe). You mentioned ages ago that you were going travelling, and Becky Craddock directed me to this travel blog of yours so I thought i'd have a look! Well from what i've read you're having a right proper adventure - i bet D of E seems like a walk in the park now! Although, if you remember, that turkey we had to fend off with a stick was quite aggressive. Lol. Are you still playing the ol' fiddle? I guess you don't have quite enough room for it in your rucksack to seranade yourselves when reaching mountain summits, but still, hope you are still playing =p. Hope you and your boyfriend enjoy the remainder of your trip! Keep in touch. Emily x