The 1982 South African

Cordillera Blanca Expedition

Introduction

After our successful SACB79 Expedition to the northern Cordillera Blanca there remained a strong feeling among the core members of SACBE79 that they would like to return to the Blanca to do some more climbing there. Getting them to articulate what their ideas were about putting together another trip to the range, we came up with the idea that we would if possible like to cover more ground and have the opportunity to see more of the peaks in the range. Expanding on this basic idea and doing some research studying John Ricker’s excellent Yuraq Janka guide and going through the comprehensive Climbs and Expeditions records in the American Alpine Journals, we finally came up with the idea of organising the expedition with two components, those members who wished to climb as much as possible and others who wished to see as many of the peaks as possible by hiking from the basecamps. Based on this concept we put together an expedition that would set up a basecamp in the Quebrada Qelkaywanka that would offer excellent opportunities both for climbing and hiking and the climbing party would then do a long high traverse from there along the Blanca chain climbing peaks along the way, while the support party would return to Huaraz and then come back up the Quebrada Rajuqolta to set up a second basecamp there from which more climbing and hiking could be done.

These ideas were well received and we finally flew to Lima in June 1982 to put them into effect. Arriving at Lima’s Jorge Chavez airport our arrival formalities were efficiently dealt with by our long-time friend Cesar Morales, doyen of Andinisme.

Members of the 1982 Cordillera Blanca Expedition

Michael Scott (C), Emilio Angeles (S), Pete du Preez (C), Tim Hughes (C), Robin Sandell (C), Andre Schoon (C) (back row)

Janet Hughes (S), Alastair Schoon (S), Des Watkins (S), Felicity Eggleston (S), Jonathan Levy (C), Tony da Cruz (S) (front row)

(C) Denotes Climbing Party

(S) Denotes Support Party

Monday 7 June

Cesar Morales came to our Alcazar Hotel with the camion at about 07:00 to pick up the baggage for delivery to the Rodriguez bus terminal. He also brought the extra snow stakes we had asked for and two large jerrycans for fuel. Jono, Tony, Mike, Pete and Ali took our baggage to the bus station while the rest of us had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. There was a delay organising the weighing of the baggage and a bit of a hiatus when we were told that the boxes were too heavy to take on the bus – they would have to come on later by lorry accompanied by Jono. The rest of us got away in the bus at about 10:00.

Our route took us through the fog enshrouded dunes along the coast, stopping for lunch at Barranca, where we got mixed up in some celebration with school children marching through the streets. In clearer weather we branched off the coastal road at Pativilca starting the long tedious ascent to climb over the Cordillera Negra to reach Conococha at about 17:00 – superb views of the Nevados Pongos (5 680 m), though slightly spoiled by cloud. We made a quick descent to Huaraz, though the road was badly damaged by recent rains. Emilio was at the bus station to meet us and took us directly to the Hostel Raymondi where we negotiated a price for our rooms and storage of the items we wanted to leave there (2 200 soles per person per night and US$ 2.00 per day for the storage). We had supper at a café down the road and then had an excellent night’s sleep.

Tuesday 8 June

Jono woke us at 04:30 with the gloomy news that, after messing him around about the lorry’s time of departure from Lima, it had finally left without him, so that he had had to come through to Huaraz on the evening bus on his own. We therefor immediately went across to Rodriguez who told us that the lorry had broken down at Conococha and would only arrive in Huaraz in the late afternoon. We therefore spent the rest of the day getting organised for our departure up the Quebrada Rajuqolta, first registering at the Parque Nacional, then discussing the arrangements for the first part of the trip with Emilio and finally visiting Alcides Ames, another good friend from the 1970 Earthquake Relief Expedition, who was the senior government glaciologist stationed in Huaraz. In his office we were able to study the maps and the stereo photographs of the areas we would be visiting and had a useful discussion with him about the climbing options we thought might be possible as well as the two basecamp locations we proposed using.

In the late afternoon all of us except Jono, Pete, Ali and Mike, who again went across to the bus station to wait for the lorry, caught a collective down to Carhuaz to see Alberto Torres, whom Tony had phoned in the morning (Alberto and his wife Beatrice were similarly two of our great friends from 1970). Alberto and Beatrice were there to meet us when we arrived and gave us a terrific welcome. There was huge appreciation in this community for the funds that had been raised in South Africa to help rebuild the church and community facilities in Carhuaz that had been damaged in the 1970 earthquake. Alberto told us how another person in the town had tried to divert the funds for other uses – only his final recourse to court had ensured that the funds were finally used for their intended purpose. Walking down to see the church, we met the priest and his assistant, took some photos of the interior of the church and were given some sweet wine to drink while Robin acceded to a request that he look at the priest’s septic arm. Then while we had a light meal and coffee at Alberto’s, Beatrice and Janet (both highly trained midwives) delivered a baby, before we caught another collective back to Huaraz. When we arrived, Jono told us that the lorry with the boxes had eventually pitched up.

Wednesday 9 June

Our early efforts to get the boxes were frustrated because we couldn’t find the driver. But they did arrive a short while later while we were having breakfast on Raymondi’s upstairs balcony (pan with avocados and tomatoes then bananas). We split into two groups, one buying the balance of (mainly fresh) food necessary for our first basecamp at Tullparaju and the other reorganising the boxes (putting the Mountain House freeze dried packs into the B1 menus and splitting the B3 menus).

Huaraz market - a different world from what we were accustomed to

We sorted the food we would be taking with us to our Tullparaju basecamp, in the hotel’s courtyard and stored the balance together with extra equipment we wanted to leave, in a room leading off the courtyard. We also sorted and packed all our personal gear and vacated our rooms by about 12:00. After a short break for lunch and cervezas and a visit to the market, we spent the afternoon packing the food and equipment that would go on the burros into polyprop bags finishing around 17:00.

The camion Emilio had organised to drive us up to the roadhead at Pitec arrived quite early so that we were able to load it in readiness for departing. Querying the 60 000 soles (around US$ 90) price we were going to have to pay for the camion with Emilio, he agreed this was rather steep, but said it was based on the bad state of the road going up to Pitec. In fact when we set off up the road, it was obvious that some repairs had been carried out on it quite recently and it really wasn’t too bad, based on which we later told Emilio that we thought the price for the camion was a bit of a rip-off!

Outside Huaraz we passed well-kept smallholdings with good looking fields of wheat and other grain, leaving them behind when we finally climbed out of the valley and came out on the higher grassed altiplano with spectacular views of Nevado Tsurup (5 493 m) and Nevado Kashan (5 723 m) unfolding. The lorry dropped us at a clearing immediately above Pitec where we soon set up camp and enjoyed our first Mountain House supper. The only person feeling the altitude seemed to be Tony.

Tuesday 10 June

There was a bright moon during the night followed by a heavy frost early in the morning – a good night’s sleep. Our only disturbance was a dog scuffling in the empty Mountain House packets.

Mother and daughter washing clothes in the Quebrada Qelkaywanka stream below Pitec

We enjoyed breakfast warming up in the sun while we admired the views of Nevado Kashan Oeste (5 701 m) and Wamashraju (5 434 m). Emilio and his arrieros started organising the burros as we sorted our gear and packed, drying the tents in the sun before striking them. After washing in the clear trickle of water coming off the slope above our camp, we walked down to Pitec to photograph the small peaked thatched stone huts around the very small and rather poor looking settlement. There was also a marvellous old lady there sitting in a doorway while she was spinning raw wool.

Pitec - old woman spinning wool

By 10:00 all the burros were loaded and we set off up the road going into the Quebrada Qelkaywanka, a very even gradient, but the road would be impassable to traffic due to slides that had come down the valley’s side slopes, probably many of them from the 1970 ‘quake. As we went on, now on a good trail along the river’s northern bank, we passed more small settlements as well as more of the small peaked thatched stone huts, all of them in extremely picturesque surroundings. It seemed that these settlements must have been built for the obviously productive cattle farming in the valley – we saw cattle grazing on the grassy meadows all the way up the valley. We soon came to the “portada”, a crude gate in a stone wall used to control the movement of the cattle being herded up and down the valley, overseen by a colourful character brandishing a big key, who was apparently in attendance every Saturday and on other days as arranged.

Typical peaked thatch shepherd shelter in the Quebrada Qelkaywanka above Pitec

The "Portada" gatekeeper in the Quebrada Qelkaywanka

All the way up the valley the trail continued along the river’s northern bank next to a beautiful clear stream and over gentle meadows (with lots of grazing animals and birds) at a very even gradient. Spectacular waterfalls cascading down the valley’s side slopes and the first intriguing view of Tullparaju (5 787 m) peeping out at the head of the valley.

Quebrada Qelkaywanka trail

After a quick lunch (12:15) at a sidestream to let Tony, (who was suffering from the altitude) have a rest, we went on and after a further short walk, stopped to set up camp at the confluence of the Quebradas Qelkaywanka and Kayesh streams (15:00). On the way one of the burros fell into a bog and had to be retrieved. Tony arrived very tired, but most of the others seemed OK. With plenty of wood available around our campsite, we cooked supper over a fire and went to bed quite early, quite intrigued by some lights we had seen further up the valley.

Quebrada Qelkaywanka trail

Friday 11 June

We made a latish start after waiting for the sun to reach our camp and cooked a leisurely breakfast over a wood fire. After washing and packing up we spent a while ferreting out the burros which had strayed quite far afield and then, while they were being loaded, watched some condors circling around the cliffs on both sides of the valley and also took some photos of Kayesh, looking very impressive with the morning cloud boiling up around its summit. Tony, who had woken up full of pessimism, brightened up after breakfast and was sent off up the valley with Ali in advance of the main party. A little later we also moved off and after a short while solved the mystery of the lights we had seen the previous evening, discovering that they belonged to a party of two who had been camping in a big tent at the mouth of the Quebrada Kayesh and who we saw setting off – Tim’s effort to catch up with them and meet them didn’t meet with success as they were already too far ahead of him.

Heading up the Laguna Tullparaju fork of the valley, we first surmounted a short steeper section and then continued on over more flat grassy meadows with fantastic views of Nevado Chinchey (6 222 m), Nevado Pukaranra (6 147 m) and later Tullparaju (5 787 m) opening up. After stopping the burros for a while on the highest meadow close to the lake, Pete and I went on to recce, quite soon finding an excellent even site for our basecamp next to the Laguna Tullparaju lateral moraine and not far from the Laguna Cuchillacocha stream (approx. 4 300 m and about 1½ hours from our previous camp). The others all came on shortly afterwards and after lunch we set up the tents, sorted out all the food as well as our personal gear and then paid off the arrieros and agreed the arrangements for their return (in preparation for moving the basecamp to the Quebrada Rajucolta).

To celebrate our arrival everyone except Jono (who was suffering from the altitude and had even agreed to Robin giving him an injection), ate a huge supper, starting with sesame crackers with tinned oysters and olives and ending with sausages, potatoes, peas and fresh salad.

Tullparaju basecamp

Saturday 12 June

The sun rose directly behind the summit of Tullparaju at 07:45 (and it left basecamp at 15:30 setting behind the Cuchillacocha cliffs ) and everyone took their time surfacing, Pete and Emilio organising early morning tea. We made a breakfast of scrambled eggs (scrambled because at our previous camp I thought the bag with the eggs in it was part of the tent equipment and had not treated it with due respect!) followed by pan with marmalade, peanut butter, etc, enjoying the meal while we sat in the warm sunshine.

After faffing around and enjoying the sun for a while more, Pete, Ali, Mike, Emilio, Des and I walked up the path on the west side of the stream above base to have a look at Cuchillacocha The easy 300 m ascent brought us out at the level of the lake at 4 620 m where we made a pleasant stop on the stone terrace next to the outlet tunnel for lunch and to look down on the impressive ruins of the Ingemmet camps built to house the workers who constructed the lake’s control works and to admire the fantastic view of Pukaranra directly above us. We were intrigued to spot a line of footprints in the snow leading up to the col and beyond going on to the mountain’s southeast ridge - however we could see no sign of the climbers who must have made them!

View of Nevado Pukaranra (6 147 m) rising directly above Cuchillacocha

A bit later after the clouds had started coming in to spoil our view and after making some tea, we tried using the handheld radios we had brought with us hoping to talk to the others we had left at base and who were walking up to the meadow next to Cuchillacocha’s moraine rim.

While we were doing this, looking across the valley towards Nevado Kayesh, we spied a massive ice avalanche falling from the hanging glacier below the col to the north of Chopiraju – very impressive.

After returning to base we made an excellent supper of soup and a hash of corned beef with some of our dehydrated vegetables followed by some angels’ delight desert. Afterwards we talked quite late into the night around the kitchen fire (the kitchen’s communal area now well organised), with Emilio recounting his experiences on some of the expeditions he had been on with Domingos Giobbi and also Leigh Ortenburger.

Sunday 13 June

After another fairly lazy start we ate an extended breakfast starting with oatmeal porridge. Then we spent an hilarious half hour taking some group photographs, until these were interrupted by us trying to capture some telephoto images of the ridges on Tullparaju playing hide and seek in and out of a great bank of cloud streaming in from the Amazon basin. Further down the valley we could see snow showers coming down over Nevado Kimarumi (5 459 m) almost certainly heralding some more unsettled weather moving in.

Tim, Janet, Jono and Felicity made a latish start to walk up to Cuchillacocha. While they lazed next to the lake, Tim climbed up to about 5 000 m towards Jatunmontepunku (5 415 m). Meanwhile Pete, Ali, Mike, Robin, Des, Emilio and I dropped down to Laguna Tullparaju with the idea of recceing a route to get onto the Chinchey icefall.

Recceing the approach to the Chinchey icefall

Nevado Chinchey (6 222 m) from the south

By following the crest of the obvious moraine ridge about 100 m above the lake level, we were able to make easy progress along some grassy ledges with quena trees to gain access onto the grassy slopes leading up to where the Chinchey icefall abutted against the rock buttress at the end of Pukaranra’s southwest ridge. We experienced some difficulty getting down the steep moraine wall onto the glacier from there, eventually climbing down a loose rocky and earthy pitch next to the rock. Des and Emilio, who was wearing tackies, decided to stay on the moraine while the rest of us stopped briefly to have a bite of lunch and then continued up the glacier following an old set of footprints. This was mainly on dry ice and although there were many crevasses, both the climbing and routefinding were quite easy (we only had one dead end where we had to retrace our steps), finally exiting onto an easier stretch of the glacier at about 4 900 m. From there we had a good view of the rest of the route we would have to follow to reach the col between Chinchey and Pukaranra and it looked quite straightforward.

Reckoning our recce had been quite successful, we made a quick descent, traversing around the bottom end of the moraine and returning to basecamp easily in rather threatening weather. After supper we celebrated my wedding anniversary with a bottle of Bols brandy by Pete’s courtesy!

Monday 14 June

We decided this must be a rest day before we set off for our first subcamp – uncertain whether it should be to climb Chopiraju (5 513 m) or Jatunmontepunku! After a lazy breakfast, it was a day of chores – I washed my clothes and my hair, sorted some equipment and wrote my diary to bring it up to date. We also finished writing the letters we wanted Emilio to take with him to post in Huaraz on Tuesday. Much to our amusement, Des spent several hours sitting on the moraine on the north side of Tullparaju hoping to film an avalanche, but there unfortunately wasn’t one and he just had to return to base. In the mid-afternoon Janet and Emilio set off to walk up the valley leading up to Nevado Wamanripa (5 243 m) and went as far as the largish lake below the pass next to the peak before turning around in time to get back to base camp just as it was getting dark. We had a good hash supper with a camp fire and spelled out the final arrangements for Emilio, which of course resulted in quite a flurry of last minute writing!

Tuesday 15 June

Fairly heavy sleet came down in basecamp during the night and Emilio woke us with tea preparatory to setting off down the valley (he estimated the trip would take him about five hours). We had a wet breakfast with Janet making bread and Tim a date loaf in the pressure cooker. As the morning progressed the cloud cover slowly cleared. Everyone seemed to be very busy riveting crampon straps and liners and Tim repairing Janet’s glacier glasses. Everyone in base seemed to be in pretty good shape now, except Tony who was still extremely lethargic and was complaining about his very congested nose. As the weather definitely appeared to be improving, we decided to pack for a short subcamping trip above Laguna Cuchillacocha, hoping to climb Jatunmontepunku (which we had now affectionately abbreviated to “Monty Python”). Jono and Tim said they would probably hang on in base for a while and then try to do a complete traverse over Chopiraju on Wednesday. We (Pete, Ali, Mike, Robin and I) hurriedly packed up (with HAC menu 3) for our subcamp and got away at about 15:45 carrying 22 kg packs. We first walked down the valley for a way so as to get into the tributary directly below Jatunmontepunku (just past the main Ingemmet zig zag path) and then headed up the valley over some vlaktes to get onto the valley’s west slope which we climbed on steep grass, passing some rocky outcrops and lots of grazing cattle and horses. This brought us onto another vlakte system at a higher level where we selected a bivvy site in a rock kraal next to a small tarn below a waterfall coming from under the glacier’s snout. I had climbed higher up to see if we could camp at a set of higher tarns, but decided against this as it was already getting quite late. We set up our subcamp (4 750 m) just as it was getting dark and went to bed after an excellent supper of Mountain House shrimp creole. Bitterly cold and sleep assisted by taking a Mogadon tablet to cope with an altitude induced headache. Contortions fitting into our bivvy bags – Ali and Mike in one and Pete and I in the other!

Wednesday 16 June

After an excellent night we woke to find we were covered in thick frost and could see banks of cloud pouring over the peaks to the east of us, spindrift being whipped off Pukaranra and Chinchey indicating quite strong winds. The sun reached us early, but we were soon cheated of its warmth as the cloud built up and obscured it.

After breakfast we packed up and at about 08:30 set off up the true righthand bank of the stream to the tarns I had seen the previous evening, from where we quite easily went on along the crest of the moraine to reach a small col (5 100 m) at the southwest end of the glacier coming down from the peak (about 10:00). We climbed up onto a section of dry ice where we put on our supergaiters and crampons and stashed our excess gear (and unfortunately also most of the food and drink we had brought with us).

Looking back at Chopiraju (5 513 m) from the Wamanripa ridge

After roping up (Pete, Ali and myself on one rope and Mike and Robin on the other), we started off up the ridge – superb and enjoyable climbing at first up the eastern side of its crest with some soft snow on the steeper sections. Once over the crest we were treated to magnificent views of the Cojup valley and the summits of Nevado Ranrapallka (6 162 m) and Pallkaraju (6 274 m), unfortunately already partially obscured by cloud, as well as the Lagunas Perolcocha and Pallkaqocha, the breaching of the latter, after a tremendous fall of ice into it, the cause of the tragic aluvion that struck Huaraz in 1941.

We continued up the ridge crossing onto its western side, where we had to climb under a dangerous looking hanging serac before front pointing up a 40⁰ snow ramp. We then negotiated a corniced section of the ridge and wound our way up between quite large crevasses to finally stand on the slender crest of the peak’s summit (5 415 m) at 13:45 – the large gap we had seen from below in the ridge not proving to be a problem.

Descending from Jatunmontepunku (5 415 m) with Ranrapalka behind

We sat there for perhaps 45 minutes waiting for Mike and Robin and then ate some lunch on a small snowy platform just below the summit when they arrived, though the paucity of food and the incredible reflected heat off the snow soon drove us down. We left around 15:15 and made a fairly fast descent, moving singly over the difficult sections and abseiling down the steep ramp (which I climbed down after a couple of snow stake runners were hammered in) to reach our rucksacks at about 17:15. Going on, we ran down the loose top part of the scree and along the moraine crest to reach our subcamp just as darkness was falling.

We packed up while we waited for Mike and Robin and then when they too had packed, walked on down the valley on a compass bearing and using our headlamps to easily reach the Ingemmet path and basecamp (21:30), a big welcome and lots of tea! We learned that Tim, Jono, Des and Janet had left base and gone up the scree at about 11:15 to set up a subcamp in the notch below Chopiraju (we had in fact seen their torches flashing there when we returned to our subcamp and had flashed our own greetings back to them). When we spoke to them after their return they said they had experienced some routefinding difficulties on the screes.

Nevado Ranrapalka (6 162 m)

Thursday 17 June

Not a very nice day and we felt for the others on Chopiraju. A rest day for all of us who had returned from “Monty Python” but we were entertained by the antics of the Chopiraju party. First they all moved up from their camp at the neck behind the pinnacle to a rock at the base of the west snow ridge and then both Des and Janet climbed separately with Tim and Jono for a short way up the ridge before once again descending to the rock where they had started. We subsequently learned that Des had been filming madly and Janet had just wanted to get the feel of the snow ! Eventually Tim and Jono set off alone and tried to cross a step in the ridge (formed by a huge crevasse on the south side), by climbing over a snow bridge, which proved to be very problematical. It was already very late when they decided to give it up for the day – Tim wanted to bivvy in the crevasse, but they eventually descended to a rather poor ice cave at the big rock at the start of the ridge where Janet later joined them, Des staying on at their original camp. It was all a bit confused, because the Chopiraju party didn’t take a radio with them.

Not much happened in basecamp, we did some washing and made some culinary experimentation making bread – good taste but very crumbly! We also made a big nosh up of dried veg, etc for supper. We had tentative plans to get away on Friday for a long subcamping trip on Chinchey and accordingly started getting stuff ready for this subcamp.

Alejandro arrived in the morning to explain that Emilio would only be back on Saturday but said that he would be standing in for him until he arrived. Tony, Felicity and Robin walked up to Cuchillacocha in the late afternoon, Tony coping quite well, though he was moving rather slowly.

Friday 18 June

We spent the morning continuing our preparations for our Chinchey subcamp and watched Tim and Jono go back up Chopiraju’s ridge. They tried again to cross their previous snow bridge, but also without success and at about 12:00 we saw them turn the step in the ridge on the north side by descending a rock pitch and then climbing straight up and back to the right on steep snow past a “condor shaped” rock in the snow slope. Our preparations for getting away with Felicity before lunch were further complicated by the arrival of an American climber – Bill Thomson from Minneapolis, USA, who had just arrived in a party of three, camping on the meadow about 20 minutes down the valley. Over a cup of tea, he described his previous 1979 unsuccessful attempt to climb Chinchey from the Honda valley.

We eventually only got away after lunch with Felicity joining us and Alejandro carrying up the two 90 m ropes. Tony stayed to look after basecamp. As we staggered up the true righthand bank of the lake under our huge packs we saw Des and Janet arriving at the lake outlet after descending from their Chopiraju subcamp. When we reached the little ledge that the American Tullparaju party was using as a basecamp, Robin announced that he could not go on as he could not cope with the load he was carrying. He had experienced difficulty even coping on the “Mony Python” subcamp and was very unhappy about the prospect of having to cope with the much longer approach to the Chinchey subcamp – he was concerned that being so slow, it would slow the party down quite badly. After discussing the problem, we re-allocated the food and fuel that Robin was carrying and continued up on grass to the moraine in now rapidly deteriorating weather. Just as we reached the moraine, we caught a glimpse of Tim and Jono standing on Chopiraju Central’s summit, before they disappeared in the gathering snow storm. Once we were above the slabs, beyond the lateral moraine, the snow storm really broke loose and, after a brief discussion whether to continue, or call it a day, we cached our packs next to a small lake at the base of the glacier and, after taking out our sleeping bags and other critical items, of equipment, we turned tail and retraced our steps back to basecamp where we endured a depressing evening watching the sleet and snow coming down, at least pleased that we had made the right decision!

The lousy weather also persuaded Tim and Jono to give up their original idea of going on with their intended full traverse of Chopiraju and they too turned around and went back to the ice cave they had previously used, reaching it very late.

Saturday 19 June

Pete, Mike, Ali and I set off from basecamp fairly early in the morning in better weather, Janet accompanying us to our cache for the walk. Before we left camp, Tony told us he wanted to go down to Huaraz, as he was still not feeling well. Right from the start of the trip it had been evident that he was not happy at altitude, obviously terribly concerned that he might contract pulmonary oedema or pneumonia. Tony did then decide to walk out, first to the Americans’ basecamp where he spent the night, again voicing his concern that he might have to be “rescued”. Bill Thomson suggested that rather than going to the hospital in Huaraz, as Tony said he wanted to do, he should rather stop over at the Monterrey spa to take the mineral waters ! Tony did eventually walk out with Alejandro carrying all his gear, meeting Emilio at the portada, who was similarly persuaded to turn around and accompany him back to Huaraz, before being able to complete his original mission coming through to our basecamp.

Walking in to our Chinchey subcamp

We made reasonable time to our equipment cache where Janet left us to return to basecamp. Once more burdened with our heavy five-day packs, we put on our crampons at the start of the route through the icefall and slowly roped our way up through the seracs to where we could stop for a late lunch where the glacier levelled out at the end of the serac passage and where we managed to find a trickle of water in a crevasse. Phenomenal clear views of Chinchey and Tullparaju in the late afternoon sunshine. After roping up again, we continued over several more crevasses and then made a long haul up the gently sloping glacial basin for another couple of kilometres to a good camp site in a crevasse depression about 750 m short of the glacier’s headwall. We levelled the site and had a good supper – we didn’t succeed in making radio contact with basecamp before turning in to bed, with heavier snow now starting to come down, adding to our misery in the confines of our bivvy bags! Tim and Jono returned safely back to basecamp.

Sunday 20 June

A dismal start to the day as we missed the eagerly awaited sun on the glacier when the early morning cloud gathered over Chinchey. Ali and Pete fared better during the night as they had slept outside their bivvy bag with my groundsheet rigged as a “porch”. We managed to sort ourselves out after the night’s snow, drying the sleeping bags that had got wet inside the bivvy bags (mostly from the wet cache we had set up on the moraine). We got away from our bivvy spot very late (11:30) and walked up to the glacier headwall. Right through the night and also during the day we were treated to big rock and ice avalanches pouring off the west face of Chinchey, also some rockfall from the steep and very unattractive looking southeast face of Pukaranra. We first climbed a steep snow face on the left of the headwall between two ice cliffs – I went about a third of the way up carrying my pack and then Pete led through without a pack to reach a small terrace, pulling his pack up after him. After a quick lunch on the terrace we escaped around the corner to the right onto the continuation of the face and easier ground above. However, whereas the steep snow had been quite firm (about 150 mm overlying ice), the slope above turned out to be much softer and the going became very tedious. Our chosen route continued up to the rock wall against Pukaranra and right along it until we reached a huge rock cavern which we decided we should use for the night.

The huge rock cavern on the way up to our Chinchey subcamp

Although rather bleak and requiring quite a lot of work to level an ice platform for sleeping, our cave’s huge ice columns provided us with a grand theatrical setting and there was the added bonus that we could access water dripping off the ice.

As we settled in we saw Tim and Jono walking up onto the glacier and later managed to talk to them on the radio when they settled in to our previous camp. In the morning we even managed to make faint radio contact with Felicity at basecamp.

Monday 21 June

Another rather miserable snowy night – although the cave was pretty cold and draughty, at least we were dry. We were able to make more radio contact with Tim who told us that Tony had gone down to Huaraz and that Robin, Felicity, Janet and Des had gone up to a subcamp below Wamanripa, Emilio carrying quite a lot of their stuff up to the camp. After breakfast and a short time sunning ourselves on the snow crest at the entrance to the cave, we set off up the steep snow slope above the cave to get to the col.

Chinchey's West Face

I had already tried to make a start up the slope the previous evening, finding the going terribly trying – very deep soft snow, often thigh deep on sometimes quite steep slopes. The scale of the headwall was also very deceiving – it looked minimal, but was probably nearly 250 to 300 m high.

On our way up to our ice cave subcamp on Chinchey's West Face

We had reduced our loads somewhat by leaving some of our food and equipment in the cave, reckoning that we would be able to camp at the col, climb the peak the following day and then descend the day after. Our chosen route traversed to the centre of the headwall where it broke through a crevassed section to access a spectacular corniced ridge abutting Chinchey’s west face (5 550 m). After continuing on for about another 75 m we came to a small depression above a steep ramp where we found an excellent ice cave in a crevasse, where Tim and Jono caught up with us (although they had started out some distance behind us, they had made good time using the trail we had had to break). We all set to work to make our cave comfortable, Tim and Jono settling into an annexe. The evening turned cloudy and cold with quite heavy snow falling during the night.

The other party successfully climbed Wamanripa.

Tuesday 22 June

A cold cloudy morning with a strong wind blowing across the col from the north and very limited visibility persuaded us this would not be a good day for climbing! After talking to Tim and Jono (who had a worse night than we did, including Tim having an upset tummy), I decided I would drop back down to the rock cave to pick up more food, while the others would do a recce if the weather cleared sufficiently. I set off in bad conditions and found I had to re-break the trail, though this was fortunately not too tiring because I was going downhill for a lot of the way. I arrived at the cave at about 10:45 after an hour’s descent and spent about another hour getting everything together for returning to the subcamp. Despite my efforts to communicate with the top party by radio, I could only hear them and they couldn’t hear anything I was transmitting.

I had tried using our snowshoes on the descent and found that they did help, although the added flotation that they gave me was insufficient under the soft snow conditions prevailing, also the bindings were not working satisfactorily. I therefor left them behind in the cave and set about breaking a new trail back to our subcamp, as my tracks descending to the cave had by now already drifted closed in the time I spent at the cave. It took me another two hours to get back to our subcamp, during which time the weather improved quite a lot. I arrived just as Jono and Ali were setting off on a recce and made some tea for Tim and ate some lunch before preparing an elaborate supper for when the others would return. When they got back, they told us they had reached a point about 300 m above our subcamp, just below the large schrund under Chinchey’s summit cone where they had felt some concern about the potential dangers from serac and rockfall from above. We prepared everything for a 07:00 start in the morning and put together an excellent meal of mountain House patties with onions garlic and peas before turning in – battered by a strong wind during the night bringing in cloud and dumping more heavy snow.

The Wamanripa party descended back to base during the day.

Wednesday 23 June

We woke at 05:30 to an absolutely dismal day – cloud streaming past in a complete white-out with snow swirling into the cave. We made an effort to prepare to go climbing, but the conditions just weren’t on – all of us thoroughly depressed, especially Pete who was complaining bitterly about his cold feet. Tim and Jono again had a poor night, but decided they would hold on for another day to see if they could possibly have a last shot at climbing Chinchey. The rest of us decided that our time was getting too short and therefore assembled what food and fuel we had left over for Tim and Jono and then pushed off down from the col, first stopping at the rock cave to pick up odd bits of equipment and to sort the food that was still there. This time we fashioned a magnificent ice “champignon” so that we could do a 60 m abseil down the steep part of the headwall.

Champignon abseil point coming off Chinchey

After unroping we walked down into the glacier basin where Ali had some fun trying out his ice climbing technique on a huge block of ice that had slid down from the headwall onto the basin’s floor. Just before entering the icefall I had a narrow shave when I went through the soft snow cover on top of the ice and landed up suspended by my pack at the top of a huge crevasse with just lots of space below! The simple earlier decision we made to unrope, because walking down the glacier seemed so safe, could have had serious repercussions!

Coming down off Chinchey

However, the remainder of our walk down the icefall was uneventful and we stopped at the original cache to take off our crampons, have a rest and pass the time of day with Bill Thomson and Chris, the girl in his party, who were on their way up. A painful descent for the rest of the way back to basecamp, arriving there in the latish afternoon in time for a late lunch followed by a welcome-back supper with our invited guest Bill Thomson toasting marshmallows over the kitchen fire. Bill told us that Des had left basecamp in the morning to go down to Huaraz – it seemed everyone had welcomed his leaving because they were pretty fed up with his moaning!

Tim and Jono remained holed up in their cave all day.

Thursday 24 June

It dawned a beautiful day with high hopes that Tim and Jono would have the opportunity to finally crack Chinchey. In fact they went back up the route Jono and Ali had recced the previous day reaching its high point in about 1¼ hours, where they first looked at Chinchey’s northwest face and north ridge, but were put off by this route’s obvious technical severity – about 300 m of 60⁰ ice. They then tried traversing to the south along the snow shelf below the bergschrund encountering very soft snow in places. But it proved impossible to get across the bergschrund at the south end of the corniced summit ridge and they could in any case not see the difficulties they would encounter further on traversing across the mountain’s east face. After a final unsuccessful attempt to get across the bergschrund further back to the north, they finally had to abandon their attempt in failing light and returned to their ice cave as it finally got dark.

It was a day of chores and rest catching up on the things we had to do in basecamp – washing ourselves, our clothes and our hair, catching up on writing up our diaries and the pleasurable pastime eating lots! Really good sitting in the warm basecamp sun, although the clouds did start coming in in the early afternoon, towards evening treating us to the most beautiful pastel light shades as the sun set behind the clouds with snow falling over Kimarumi and the peaks behind us.

Our efforts to make radio contact with Tim and Jono weren’t successful. My own day was rather spoiled because I was suffering toothache from a tooth I had broken eating chocolate or perhaps crunching an icicle when we were coming down off the glacier from our Chinchey subcamp – an uncomfortable night ahead as it was quite painful. More snow fell in basecamp during the night.

Friday 25 June

Woke feeling very poorly after virtually no sleep. Chatting to Robin after breakfast, he put the alternatives to me – to go down to Huaraz and find a local dentist, or to stick it out where we were until the tooth settled down, , taking painkillers together with a course of antibiotics to prevent any sort of abscess forming. I chose this latter course of action!

After breakfast and another unsuccessful attempt to raise Tim and Jono on the radio, then enjoying the clear but slightly breezy morning, I walked up onto the moraine ridge to take some photos of basecamp, Mike and Pete walked up the slope above camp and played around on a small rock rib, but didn’t seem to get very far, and Robin and Janet went up to Cuchillacocha again. Felicity went “woozling” – there are quite a few Viscacha (small herbivorous rodents that live in the screes) around basecamp as well as quite prolific bird life that one could see.

Still feeling a bit miserable with my toothache, I slept for a while around lunchtime and then woke to find that Alejandro had arrived with seven burros, followed soon afterwards by Tim and Jono who updated us on their rather disappointing news. They said they had met the Americans struggling up the flat section of the glacier basin on their way to set up a subcamp on Chinchey, apparently pretty bushed.

We spent the afternoon slowly organising food and discussing plans for both the traverse and the support parties. Because Pete was still worried about his cold feet that he had been experiencing, he and Robin decided they would rather find a low altitude crossing through the Quebrada Shallap to reach our proposed Quebrada Rajuqolta basecamp. As Des and Tony had already left, Ali would help to organise the support party. After a fairly early supper we made our final preparations for leaving in the morning and turned in just as a strange shower of great big floppy snow flakes came down on basecamp.

Saturday 26 June

Despite waking quite early and getting the packing going, it seemed to take a long time to get all the food and equipment organised and the tents taken down. Also the fact that the arrieros had brought one less burro along than we had arranged, meant that when the burros were packed they were very heavily loaded. We eventually bade our basecamp farewell around 12:00 and set off in rather cloudy and threatening weather, heading down to the confluence of the Tullparaju and Kayesh streams in advance of the burros, who were making heavy weather through the bushes with their big loads. On the way we stopped and chatted briefly with four French climbers (two guys and two girls) who had just arrived, looking pretty psyched out by the altitude and the weather.

After a leisurely lunch at the bridge across the Tullparaju stream, with us all together (except Emilio and Alejandro), we (Mike, Tim, Jono, Pete, Robin and I) said goodbye to Ali and the girls and set off on the first part of our traverse across into the Quebrada Rajuqolta.

At first we walked up the Kayesh valley (taking off our boots to cross the stream) to get onto an obvious central rib in the first tributary on the south side. This involved climbing up very steep grass with some rock (and lots of horrible prickly “pineapple” plants) for about 300 m until the angle eased off and we could continue up the west side of the large basin above on scree, grass and over rock ribs to the high glacial valley below the col between Kimarumi and San Juan. Our late evening search for a suitable campsite here finally turned up a decent grassy shelf set against a rock rib on the east side where we settled down with what was now looking like the promise of more bad weather. For our sleeping arrangements on the traverse, Mike and I had teamed up and after supper got into our bivvy bag – this time keeping our heads out! Some snow during the night.

The support party walked out to Pitec where they organised a truck to take them down to Huaraz.

Sunday 27 June

After moving across into the sun on the moraine next to our camp to dry out our sleeping bags and to warm up, we packed up and set off to climb the remaining 300 m to the col between Nevado Kimarumi (5 459 m) and Nevado San Juan (5 843 m). This involved continuing up the scree in the streambed to the bottom of the glacier where we donned crampons and supergaiters, and then stomped up the easy angled glacier on firm snow cover, making a few minor diversions to bypass crevasses, to reach the col. Mike and I arrived before the others who had traversed in higher up along the rock ledges of the eastern moraine and had got fouled up with some ice cliffs. From the col we admired the incredible panorama of Nevado San Juan, Nevado San Juan Sur (Tumarimaraju 5 670 m – in fact two very distinct, but fairly low peaks) - and the incredibly impressive summits of Nevado Huantsan Norte (6 113 m) and Nevado Huantsan (6 395 m) towering over all the others above the huge glacial bowls on either side of the ridge.

When the others arrived Jono and I started looking for a suitable snow/ice cave for the time we intended spending at the col. The ridge here was like a piece of cheese – not really suitable for finding what we were looking for. There was by now a fairly strong wind blowing across the col from the north with some cloud starting to build up, which would make any of the caves we had seen distinctly drafty. Finally Jono gave a whoop of joy followed by a huge crash of a falling ice, beckoning us on up the Kimarumi ridge where we found him about 100 m higher excitedly setting about the necessary fine tuning to transform the cave that he had discovered into a true crystal palace – sleeping platforms cut out on the sides, all dominated by the spectacular view of Nevado Kayesh (5 721 m) perfectly framed in the cave’s northeast portico.

The San Juan ice cave with its view of Nevado Kayesh (5 721 m) through a fringe of icicles

A really fantastic evening with the cloud clearing to give us perfect views of the peaks all around us in the dusk, made even more dramatic by flashes of lightning behind Kayesh.

Evening light on Nevados San Juan Sur (also called Tumarimaraju 5 670 m) and Huantsan (6 395 m) overlooking Huantsan's glacial basin

Monday 28 June

A day of exciting activity dawned pretty miserably with a strong north wind and cloud coming in with it, sweeping across San Juan’s northwest ridge. We set off from the cave at about 09:00, Tim and Jono heading for San Juan’s northwest ridge and Mike and I following them.

Nevado San Juan's (5 843 m) Northwest Ridge with "Casper" looking down on us climbing it

Pete and Robin set off a little later, planning to look at Kimarumi’s east ridge, at first climbing up on easy snow for about 100 m and then on fairly easy angled rock up to reach the incredibly perched summit ice block. They did the climb in good time finding the rock mostly quite easy, with one short passage of about “E”, but lots of loose rubble they had to negotiate. A last exciting pitch brought them up to the level of the summit’s perched ice block which they deemed too precarious to tackle.

Tim and Jono set off at a great pace with Mike and I following some distance behind, delayed by Mike’s one crampon nearly coming off on the short steep snow slope leading up on the north side of the ridge from the col. We soloed all the way up to the first steepish step, where we caught up with the others, but roping up after this, soon saw them again drawing away from us as they were still climbing solo. Almost all the time we climbed on the fairly heavily corniced north side of the ridge. After the first steep section we continued over fairly level ground until we reached the base of the long heavily corniced ramp leading up to the reverse corniced top part of the ridge, watching the others disappear in the heavy cloud now streaming across the ridge from the strong wind that had now started blowing.

We continued up the ridge for another five ropelengths to the point at about 5 700m where Tim had climbed over the crest of the reverse cornice – up close now it looked incredibly precarious and after looking at it carefully, we decided we would be unhappy with the risk involved in going on. At about 14:30 we turned around and started downclimbing.

San Juan's Northwest Ridge - Mike on the ramp below the flic-flac cornice and Tim and Jono negotiating it

At the bottom we stopped on the level section of the ridge for a bite to eat and were surprised to see that Tim and Jono had just arrived at the saddle beyond “Casper” just below the true summit. We later learned what an epic battle they had had climbing over the horrendous double cornices at the top of the ridge and had only overcome them by having to do some really risky climbing.

Tim and Jono summiting San Juan

Incredible views of Nevado Kayesh (5 721 m) as we descended.

The view of the West Face of Nevado Kayesh (5 721 m) seen from Nevado San Juan

After watching them safely reach the summit at 16:30 we started to go down ourselves, now in really mushy snow conditions. At the traverse just above the last steep step, one of the penitentes I was standing on collapsed, sending me down the slope for about 5 m. Thankful to reach the col just as the last light was fading.

Also with the knowledge that they were fast running out of light, in desperation Tim and Jono decided to descend directly below the summit saddle. At first they went down some steep (60⁰) snow grooves and then down the 50⁰ snow face below, where Jono took a 20 m slide in the soft snow when his snow stake pulled out, fortunately landing him on a fortuitously placed rock ! After we had eaten supper in the ice cave, we were relieved to see their headlamps appearing on the ridge just above us and shortly afterwards were happy to welcome them safely back in the cave (at about 21:00).

Our support party spent the day shopping for food in Huaraz, packing and getting ready to leave for the Quebrada Rajuqolta basecamp.

Tuesday 29 June

We woke to be welcomed by the foulest morning so far – heavy cloud, snow and spindrift being driven across the col by a strong northerly wind. It therefore took some time for us to climb out of our bags and get moving – grateful that everyone was safely off the mountain. Tim and Jono were the last to pack up following us down from the col onto the easy descent to reach the dry glacier in the middle of the Shallap basin. From there we walked across the basin skirting the top of the medial moraine and then angled across the far side of the glacier to reach the Shallap glacier’s lateral moraine which provided us with easy access onto the moraine shelf above, where we stopped to eat a pleasant lunch at the edge of the ice. Tim and Jono left us there to climb up over a series of broken ledges and over two tongues of dry stable glacier to get into the scree valley leading up to the snow col on the east side of Point 5406 making good time to set up a subcamp on dry ground just below the col.

Mike, Robin, Pete and I descended to the bed of the side valley and then traversed over the moraine around the corner to reach the massive scree in the next valley to the west. After traversing still further across this scree we had to climb a tricky rock pitch over a subsidiary rock rib to get into a beautiful rocky corrie below some impressive “Witzenberg type” slabs – more special still for the mushrooms and moss decorating the streambed and the fresh buck spoor we found close by. After crossing another small ridge we set up a subcamp on a rocky platform next to a small tarn. The clouds that had covered the peaks since early morning had diminished during the course of the afternoon leaving us a clear cool evening.

The support party organised a lorry to take them back up to Pitec from where they walked over the ridge into the Shallap valley and over another to make their first camp in the Quebrada Rajuqolta.

Wednesday 30 June

A very strong cold northeast wind sprang up during the early hours of the morning, later accompanied by cloud streaming in from the Amazon side. We started moving as early as possible and after packing up our camp shouldered light packs to make an attempt on Point 5 406 m. We walked up over the boulders of the old lateral moraine and put on our crampons at the edge of the ice of the glacier tongue. We then soloed all the way across the glacier to the junction of the east and north ridges at the glacier’s eastern edge where we were hit by the full force of the wind, now being able to see an incredible view of the San Juan peaks and Huantsan.

Ice formations on the traverse from Quelkaywanka to Rajuqolta

Looking back at San Juan Sur (5 670 m) and Huantsan Norte (6 113 m) before descending into the Quebrada Rajuqolta

The view to the north was also phenomenal, though slightly spoiled by cloud obscuring the peaks – we could even see Huascaran in the distance. After dumping our packs on the ridge we continued through a break next to a rock tower on the crest of the northeast ridge onto more snow and over a short ice cliff to where we could scramble over incredibly shattered rock to reach the summit of Point 5 406 m. Fantastic views looking out in all directions and for the first time looking down being able to see the azure waters of Laguna Rajuqolta. After quickly making the easy descent back to our subcamp, we packed up and traversed a further short distance to the west to cross over the col into the Quebrada Rajuqolta. We then made a long, steep and arduous descent past another lake to finally reach our new basecamp which had been set up by the support party together with Tim and Jono (who had descended very easily down the icefall above the lake) that morning. A great welcome all round and especially good for me to see Ali again. Big grub and relaxation – I wrote some letters late into the night that Felicity would take out on Thursday.

Quebrada Rajuqolta basecamp

Looking down the Quebrada Rajuqolta from above the Laguna Rajuqolta (basecamp immediately below the lake's containing moraine wall)

Looking up at Yawarraju (5 675 m) over Laguna Rajuqolta

The route we followed up to the Yawarraju food cache dominated by Huantsan Norte's huge West Face

After eating lunch on the rocky ridge we got onto the glacier – Robin missed the correct glacier access point so we were forced to go up the icefall on the southwest side of the glacier. This involved having to climb some steeper ice sections and negotiate a couple of crevasses before we could traverse back onto the glacier over some dirty brown ice and rock (obviously discoloured by dust blown onto the glacier by the big wind we had experienced). We trudged on up the glacier to a line approximately between the summits of Yawarraju and Huantsan’s south peak, where we broke back to the southwest to get back onto the icefall. After spending some time following a false lead up a snow ramp that was cut off by a big crevasse, we started hunting for a suitable ice cave, Robin eventually finding one that had a steep entrance snow slope which we had to negotiate with crampons (or without at great risk to life and limb)! Accepting that this would have to do for our subcamp, we settled in and levelled a sleeping platform at the back of the cave.

Yawarraju - searching for an ice cave

Yawarraju - and getting settled in

Pete and Mike packed up their subcamp and tried to traverse back towards Wamashraju East on the north side of the ridge, but were forced back into a maze of pinnacles and ridges on the south side. They then climbed a rock route up the east ridge, eventually reaching the third of Wamashraju’s summits (the unnamed point to the east of Wamashraju Este) which they called Wamashraju Chico. This involved climbing four pitches with an overall F1 grading which left them rather shattered due to the poor quality of the rock. They then descended and set up a new subcamp between the peak and the main col further to the east.

Tim and Jono left basecamp after us and ascended the glacier up to the col between Huantsan Norte and Point 5 406 carrying enough food for an eight day siege on Huantsan’s south peak. It was exciting when we found we were able to make radio contact with them and could also see their lights. We had no success trying to raise Pete and Mike.

Sunday 4 July

Despite our efforts to get away as early as possible, we weren’t very successful. Speaking to Tim and Jono on the radio we arranged to talk to Pete and Mike at 10:00, but only just succeeded in getting onto the crest of Yawarraju’s northwest ridge in time to do so. They told us about their trials and tribulations and their disappointment about the quality of rock they had encountered, based on which they said they intended giving up any further attempts to climb the other Wamashraju summits.

Climbing Yawarraju

We walked on up the ridge to the foot of Yawarraju’s summit cone where we roped up, a strong wind now blowing from the east across the ridge. We could now get onto the crest of the ridge from the east side up a snow ramp, from where we could continue along the crest for another four 45 m ropelengths, having to take some care about half way along where the ridge became quite corniced with some rock projecting, leaving a very fragile ice crest.

On the last pitch the angle eased slightly and we were able to move on up to the summit together – exciting views looking into the Rurek valley to the south and being able to get a good view of Uruashraju.After a quick descent roping down the ridge, we walked around onto the east side of the peak where we stopped for lunch in a sheltered hollow on the glacier and then set off on the long trudge up to the summit of Rurek, about a kilometre distant.

Traversing on from Yawarraju to Nevado Rurek

Reaching it we spent a short while taking more photos, trying to get a good idea of what our access into the valley and getting across it to reach Uruashraju would involve. For the first time we could also see some of the detail of our projected climb up Uruashraju’s northwest face.

The view of Uruashraju’s Northwest Face (partially obscured by Uruashraju Norte) seen from the summit of Rurek

Well satisfied with what we had managed to achieve, we made a quick descent back across the glacier to our ice cave. It had taken us about 3 hours to get up and down Yawarraju.

Mike and Pete descended to basecamp reaching it in the middle of the afternoon and Tim and Jono climbed up to the glacier col just below the start of the real climbing up the northwest ridge of Huantsan Norte. This involved traversing across the stepped glacier on the south side of the peak to the east of their previous camp, and having to climb over the second peak to reach the col.

We had no success trying to contact the others on the radio that evening – we suspected our radio batteries might be finished. The evening again provided us with some entertainment watching Robin’s and Janet’s efforts to get into the bivvy bag they were sharing, Robin’s huge Hollofil bag taking up about eighty percent of the available room!

Monday 5 July

To my surprise we were able to make radio contact with Tim and Jono when we again tried to raise them in the morning – delighted that we managed to do so, because through them we were able to arrange for a change in plans with Pete and Mike in basecamp. We said we would now meet up with them in the evening at a subcamp at the lagunas above Laguna Awash, preparatory to going over the pass above the lake to cross over into the Rurek valley. With our binoculars we could also just pick out the two minute specks that were Tim and Jono on the col below Huantsan Norte, laughing when Jono complained about the cold wind that was blowing there.

We dragged all our gear out of the ice cave and dried it in the sun while we had breakfast. After finally packing up, we made a fast descent of the glacier, cutting back through a short crevassed section to reach our original cache point on the rock ridge. Robin, who had obviously not slept well during the two nights we had spent in the ice cave and who we realised was now looking rather haggard, said he wanted to go back down to basecamp with Janet rather than continue with myself and Ali to have a crack at Uruashraju. We accordingly continued down to Laguna Awash where we all had a leisurely lunch, fending off the curious resident cows trying to climb over the rocks to inspect us more closely. Then after saying goodbye to Robin and Janet, Ali and I set off up the slog to the upper lagunas, skirting some tarns and passing through some large boulders to choose a pleasant subcamp site just below the screes on the west side of the valley – a very pretty area with lots of birdlife. After Pete and Mike joined us in the latish afternoon, I walked across the scree to recce our route for the next day. Reaching the col in the ridge above our camp I could spy out the lie of the land we would have to traverse across the head of the Rurek valley – this looked OK but we had a long way to go !

Tim and Jono climbed Huantsan Norte’s northwest ridge and set up a camp on the crest of the ridge between the peak’s west and north summits – a little earlier we could again just pick out their two tiny specks on the west summit.

Huantsan Norte (its summit partly obscured by cloud in the centre of the photo) and Huantsan

Pete seemed undecided what he wanted to do – he said he was keen to try to solo the peaks we had climbed on Monday.

Tuesday 6 July

Pete had a really bad night with a stomach upset that kept him up communing with the Viscachas all night – he thought most probably from drinking water he had collected from the nearby stream that had some silt in it. I woke very early, probably partly due to Pete’s ongoing performance, and was amazed to see an eclipse of the moon by now already very full. Getting up in the morning we found everything was covered in a heavy frost. Speaking to Tim and Jono on the radio they confirmed that they would be pushing on over Huantsan Norte to hopefully set up their next bivvy on the col between the peaks. We then set about rationalising our food for the Uruashraju subcamp leaving whatever we felt we would not need there. After Pete went off back down to basecamp, we started up the (fortunately fairly short) grind up the scree to the col we had to cross to get into the Rurek valley. The descent on the other side of the col was a bit more of an epic than expected because it was so incredibly steep and loose, so much so that Mike and soon afterwards the rest of us, elected rather to don our crampons to go down an adjacent snow strip to easier ground. From the col we followed a long moraine down the side of what looked like a very old section of glacier, one that must obviously have been very much larger in earlier days.

Crossing over the Kashan ridge from the Rajuqolta valley into the Rurek valley

Also tremendously impressive rock slabs striated by the glacier on the east side. Much higher up Rurek’s and Yawarraju’s southern aspect became very much more impressive than the far more limited and thus less imposing view we had been able to see when we climbed these peaks We traversed below the snout of the glacier tongue descending from Yawarraju below some slabs and crossed over the medial moraine at an altitude of about 4 650 m, this about 250 m above Laguna Tararwa, which we could now look down on. The Quebrada Rurek seemed to be quite a bleak looking valley with rather austere peaks around it – Nevado Shaqsha (5 703 m) and Pumawaqanka (5 563 m). We climbed onto the dry glacier coming down from Rurek and worked our way across quite easy ground to a steeper section of ice in the middle of the glacial bowl below Rurek III, where we stopped for lunch before doing a long slog on snow up to a notch in the rock ridge extending about two thirds of the way up Rurek III. This gave us quite easy access onto the glacier to the north of Uruashraju’s north peak where Ali and Mike started hunting for a suitable ice cave for our subcamp, while I climbed up onto the northwest ridge of the north peak to recce our route to get onto the main peak. This didn’t look too straightforward – a very abrupt rock face cut off access on the ridge’s south side and I could see we would have to climb considerably higher up on the ridge to access and then descend some snow runnels to take us down onto the glacier below Uruashraju’s northwest face.

Uruashraju's ice palace - the entrance hall

I returned to the others to discover that they had found an absolute palace of an ice cave – a magnificent level ice floor with huge twisted icicles separating a bed/living room from a grand entrance hall, with plumbing laid on in the form of a permanent trickle of water.

Uruashraju's ice palace - the sleeping quarters

With some difficulty Tim and Jono climbed over Huantsan Norte to set up their next subcamp on the col between it and the main peak. We had no luck making radio contact with them in the evening.

Wednesday 7 July

This was the “big day” of the expedition with both Huantsan and Uruashraju being climbed. Ali, Mike and I woke at 05:00 and after a quick breakfast and a brew got away from the ice cave at 06:45. A perfect day with the promise of a little cloud rising from the Amazon side. First we had to climb up a series of connecting snow slopes with penitentes to the crest of Uruashraju Norte’s northwest ridge, where, although a huge cornice overhung the south side of the ridge, we could still gain access to the snow slope next to it. We stopped briefly at an ice cave that would serve as a perfect bivvy spot on the crest of the ridge before dropping over the edge. This involved going down a very steep slope in soft powder snow, crossing an unpleasant bergschrund (that collapsed just as I finished getting over it - Mike and Ali passing it more easily to the west) and then descending over better 45⁰ to 50⁰ snow to a stance 45 m further down. Another 45 m pitch brought us to easier ground below another large crevasse. We coiled the rope there and traversed across some more soft snow to get onto Uruashraju’s northwest glacier (3 hours from our ice cave).

Our projected route up Uruashraju’s northwest face followed a series of ramps up the west side of a prominent crevasse splitting the mountain vertically to near the point where the mountain’s west ridge comes in and where it looked as though it should be possible to traverse around above some seracs on the line of the crevasse to get onto the north face and access the summit ridge.

Looking back over the Quebrada Rurek from the crest of Uruash Norte's Northwest Ridge

Uruashraju's North Face - the prominent crevasse splitting the mountain vertically is just to the right of the sunlit ice rib

We reached the start of the route by traversing quite easily across the glacier, gaining height over a series of snow steps with penitentes connecting easy angled snow slopes, some of the steps quite steep as we discovered to our cost when we had to descend the route much later that evening. We soloed up to a point quite far to the right where we could angle back to the left over a series of connecting ramps. We roped up there because we had to climb up a west facing gully on the first of the ramps which was very icy, a 90 m pitch bringing us to a good relay point in a snow filled crevasse. We climbed another less steep slope above this for about another 120 m to where the angle eased still more, where an error we made in the roping caused Ali a lot of grief trying to get the rope back to Mike. At this point it already appeared that it might be possible to traverse to the left to get over the previously mentioned vertical crevasse, but when I had a closer look it was clear that this would not work. We therefore had to take a line up another 80 m high steep snow wall with an unpleasant near vertical section in the middle.

When I brought the others up to the stance, I discovered that they had left our packs tied to a snow stake at the bottom of the wall – although we had originally agreed to do this, I had subsequently asked them to rather bring them up to the higher ledge where it appeared we should be able to connect to the south ridge and, if needed, should also have a better chance of finding a decent bivvy site. All this while we had been baking in hot sunshine with only the odd cloud giving us some respite in the form of shade – the face we were on was like a bowl collecting the heat and the problem of heat exhaustion was not one we had really anticipated (the litre of Super C we had with us was certainly not sufficient to quench our thirst). But more seriously when we reached the stance where we could see that we could start traversing onto the north face, my main concern was that, if anything stopped us getting back to the packs, we had no head torches and very little warm clothing with us, (I was only wearing a salopette with my polypropylene jersey top and had no windproof or other warm clothing).

We therefore turned on all speed and did a full runout up and around an icy corner to the left arriving on a steep but easy snow slope below the last ice cliffs on the north face. A further traverse and 90 m lead out up a straightforward slope eventually brought us all onto the crest of the summit ridge at 17:30 – of the 7½ hours climbing time from the glacier (±500 to 600 m climbed) we probably lost an hour in the roping debacle.

On Uruashraju's summit ridge

Looking down Uruashraju's Southwest Ridge towards the upper Santa valley

We reversed the last three pitches as quickly as we could (Mike downclimbing the last steep wall) arriving at our packs just as darkness really descended. We gratefully donned our warmer clothing, rigged our head torches and reversed our previous roping pitches in 45 m runouts, Ali and I downclimbing together as fast as possible putting out runners and then Mike belayed down on the doubled rope. This way we got down fairly easily (except for the first ice pitch which proved slightly more problematical) to the point where we had started roping in the morning. Our difficulty below this was routefinding – first we roped down another wall we had soloed in the morning and then followed quite well defined tracks until they again disappeared over the edge of what looked like a seeming abyss! I went down on the end of the rope to try to sort out the puzzle and managed to find the way we had soloed up a near vertical wall of penitentes in the morning. But very time consuming for Mike and Ali to follow. Then the near full moon that had just risen gave us a lot of help and we were able to make our way across the glacier more easily to where we had to start climbing up again to cross over Uruash Norte’s northwest ridge. Here we erred again – looking back while climbing Uruashraju we had noticed that it appeared possible to regain the crest of Norte’s northwest ridge further down (ie further to the west), where we thought we would have less height to gain and where the lower bergschrund also looked easier. In the moonlight we made a long and exhausting traverse to where we thought the break should be. But when we started climbing up again it looked as though there was no break at all, only possibly still further to the left starting below a line of seracs. We dejectedly reversed the traverse and climbed back up to the line of our original descent, by now pretty well exhausted! I went up to our morning’s midway stance and Mike climbed through – too pleased to get back onto the crest of the ridge again. From there we had a bit of tricky route finding trying to follow our original tracks down the penitentes slopes and finally across the glacier to reach the ice cave at 03:00.

Throughout our return we had been moving through a surreal world of sparkling ice bathed in crystal clear moonlight – the scene made even more unreal by our own frosted appearance – a very special experience. We lit the stove and brewed and brewed until 05:00 when we collapsed into our bags pretty well pleased with our day’s effort.

Tim and Jono had already recced their route onto the main peak of Huantsan to within 150 m of the summit on Tuesday evening, so their final climb to the summit went reasonably easily except for the final pitch which was on extremely fragile snow and was badly corniced. Tim had arranged to talk to Janet in basecamp by radio when he and Jono reached the summit, so of course there was huge excitement (especially Alejandro) when the radio message did finally come through at 13:00. Tim and Jono descended to their subcamp below the main peak and then went on over the North Peak to the subcamp they had used between the West and Main summits of the North Peak.

Pete and Robin walked out to Huaraz.

Thursday 8 July

Despite only going to sleep just before dawn, we woke at about 09:00 with the sun streaming through the icicles at the entrance to the cave.

Commencing the descent from the Uruashraju subcamp the view dominated by the imposing aspect of Nevado Rurek's South Face

We were fairly fed up with the damp conditions on the floor of the cave – the floor being solid ice and perfectly level meant that our body heat melted some of the ice sufficient for us to be sleeping in a puddle of water a few millimetres deep. This had saturated our groundsheets, bivvy bags and sleeping mats, so we had to collect all our gear and drag it out to the snow bowl outside the cave where we could suspend it over the penitentes to dry out. I took a few more photos of the icicles in the cave, better lit with the sun, and then ate a fairly extended breakfast admiring the impressive view of the south face of Rurek we could see from the cave. We all felt incredibly lethargic and it was a real effort to get going. After jettisoning our excess fuel and food (not having to melt water from the snow had made a big difference), we packed up and got going back to basecamp about 12:15.

We retraced our steps back across the glacier descending to the bottom in about an hour and a half. After shedding our crampons and gaiters we started climbing back up the moraine and scree to get onto the snow leading up to the col we had to cross, a slow and tiring exercise. Once we reached the snow tongue we put on our crampons again to walk up the snow which was rather soft on one steep section. Where it became too rocky we simply cramponed up the mud slope next to the snow.

We reached the col at about 17:00 and made a relatively fast descent down the screes to Laguna Awash and then managed to reach the cow promontory on the path below the shepherds’ ruins just as it became dark. Here we put on our headlamps and slithered down the rest of the zig-zags (with very large moths buzzing around us – attracted by the light) and then walking down the final short slope to reach basecamp.

Of course it was only there that we heard the exciting news from Tim and Jono about their stunning success on Huantsan - jubilation all around. They had taken all day to descend back to basecamp from their subcamp, arriving there about an hour and a half before us. Much excitement and celebration over supper at the double success. And then blissful sleep!

Janet told us that Jim Bartle had visited basecamp during the day.

Friday 9 July

A true rest day in basecamp – washing ourselves and catching up on eating being the main activities. Base seemed very quiet with so few people. Janet and Alejandro had been on their own since Pete and Robin left to go to the coast. Just fantastic to relax in the warm sunshine on this, one of the most perfect days we had had on the trip. The Rajuqolta valley seemed like a paradise – its green meadows dotted with quena trees and the high rock walls on either side with beautiful waterfalls cascading down them – the whole dominated by the ever-looming presence of Huantsan at the head of the valley. The valley was lush with lupins and other flowering shrubs all around basecamp – as a result the birdlife was particularly prolific, a pleasure to be able to watch and hear them all day. Some of the bird varieties seemed akin to those we knew from home, like the robins and the velvet blue sunbirds, but many others we didn’t know.

In our relaxed mood it was good to talk to Tim and Jono and to hear their full story of their climb firsthand, also to tell them all about our own climb up Uruashraju. I think we all felt quite pleased that everything had turned out so well.

Nevado Huantsan's summit

I suppose with the wide variety of food available to us in basecamp and the fact that we all seemed to be ravenous most of the time, we did go rather overboard – eating sumptuously, with the result that by evening we were all rather blown up spending the evening and night in a sort of hideous gassing session, which didn’t make our tents the most attractive places to be!!

We ended our evening’s celebrations by shooting off all our remaining flares, but it wasn’t very successful because most of them proved to be duds. Tim, Jono and Janet planned to make a really early start to go off on a day trip tomorrow to have a look at the northeast face route we had spied out on Kashan Este (5 723 m).

Saturday 10 July

Our previous evening’s food experience seemed to affect some of us more than we had expected – Tim and I were both suffering chronic after effects and as a result Tim didn’t get off with Jono. Following long deliberations after Mike had woken Jono, who didn’t wake up with his own alarm, both Tim and Janet decided not to join Jono and he went off on his own. Janet accompanied him over the first short steep section to make sure that he found the start of the path into the Kashan side valley. I also woke with a very sore tummy and had to do a quick sprint or two down the valley to sort myself out! Off food for the rest of the day, except guess who, Ali tucking into his second bowl of Weetbix!!! This was a cooler morning with cloud coming in over Huantsan and obscuring the sun in basecamp rather earlier than usual. Nevertheless I used the opportunity to get some washing done, to bring my diary up to date and to draw up the summary of the peaks we had climbed. After a more solid lunch I packed a rucksack with my camera and crossed the main river onto the north bank of the lake to explore its meadows and see more of the lake and also to try to see Jono. At first I had no success spotting him and then suddenly I could distinguish him as an insignificant speck slowly moving down the snow from the upper third of the iced up upper section of the peak – moving into the open just below a bottleneck where a rock buttress formed a narrow gap below the east ridge. I watched him moving slowly all the way down the snow fields, taking about two hours to finally get off the snow. While I was watching I also admired the odd avalanches cascading down into the bowl above the lake.

I walked back to where the lake outlet cuts through the moraine and then on to basecamp after crossing the river. Jono arrived about half an hour after the time I predicted, obviously really tired after having had to bash penitentes all day long to climb the peak. It looked likely that the route he had followed was a new one. There was more snow in basecamp during the night.

Sunday 11 July

After the rather long and inconclusive discussions that we had held on Saturday night, in the morning we eventually all agreed that Jono should stay in basecamp with Alejandro to wait for the burros to arrive, while the rest of us would go down to Huaraz over Macashca. In the morning’s rather cooler weather we packed up everything that we could and struck all but two of the tents – it was a long process drying the flysheets and getting everything sorted. Finally at about 09:15 Tim, Janet, Ali, Mike and I bid Jono and Alejandro goodbye and set off down the valley for the last time, Tim somehow managing to get fouled up in a bog crossing the river and in the process discovering that there are some quite nice sized fish in the river. A long and tiring walk to get down to the portada (about 1¾ hours from basecamp), the undulating path going down the north side of the valley to avoid the wet ground close to the river. The valley floor was stepped and there were beautiful wooded camp sites with lots of boulders as we got closer to the portada, also terrific granite slabs rising up on both sides of the valley. All the way we were denied any views of the main peaks as they stayed hidden by cloud.

Seeing the portada village this time it seemed it was in fact bigger than Pitec – a short distance above it we met the arrieros and burros on their way up to basecamp, one of the arrieros trying to catch trout in the river. We followed a similar long fairly even descent going on down below the portada, the valley becoming progressively more cultivated as we descended, but the settlements only more frequent when we got quite close to Macashca. Colourful scenes of threshing being done with animals next to our track with lots of people dancing. Tim and Janet, who had fallen a little way behind, caught us up as we entered Macashca and we stopped to have lunch in the central square – pan and cerveza while being ogled by chicha-filled villagers. We discovered the bus to Huaraz had already left at 13:00 but managed to climb on board a collectivo bakkie to take us down the last 15 km into the town. We found Pete and Robin at the Raymondi and booked ourselves in at Los Portales - lots of news to catch up on (Pete and Robin told us they had been to Trujillo). It was especially interesting to meet Jim Bartle over supper at the Rivoli Comedor.

Monday 12 July

We had quite a lot of different tasks to do during the day – after breakfast at los Portales we went to draw money, fortunately bumping into Emilio’s brother and sister in the main street with whom we arranged that Pete would go up with a lorry to Pitec to meet Jono and the burros. There was a long queue at the bank so on the way to the bus station where we had arranged to meet Mike, Ali and I hived off to see if we could find some tapes of Peruvian music. And since Mike wasn’t there, Ali and I went on to see if we could find Alcides Ames, which at first was not very successful as we were looking too high up for the house, Ali eventually giving up. When I was at last successful finding the house, I found that the others had already arrived there after successfully managing to make the reservations on the Lima bus, but that Alcides was unfortunately away at a camp for his glaciological work. After a short stop for a beer on the way back to the hotel, we did the last of the repacking of the boxes when we got there, Robin organising the food we wanted to give to the Ames in one of them (and getting copped for riding a bicyclette down a one way street when he delivered the box)!

After making the payment for the hotel, Mike, Ali and I set off in a collectivo to visit Alberto and Beatrice Torres in Carhuaz to give them our medical kits, but arriving there, found only Beatrice at home (Alberto apparently attending a political meeting). After Beatrice plied us with more beer and coffee, we walked to the Plaza de Armas to find Alberto, but he found us first as he was driving home. Back at the house we found Michael, an American Professor teaching at Trujillo University, was there with his wife and baby son, who had also come to see the Torres. This was very convivial – we had a lovely afternoon chatting with the Torres and their American guests over lots more cervezas – Alberto eventually nearly falling off his chair.

After bidding our good hosts goodbye we caught the Ancash bus back to Huaraz where we found that Jono had safely arrived. He told us that it had rained heavily in basecamp the previous night and that he had got thoroughly drenched. He had experienced no real problems coming down with the burros, but had reached Pitec rather earlier than he expected, so continued on down to Huaraz meeting Pete and the lorry on road along the way.

All our arrangements for leaving now seemed to be in place, the only slight hassle having to sort out mix ups that occurred with some payments for the burros that the support party had previously made. After Jono and Pete finished packing, we all had supper at Las Familias before seeing them off on the Ancash bus to Lima.

Tuesday 13 July

Mike was already up early while I was still trying to collect my befuddled thoughts and enough strength to get myself vertical. We rushed off to organise the final packing, make the payments to various parties and to get ready for the rest of us to leave for Lima on the 10:00 bus. I made the outstanding payments to Alejandro and the arrieros who all seemed to be very happy. Alejandro seemed to be particularly happy that I had written out a reference letter for him and that we had given him the rest of the food left over in basecamp, that he had taken to his family in Pitec. We had now also rationalised all the clobber that had to go to Lima with us and we took it down to the Ancash bus depot by bicyclette. We had the usual big performance getting all the baggage weighed before leaving and the bus also seemed to make a slow start picking up other people in Huaraz. But once we were under way it seemed to get going more easily. A long but easy day with the bus making a single stop going down the Negra before really burning it along the Pan American highway to arrive in Lima at 18:00. We organised a taxi and a delivery van to take us from the depot to the Alcazar where we found Pete and Jono had previously booked in. Des and Tony also met us at the hotel but they had booked into the Savoy.

We quickly organised our rooms and had a wash before setting off by taxi to go to the Consulate party organised for the expedition by the Edermanns, getting somewhat delayed along the way finding the address in San Isidro when the taxi drivers got lost. Here we were absolutely feted – a fantastic meal (starting with Pisco Sours followed by bobotie and a tongue buffet) organised by Albie and Leon and shared also with Cesar, his wife and friends, Kommandant Ambiya (a lawyer with the Peruvian Navy) and his wife. Very enjoyable – and everyone also said all the right things !

Conclusion

That was really the conclusion of the expedition. Before leaving I spent some time with Cesar Morales giving him the details of the climbs that we did including a sketch of the route on Uruashraju. Kommandant Ambiya made an incredibly generous gift to me – a tiny Vicus civilization terracotta pot fashioned as an animal head* We bade a final goodbye to Cesar with our sincere thanks for all that he had done for us on the expedition.

The last excitement of the trip was attending a party organised by the Brands for Odette Scrooby, South Africa’s entrant in the Miss Universe competition which was being held in Lima. This coincided too with Odette’s birthday the following day, so it was all very festive. Hilarious photos of Odette surrounded by our scruffy expedition members – one of them with Jono pushing out his braces to strike a heroic pose with her !

Final goodbyes and the long haul home with some excitement when Varig made waves about our large amount of baggage. This was held over until we arrived in Rio so Varig could make contact with Ian Miller our SAA contact in Cape Town, who was immediately able to sort out all the problems.

The end of a great trip and a very happy homecoming on Friday 16 July, unfortunately terribly marred by the tragic news given to Janet by VARIG’s PRO in the Jan Smuts Customs Hall when we arrived in Johannesburg that her brother had been shot and killed on his Zimbabwe farm in one of the Zimbabwe land invasions a few days previously.

*Note : The Pre-Columbian Vicus civilization at Ayabaca in Piura (200 BC to 600 AD) followed the important Chavin period (900 BC to 200 BC). The Vicus culture was renowned for its rich legacy of clay pottery, many of the pieces in the form of animal and bird renditions.

Terracotta pot from the Vicus civilization in the form of an animal head

Cordillera Blanca Central Section Nev Chinchey to San Juan (Courtesy Juraq Janka – Cordilleras Blanca and Rosko by John F Ricker)

Cordillera Blanca Central Section Nev San Juan to Uruashraju (Courtesy Juraq Janka – Cordilleras Blanca and Rosko by John F Ricker)