The 1979 South African

Cordillera Blanca Expedition

SACBE 79

Introduction

Following the 1970 Peruvian Earthquake Relief Expedition I had firmly resolved to return to the Cordillera Blanca to do some climbing. This ultimately came to fruition in 1979 when eight of us, Andre’ Dippenaar, Pete du Preez, Tim Hughes, Jonathan Levy, Dr Ed Marais, Koos Oosthuizen, Dion Tromp and myself, all members of the MCSA, put together plans for an expedition to the Northern Blanca, and SACBE 79 came into being. The months of preparation were again a steep learning curve, though to say the least, also an entertaining one. We did a lot of climbing together – Pete and I were at that time hard at work trying to bag the good lines opening up routes on the Wolfberg in the Cederberg. On “Red Revolution” with Tim and Jonathan, we were accompanied by Ed, which was something of a problem because the routefinding was quite complex and it took a big effort and a ridiculous amount of shouting to shepherd Ed, who had quite a severe hearing disability, back to the correct line when he went off route. Sometime after this when Ed organised some of the inoculations for us all that we had to have travelling to Peru, he got his own back on Jono (who didn’t much care for injections) - when it was Jono’s turn for his Jab, Ed hauled out this huge veterinary horse syringe bringing a near fainting Jono to his knees.

We had decided to take quite a lot of the food needed for the expedition with us from South Africa and did our level best to get as much as possible of it donated rather than having to pay for it. We called this begging process “schnorrering” and there was no doubt that among us all, Jono was by far the most successful “schnorrerer”! We also managed to negotiate a very favourable expedition discount buying some of the new equipment we needed from Alpine Sports, then one of the foremost climbing shops in London. Needless to say word soon got around and we found ourselves inundated with requests from climbing friends to join in on the deal, buying new equipment for them back home. To facilitate getting both this equipment as well as all the other expedition food and equipment we were taking from Cape Town, to Lima, we had arranged a special dispensation for the baggage we could take on our flights with a contact in SAA’s hierarchy. Which all worked out very well up to the point when the aircraft on our transatlantic flight from the UK to the US experienced a technical instrument problem and we had to return to Heathrow! This left us entirely on our own, having to negotiate with the different airlines that we now had to use to reach Lima, to somehow wangle acceptance of the enormous amount of accompanied baggage we had with us, without having to pay extra. Perhaps because flying was “easier” in those days and we were so obviously impecunious youngsters, we managed to “charm” the extra baggage onto all our remaining flights and did finally arrive safely, though somewhat exhausted in Lima. There it was our good fortune to be welcomed by Francis Fourie and Louis Lindeque, the South African Consul General and Vice Consul respectively, as well as Cesar Morales, the Peruvian doyen of Andinisme, none of whom could have been more helpful or hospitable in seeing to the expedition’s needs and getting it up to the Santa valley. Arriving in Carhuaz, Alberto Torres and his wife Beatrice, staunch friends from the 1970 Earthquake Expedition, housed us all in the hospital’s emergency maternity clinic and arranged for the hire of a somewhat decrepit “camion” to transport us and our baggage to Cashapampa at the bottom of the Quebrada Santa Cruz, where we would be able to make all the necessary arrangements for the burros and arrieros we would need to pack all our equipment and food up to the basecamp we intended setting up in the Quebrada Allpamayo.

Sunday 1 July

At our camp near Cashapampa we were woken early in the morning by a lorry driving past the campsite and an American couple camping nearby getting out of their tent to arrange a lift down with it. We were up at first light (05:15) as Pedro Huaman and Donato, the locals who we had engaged to transport all our gear and food up to our basecamp, departed with their arrieros to collect the burros we were going to need. We made breakfast on the fire and started packing in readiness for loading the burros, but then had to wait a while as they arrived much later than we anticipated. After a whole lot of problems loading them, we discovered that there were still two boxes that had to be loaded. Therefore Pedro dashed off to get two more burros, while the rest of us started off up the trail going up to the Quebrada Allpamayo (10:15 - Pete and Dion remaining with the loads still to be packed onto the extra burros). The extra burros meant that their number would increase from 21 to 23 with an extra cost of 5 500 soles bringing the total cost to 56 500 soles.

After crossing over the Quebrada Santa Cruz the trail made a long traverse along the west flank of the mountain going up and down past small settlements with cultivated fields – very pretty and plenty of water. At the end of the traverse we had to negotiate some very steep sections descending to a last big stream before reaching the Colcas ridge. We all foregathered there with Jono feeling rather bum, so after a discussion with Donato we decided to camp for the night and tackle the major task of re-packing the contents of some of the boxes into sacks before starting out on the next section of the trail that was apparently waterless. We had lunch and then collected water for making supper before starting to re-pack the boxes that would be retained. Completing this quite early, we had supper and then organised ourselves to sleep in the open. The altitude at this stage was 3 000 m and both Tim and Jono were feeling queasy.

Monday 2 July

We all had a good night, both Jono and Tim feeling better. We got up at 05:15 and after breakfast loaded the burros leaving the empty boxes as Donato had arranged at a nearby house. The next section of the trail was a long slog up onto the Colcas ridge passing some old ruins (terraces and what looked like forts) on the way. The trail then went straight up the flank of the mountain in a series of zig zags, eventually traversing northwards again across a huge loose earth slip (a reminder of the 1970 ‘quake') to reach a pleasant meadow where we collected water from a damp bog and stopped for lunch – lots of tea. From there we did another hour long slog up more zig zags to a point where we caught our first sight of the peaks in the Millwaqocha group (5 480 m). After waiting for the burros and the others and after everyone except Tim and Jono had arrived, we continued up the zig zags for another 80 m height gain, where we stopped again. After waiting some more we became concerned so Pete and I went down, finding them both feeling very tired, so took over their packs and climbed up with them back to our resting spot. After a bit of re-packing to lighten their packs we completed the zig zags and traversed past Laguna Azul before descending past some rock cliffs and going over a rock barrier to reach our next camp at Laguna Kulliqocha (4 625 m). This had been a very long waterless day with an altitude gain of approximately 1 625 m and Andre’ D, Tim and Jono were all feeling pretty wacked, Jono also complaining of chest pains!

There were fantastic views of Kitaraju (6 040 m), Santa Cruz (6 259 m) and of the lakes from the spot where we had decided to camp and we also saw a magnificent pair of condors.

View of Loyaqjirka (5 600 m), Kitaraju (6 040 m), Abasraju (5 550 m) and Santa Cruz (6 259 m) from Kulliqocha

After reaching the camp we had a long altercation with Donato to quash a demand that he and the arrieros were making for extra money. It seemed that as a result of this, Donato did not intend to stay, but had arranged for one of the other arrieros to do so in his place.

Tuesday 3 July

I did not have a good night – I had taken some Codis pills for a headache, but I dreamt of packing and was disturbed by the others moving around in the night. Jono and Andre’ D were also both very poorly with mountain sickness and a chest infection respectively when they woke up. We therefore decided to split into two parties. Koos, Tim and I would go on with the burros and the others would follow us more slowly later, Andre’ D and Jono without packs. We now climbed up to the crest of the ridge at 4 850 m (passing two French climbers descending with their burros and an arriero on the way) before going down into the Quebrada de los Cedros – spectacular views all around from the top, particularly of Santa Cruz (6 259 m), Santa Cruz Norte (5 829 m) and Santa Cruz Chico (5 800 m) reflected in the blue waters of the lakes, the upper lake with pieces of ice floating in it as they broke off the glacier snout. At the start of the descent the trail first went out onto a spur projecting out over the Quebrada de los Cedros, but we followed a more level traverse line across great granite slabs and marshes instead, rejoining the trail beyond. As we were ahead of the burros, we waited for them as well as for all the others to catch us up, Jono now feeling brighter, but Andre’ D practically collapsing with severe mountain sickness and possible symptoms of cerebral oedema. After getting the medical kits out, dosing Andre' D and helping ourselves to some lunch off the burros we went on over the next spur, but had to help support Andre’ D all the way. We had to similarly manhandle him all the way for nearly 750 m going down the zig zag path into the Quebrada Allpamayo (the upper reach of the Quebrada de los Cedros), then as he was still feeling very weak we stopped at a good campsite on a terrace next to the river a short distance further on beyond some ruins. We washed and after supper tried to resurrect one of the High Altitude food packs that had been dunked when the burro carrying it fell in the river!

Wednesday 4 July

We woke slightly later than before to an overcast sky and the possible threat of snow. We were thankful that both Jono and Andre’ D seemed to be feeling rather better. We set off up the Quebrada Allpamayo gaining height slowly along a path following the moraines on the true lefthand bank. The valley was fairly wide at this point with steep slopes of green vegetation and some screes on either side. Higher up going around a corner we had our first good views of Nevado Pilanco Sur (5 150 m) and Nevado Tayapampa (5 675 m), though slightly obscured by cloud. When we came to Laguna Jankarurish and crossed the river, the arrieros said they were not prepared to take the burros up the steep moraine bounding the lake, and had to be somewhat forcibly persuaded to do so – the moraine was quite steep and loose, but did not present any real problems (it was only on the east side that the face was more active). A traverse then brought us to a rather scruffy looking campsite (approx. 4 300 m) below a steep ridge leading to the upper valley. As it was clear that we would not be able to take the burros any further, we scratched together enough soles to settle up with Donato and the arrieros - a rather lengthy process which involved a tremendous amount of haggling to eventually arrive at the same 56 500 soles payment we had originally agreed with Donato for the ingoing trip! We also arranged that Pedro Huaman would return with six burros to meet us at the base of the Jankarurish moraine on the evening of 2 August and confirmed the 18 500 soles payment that would be due to him for the return trip, making an advance down payment of 1 000 soles for this arrangement. We only discovered that the arrieros had plundered one of our food packs after they had all disappeared down the valley so, bidding our farewell to them was not without some relief.

We pitched three of the tents and cooked supper over a wood fire. Andre’ D still feeling pretty miserable. Some snow fell during the night and the conditions in our camp were wet and uncomfortable!

There was a large letter “H” built with stones next to the campsite, a sobering relic from an Austrian party that had apparently camped in the same spot a few weeks earlier and had tried to summon help for a girl in their party who was suffering from pulmonary oedema to be flown out by helicopter. Sadly no help arrived and she died at the camp.

Thursday 5 July

We woke rather later in the morning because more snow was spattering down on our tents and it looked as though there was promise of more to come as the clouds were rolling in from the northeast driven by a strong wind. Under these wet conditions we left the guys to rest in their tents and to catch up on sleep, reading, writing and doing word puzzles. Andre’ D was very low with acute altitude sickness and an abscess on one of his teeth which had been recently filled – Ed was treating him with anti-biotics. Jono was also rather low and feeling very weak, suffering from diarrhoea and having to run from his tent at frequent intervals.

Fortunately we had covered the food and equipment offloaded from the burros with the spare tents and bivvy bags so none of the stuff got wet. Later in the afternoon it cleared marginally and Pete and I erected the Kestrel tent and organised some supper to cheer everyone up. We were still living on our approach rations, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to organise food as we didn’t want to sort the food packs until we had established basecamp. Our party’s morale was currently at a very low ebb with quite a few of the party suffering from altitude and tummy problems – our biggest concern was Andre’ D who was showing no sign of improvement, prompting serious discussion how we were going to get him out if we had to!

One plus was that Pete and Dion had gone out to recce the way to the upper valley and had found an ideal site for us to set up our basecamp.

Friday 6 July

During the night it partially cleared and became colder with ice freezing on the tents. We woke to beautiful views of the peaks we could see, particularly Nevado Allpamayo (5 947 m) which had cloud tearing past it. After our initial hopes for a clearing, the clouds returned, but remained fairly broken up allowing us to make four carries up to the excellent level site chosen for our basecamp in the upper valley - Pete, Dion, Koos and myself with Ed, Tim and Jono assisting to transport the bulk of our food up to the new camp. From there there were intriguing views of the avalanche-swept east face of Nevado Santa Cruz as well as of Abasraju, which was a very fine looking peak. Also the first indication of how we might be able to gain access to the Allpamayo icefall over the rock ridge behind the high pinnacle overlooking our Laguna Jankarurish camp (which we christened the “Dru”). There were lots of massive ice avalanches peeling off the snout of the icefall and falling over the granite slabs below into Laguna Jankarurish. The icefall looked complex and we reckoned crossing it to get to Allpamayo might be problematical.

I was pleased how fit I had felt carrying a heavy load (35 – 40 kg) the approx. 200 m height gain up to basecamp – we had managed to move an estimated 600 kg to the camp and had stored it all in Bob Reinecke’s tunnel tent.

On descending after our last carry in the late afternoon, we were surprised to find a party of French (civil engineering student) climbers had arrived with climbing plans very similar to our own. It looked as though it may be quite a lot of fun to have them around. Back in the lower camp we were pleased to find that both Andre’ D and Jono seemed to have perked up somewhat – our final decision whether we might have to take Andre’ D out, would depend on whether he showed further improvement or not.

We cooked a vast meal for supper to celebrate the success of a much improved day.

Saturday 7 July

We woke to find the weather had cleared properly and were feeling good that we had been able to complete our carries to basecamp. After breakfast we proceeded to break our lower camp before carrying the balance of the food and equipment still there, up to basecamp. We saw the French party were doing the same and to our dismay also found a large party of Spanish climbers had arrived with the intention of setting up their camp close to our own!

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon sorting out food and re-packing the HA (high altitude) food kits with provision for us to decant items like sugar, milk, etc. We stored the HA kits in a small cave we found in the scree behind base and the LA food in two of our tents at base. We also organised a cosy set up for the kitchen which had a good supply of clean water that we could draw from a tributary of the main stream. All around us there were fantastic views – principally of Santa Cruz, Abasraju and Tayapampa.

Looking across at Tayapampa from our Allpamayo basecamp

We were pleased to find that, despite our earlier plans to retain Andre’ D and Jono at the Laguna Jankarurish camp for a few days more, they both elected rather to carry small loads up to basecamp and stay there – this was an added boost for the whole party’s morale, but we were concerned that from an acclimatisation point of view there might still be repercussions!

To celebrate our arrival at base, Ed cooked up a big “nosh” of fresh potatoes garnished with cheese and other “goodies” while I mixed up some Pisco sours. A good party that we all enjoyed, especially as we now felt that we could at last get down to doing the climbing we had come here for.

I spent part of the late afternoon riveting new crampon straps to my crampons.

Sunday 8 July

We made a fairly lazy start to another beautiful day. The sun reached base at about 08:15, left it at about 16:00 and it was quite warm during the day. After breakfast we went on preparing our personal equipment (fixing straps to crampons, greasing boots, etc) in preparation for our first subcamping trip. Base was a scene of activity as all the other guys were doing the same, though Andre’ D was again very low with altitude sickness. Ed insisted that he should sleep at a lower altitude, but Andre’ D just did not want to do so! Tim and Jono were both feeling better, but wanted to spend a couple more days acclimatizing at base getting their equipment sorted out and doing day trips.

During the course of the morning the French party also arrived, one of their number with a badly cut hand after he fell on a scree on the way up. So Ed stitched him up and bandaged his hand. Jono in the meantime appraised our fuel situation – we had allowed about 5 litres per HA party and 12 litres for communal use at basecamp for the duration of the expedition, allowances which we were concerned might be rather tight.

So, as the initial plan for an acclimatizing subcamp to Pilanco Sur would eventually be restricted to Pete and myself together with Dion and Ed, we accordingly packed our gear in the morning, picked up LA lightweight food kits and left base at about 15:30 carrying quite heavy packs. We retraced our steps to the Jankarurish camp (passing the Spaniards who were doing their carry to base), dropped down to the bottom of the moraine where we could cross the river and then ascended the steep slope on the opposite bank to the level of a couple of small lagunas. After dropping our packs we went looking for the best place to camp where we would be able to get out of the biting cold wind sweeping down the valley off the snow slopes above and finally settled on a well sheltered spot that was close to water and had lots of firewood. It had taken us about 2½ hours to reach our subcamp after leaving base.

When we had settled in we cooked a magnificent meal over our wood fire, Ed later roasting us all next to it after he built it up into an inferno. Early to bed in very cold conditions, but sleeping on top of my bivvy bag under an incredible starry sky.

Monday 9 July

We made an early start eventually getting away from our camp at about 07:30. Just after we woke we were suitably impressed watching a big serac breaking off the cliff face above us and making a big noise crashing down! To start with we slogged up the snow covered slope above our camp to reach an obvious gully leading out to the left through some rockbands and finally connecting with the Pilanco Sur’s east ridge close to the start of the glacier. This all proved to be quite easy and we were pleased that the scree and mud slopes we expected were either frozen or covered in snow. At the end of the gully some easy rock scrambling landed us on a platform below the ice. We put on our crampons and roped up walking up quite easily parallel to a massive crevasse. The peak’s summit cone was a huge cornice curling over towards the west and we tackled it directly climbing up about 80 m on superb crisp snow. Reaching the summit we sat there for 15 minutes in perfect conditions – warm sunshine and a gentle breeze, taking photos of the incredible cirque of peaks around us from Tayapampa to Santa Cruz Norte in the south and Millwaqocha and the other Pilanco peaks to the north. The ascent took us just under three hours.

Climbing Pilanco Sur (5 150 m) with Tayapampa (5 675 m), Jankarurish (5 601 m) and Allpamayo (5 947 m) behind

Tayapampa, Jankarurish, Allpamayo and Kitaraju with Laguna Jankarurish in the foreground

(the massive rupture in the lake's moraine containing wall can be seen)

Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Chico (a similar rupture in the containing wall of the ancient lake below the peaks)

Keen to go on and climb Pilanco Central, we walked back past the cornice and made our way easily over some undulating snow humps to reach a convenient col where we stopped, brewed and had lunch. Ed was starting to feel a bit tired now, so on continuing the traverse and finding that Pilanco Central was considerably further than we thought and that the traverse we would have to make to get there would involve crossing a tricky corniced section of the ridge, we turned around and retraced our steps back onto the east ridge. Descending from the ridge we had to go down some terribly loose screes on the sunny side of the ridge to reach another lower col (4 800 m) from which we could run down to our camp encountering more loose screes, but here covered with snow.

On the way we met up with three of our French friends who had seen us on the summit and decided to climb the peak as well. As they were still looking for a camp site, we suggested that they should rather descend to where we had camped as we reckoned there was only a bleak prospect of finding a good site higher up. We left them at our camp and, after packing up our gear and having a snack, ran on down the slope to Laguna Jankarurish where I fell in crossing the river! We made a last effort to stagger up the moraine and go up the steep path back to basecamp reaching it just as it got dark, two hours after leaving our subcamp.

Good to find Tim, Jono, Andre’ D and Koos all at “home” especially as they whipped up some welcome supper for us. To our relief Andre’ D was now clearly very much better, even regaling us with his exploits climbing up one of basecamp’s neighbouring peaklets! Tim and Jono told us they had spent the day with Koos recceing a possible route across the moraine to reach the col between Loyaqjirka and Kitaraju with the possible idea of later climbing Loyaqjirka by a rock route on its north ridge.

Tuesday 10 July

Tim and Jono packed up and left early for their first subcamp, intending to do the climb they had recced on Loyaqjirka and then to go on to climb Kitaraju. As Ed was still feeling pretty tired and only wanted to set out again on Wednesday, he and Koos decided they would team up. We spent the morning resting and then in the early afternoon prepared to go out to set up our second subcamp on the moraine next to the Allpamayo icefall. Our planning was based on Koos’ observation (from the recce he had done with Tim and Jono) that very little time should be involved in climbing Kitaraju, that it should probably only take a day to cross the glacier to reach Allpamayo’s north col, another day spent climbing Allpamayo’s north ridge and a day to return to base. As it turned out later this was a serious underestimation of the scale of country we were in!! With all this in mind, Pete, Dion, Andre’ D and I toiled up the scree pass behind the Dru carrying four day’s worth of food and plenty of gear for our subcamps and the climbing we hoped to do. Near the crest of the ridge we roped up to climb two short rock pitches to get to the top (which we subsequently found could easily be bypassed), because we were carrying heavy packs, the rock was partly covered with snow and the rock on the lower pitch was really grotty.

On reaching the neck behind the Dru we pushed on following the line of beacons marking the route onto the glacier, admiring the magnificent views of Allpamayo, Tayapampa and Kitaraju in the late evening light.

View of the last evening light on Tayapampa from the bivvy on the rock ridge behind the Dru

We selected a good spot on a rock platform near the crest of the ridge and set up a snug bivvy. Again a very cold night with the near full moon rising behind Allpamayo treating us to a rare spectacle of the mountain silhouetted against the rising moon. We melted snow to cook – savouring our first taste of Mountain House from one of the HA food packs. Early to bed after supper and taking a few flash photos of our bivvy.

Wednesday 11 July

We made an early start from our camp and on the way up to reach the Loyaqjirka/Kitaraju col, cached most of our food and equipment at the top of the moraine, intending to return to it in the evening after climbing Kitaraju, another underestimation of the time that would be involved getting up to the base of our intended route on the north flank of Kitaraju, and climbing it. Continuing on up the long tiring ascent of the scree and loose rock below Loyaqjirka’s hanging seracs, we exited up a final ice slope to reach the Loyaqjirka col at 10:30. From there our view of three climbers (who later turned out to be members of an American party camped at the Allpamayo/Kitaraju col) moving together high up on Kitaraju’s north flank, started to bring home to us the huge scale of the mountain.

Three climbers high up on Kitaraju's North Flank give some idea of the scale of the mountain

After we had all reached the col we were surprised to find Tim and Jono at an icicle bedecked snow cave at about the same height as the col. They told us that they had in the end come up the same route we had followed past the Dru and had then climbed Loyaqjirka along a hairy corniced ridge - all of which had taken them much longer than anticipated. They had discovered a cache of bivvy gear (two bivvy bags, duvet, jersey and cooking equipment) evidently left on the col by two Canadian climbers who we had earlier heard had been reported missing trying to climb Loyaqjirka (thought to have most likely perished when one of the fragile cornices on the ridge they were following, collapsed). Tim and Jono had decided to abandon their idea of going on to climb Kitaraju after reaching the col as Jono wasn’t feeling up to it and had spent a cold night in their snow cave because they had left their sleeping bags at the bottom of their climb. They left to go back down shortly after we arrived at the cave.

As it was by now already quite late we similarly decided that going straight on to try to climb Kitaraju wasn’t going to be a practical proposition. As Andre’ D said he was feeling very tired and wanted to go down too, Dion, Pete and I cooked a brew while discussing plans how to resolve the logistical problem facing us, eventually after much soul searching and based on Andre’ D’s and Dion’s stated preference to both go down, deciding that they should do so and that Pete and I would bivvy so that we could have a go at climbing Kitaraju on Thursday. As we also had so little bivvy gear between us, we decided we would have to use it all and supplement it with some of the gear from the Canadians’ cache from which Tim and Jono had already “borrowed” some gear the night before.

Andre’ D and Dion accordingly set off down at about 15:30 first abseiling as far as was possible on our ropes. They would continue all the way down to base where they would link up with Koos and Ed who had already indicated their intention to come up to the moraine camp the next day.

Setting up our bivvy below the Loyaqjirka col - promotion photo for our sponsored PVM bars

We were later relieved to see Andre’ D and Dion were safe going down the bottom part of the moraine on their way back to base.

Meanwhile Pete and I moved onto the glacier where we set up our bivvy about 150 m away from the cave – rigging up a windshield with a space blanket and with our own bivvy bag under the Canadian’s goretex bag. We cooked a drawn out supper of soup with noodles, again purloined from the Canadians’ cache, took some photos of the beautiful evening light on Allpamayo and then settled down for the night – desperately cold with seemingly interminable spells huddled together in the restricted confines of the bivvy bag interspersed with frequent brews of hot game. Spectacular views of the mountains bathed in moonlight.

Last light on Allpamayo fading into darkness - the start of a long cold night

Thursday 12 July

We woke early in our bivvy – freezing cold and welcoming the long awaited dawn! Cooked a breakfast of butterkrust biscuits and tea with “game” for sugar. We packed all the equipment away in the snow cave and set off across the glacier with light packs (mainly camera gear) following an easy route past crevasses and avalanche debris until we came to the tracks left by the American party (08:00). Crossing the bergschrund, our first climbing pitch, we were happy to pick up a Chouinard ice screw the Americans had obviously dropped, then continued up the ice runnels on the righthand side of the granite rocks frozen into the ice for eight rope lengths. The snow conditions were excellent and we could front point all the way using snow pickets at the changeover points between pitches. It was quite tiring continuing for two ropelengths at a time (one seconding and then one leading). Above the rocks the climb continued straight up a slender ice arête – rather cheesy ice, but we were able to use the “buckets” formed by the melting penitentes.

After a total of 15 pitches of 45 m we reached a col in the summit ridge where we dumped our packs and then climbed on for about another 100m over some very fragile looking cornices to reach the true summit (14:00). After a short spree taking photos we returned to the col to have a snack, now both feeling quite tired.

View of the corniced East Ridge of Abasraju from Kitaraju's summit ridge

We started to go down the arête at about 14:30, climbing down the top few pitches, before abseiling the rest off snow pickets, a snow fluke left by the Americans, slings put out on the rock rib and an ice piton we put in on the last pitch to reach the bergschrund as darkness fell at 18:30. We walked about 200 m back towards the cave before recognising it was now too dark to see and then as we didn’t have a torch, tried shouting to raise Koos and Ed (who we had seen returning to the snow cave around midday) to get them to bring us a torch. The only response to this effort was a couple of green flares shot off from somewhere near Allpamayo’s north col so we reluctantly accepted our fate and sat on our ropes on the glacier until the moon came up at about 10:30. This enabled us to get back to the cave after a bit of a battle route finding through the crevasses, only to find Koos and Ed fast asleep. We collapsed absolutely worn out and fed up – another miserable night without food or proper bivvy gear!! Pete was sick in the night and complained he couldn’t feel his feet!

Friday 13 July

Koos and Ed set off to climb Kitaraju quite early while Pete and I crawled into the sun to try to warm up, recover from our previous day and get our minds around getting ready to descend back to base. We still had no food apart from some dried bananas and a PVM bar. We slowly packed up and set off across the glacier after leaving all the kit we had borrowed from Tim and Jono and purloined from the Canadians’ cache in the cave. As we reached the col at the start of the descent we saw Koos and Ed plodding back across the glacier – they had obviously given up their attempt on Kitaraju.

Abasraju

We made a fast descent climbing down the ice slope and back along the ridge, at one point Pete taking a frightening slip sending scores of loose boulders rolling down the slope below. Reaching the stash of equipment and food we had left close to our original bivvy site, we stopped to make up for our previous privation with a sumptuous lunch of provita with tinned fish, salami, honey, etc and copious brews of tea. While we were resting Tim and Jono pitched up on their way back to the snow cave to climb Kitaraju and we were able to have a chat. They told us that they had made an uneventful descent to base on Wednesday and had spent Thursday resting before coming back up again. They intended climbing Kitaraju the next day and then on Sunday traversing across to Allpamayo to try to climb it by the southwest ridge and descend by the north ridge returning to the Loyaqjirka snow cave by way of Allpamayo’s north col. We didn’t say anything, but reckoned this all sounded rather vague and over-optimistic!

As we could see Koos and Ed were slowly descending from the Loyaqjirka col we waited for them and used the time to cache the left-over food so that we could pick it up when we returned for the final push to climb the north ridge on Allpamayo. Walking back with them over the neck behind the Dru after they rejoined us, they told us that they had turned back on Kitaraju when it became obvious they were going to run out of time taking account of how slowly they were moving and how far they still had to climb. Looking down from near the Dru we were alarmed to see that the moraine valley (on the Allpamayo side) below now seemed to be filled with trippers. We could see three of the French climbers we’d previously met, climbing Kitaraju, their leader bringing up the second and third climbers together to save time. There were also two (apparently) German climbers on Allpamayo’s west ridge which looked pretty spectacular.

Going down we made an easy descent further to the south of the two rock pitches we had climbed on the way up, before continuing down to basecamp. There Andre’ D’s and Dion’s gargantuan supper of fettucine with anchovies and olives waiting for us could not have been more welcome. They told us that they too had got back to base very easily after leaving us on Wednesday. They had spent two further rest days (Thursday and Friday) at base and intended going back up to have a crack at Kitaraju on Saturday.

What luxury to be back in base and being able to enjoy an excellent night’s sleep!

Saturday 14 July

After our previous days’ exertions we decided this must be a rest day. We caught up on our diaries, did some serious eating and basked in the warm sunshine - we also had to answer endless questions from the Spaniards who were about to set off for Kitaraju themselves. About halfway through the morning we got together for a chat about possible objectives for the rest of the expedition. From this discussion it became clear that our young inexperienced members were very unhappy about the prospect that they might be left out in the cold while the experienced climbers pushed off to climb on their own. It was therefore necessary to reassure them that the two basic objectives of the expedition were to climb as much as possible (and, if feasible, to do so doing new routes) and to give the inexperienced climbers as much opportunity to gain experience on snow and ice as possible. Based on this premise the suggestion that Tayapampa be selected as our next objective was welcomed, though it was felt that a push for doing a new route on the west ridge in conjunction with a second party climbing the original north ridge route, might be stretching our resources too far. The whole question of what and how we were going to climb would need to be reviewed when Tim and Jono returned, as they were as much involved as anybody else. After a rather abortive bread making attempt, we finalised the list of equipment bought at Alpine Sports and then had an impressive supper of fresh potatoes with Royco beef and peas before retiring early to bed.

Tim and Jono, who had installed themselves in the Loyaqjirka snow cave, climbed Kitaraju, making the ascent of the north flank route in about four hours (and finding the climb very long and tiring) before descending in a slightly shorter time, climbing down a part of the way and abseiling the rest. They slept over in the Loyaqirka snow cave again on Saturday night.

Sunday 15 July

We decided to spend this, the second day, at base resting to recover completely. We spent the day getting organised to set off for Tayapampa on Monday as well as doing all our basecamp chores – getting washing done, using the opportunity to write to Mr Fourie in Lima to report the items we had found from the Canadian party and also to write home. The Bavarian party we had seen on the west ridge and who we found were camping next to us at base had promised to post our letters from Huaraz after they departed early on Monday to go on to climb Huascaran.

Tayapampa's West Ridge

It was another beautiful warm day, but it got icy cold as soon as we lost the sun. I got my diary written up to date. A lot of the other parties were away from base, the Spaniards on Kitaraju (which they decided to climb by its west ridge) and Abasraju, which we later learned they tried to climb by its east ridge, which they pronounced to be very difficult and dangerous, retreating before the summit because they reckoned it was not justifiable under the conditions.

In the evening we ate supper after packing for Tayapampa and then celebrated with a plastic sachet of grappa given to us by the Germans. They celebrated even more and we could hear them breaking deeper into the grappa as the night proceeded.

Tim and Jono spent a lazy morning at the Loyaqjirka snow cave and then in the late afternoon traversed across the glacier plateau to a small bivvy ice cave some distance below Allpamayo’s north col. A warm evening warned of a likely impending weather change!

Monday 16 July

We woke at 05:30 and after an early breakfast six of us (Pete, Andre’ D, Dion, Ed, Koos and myself) set off for our Tayapampa subcamp. We descended past Laguna Jankarurish in good weather to the moraine fields below the lake and then toiled up the prominent moraine ridge we had followed earlier when we climbed Pilanco Sur, only this time we followed it to its end above the grey/brown waters of the lake it enclosed on the southeast side. From the top of the moraine it was possible to traverse to the right across a scree slope and some rock ribs to climb up onto a level shoulder below the glacier (the broad glaciated saddle providing the first obvious easy pass over the ridge giving access to the Tayapampa valley). We continued up over loose rock and screes on the true righthand bank (ie north side) of the glacier to gain access onto it at approximately mid height (from where it looked as though it would be quite feasible to gain access onto Tayapampa’s west ridge). Here we put on our snow gear (including our gaiters for the first time) before starting out on a tiring plod in rather deeper snow to reach a saddle on the ridge before stopping to have lunch in a snowy hollow just above the saddle (approx. 3 hours from base). We went on from there in deteriorating weather up the broken icefall to reach the obvious col above the large rock spur jutting out from the ridge towards the east. This involved some interesting but easy route finding among huge seracs, crevasses and ice cliffs – enormous icicles hanging down everywhere. The biggest problem we had anticipated we would have to surmount at the top ice wall was quite neatly overcome by negotiating a fantastic “balcony” festooned with icicles (between the wall and a large crevasse) and climbing a short steep ice ramp. By the time we had gone on and climbed the last short snow slope to reach what we were certain must be the col that would finally give access to the south side of the ridge, Ed said he was feeling very tired and the clouds had closed in, so we set about trying to find a decent snow cave. And we were very lucky in finding a perfect shelter in the form of a schrund with a mass of icicles closing off the front which we immediately decided must be christened the “crystal palace’! Everyone moved in and we all hacked away at the irregularities in the floor to produce a roomy, level and very comfortable cave. We brewed up and made supper with one of the Royco packs (Menu E HA) before going to bed quite early. Outside it looked as though there was a promise of more bad weather to come.

The glacier crossing to reach our Tayapampa subcamp

Difficult route finding in a maze of seracs and crevasses

Our "Crystal Palace" subcamp on Tayapampa

Tim and Jono were also caught out by the bad weather. They started traversing across Allpamayo’s northwest glacier to gain access to the west ridge, which they planned to climb, but turned around when they saw the weather was obviously turning sour. They went back to the cave where they had spent Sunday night, packed up the gear they had left there, retraced the route they had followed across the glacier and then returned past the Dru to reach basecamp in darkness.

Tuesday 17 July

The bad weather persisted with snow falling and thick cloud and mist reducing visibility to about 50 m. As there was no point in trying to go for Tayapampa, we slothed it in our sleeping bags hoping the weather might clear. We became a little desperate for a clearing after lunch, and as the clouds seemed slightly less dense, Pete, Dion and I put on our gear and worked our way up the icefall to where we thought the col was. But, what we didn’t realise before, then became immediately apparent, namely that we still needed to traverse southwards to cross a second big rock spur thrusting out to the east to reach the basin to the northeast of Tayapampa’s summit. The route from our col was obviously wrong – a sheer sweep of vertical rock plunging down into the Quebrada Allpamayo blocked the way. So we continued under slightly improved conditions and were delighted when, just after we reached the col above the second spur and when we had given up all hope of a break in the weather and were preparing to retrace our steps, the clouds did part for about five minutes and we were able to look into the basin beyond the spur and see Tayapampa’s summit rising at its far end. Then the clouds closed in again and we plodded back cursing the newly fallen snow as it was “balling” badly under our crampons. Back at the cave we returned to our bags and cooked supper and an interminable number of brews.

I woke during the night to see the moon shining brightly through our fringe of icicles – thrilled at the hope that we might be blessed with better weather on Wednesday.

Wednesday 18 July

This was the day that both Pete and Tim would be celebrating their birthdays, so we would be making a special effort to get up Tayapampa. And it looked as though it might be a better day to do so. Phenomenal views of the sun rising over a sea of cloud below us with the peaks of the Pukajirka group and Tayapampa itself standing out in clear sunshine. After a quick breakfast the whole party set off across the glacier taking a more direct route than the one we had previously followed to arrive at the col in about ¾ of an hour. We then continued across the next icefall finding an easy but fairly long route past the crevasses to reach the ice slopes directly below Tayapampa (about 1¾ hours total from the cave). All this time the sea of cloud had been slowly rising and we were soon engulfed in it, our visibility drastically reduced as we started up the first pitch on the ice wall leading to the col above us. We had at first assumed that it would be possible to climb up to the base of the big vertical wall and to traverse to the right underneath it so as to exit onto easier ground still further to the right. However we found that this was not possible because there was a discontinuity that we hadn’t been able to see in our break, which forced us to go up another series of steep (45⁰ to 50⁰) ice pitches on the left. These looked more daunting from below than they actually were but the others still decided to go back to the cave, leaving Pete and myself with a 100 m rope, only one snow stake and a short ice piton.

A sea of cloud rising above the Pukajirka basin

First sun striking the icicles in our "Crystal Palace" ice cave

As we continued up the clouds briefly parted giving us a glimpse of basecamp far below. Then the clouds returned. As we looked for a possible way to get past the huge bergschrund above us, the mist led me misjudge the height of a short step down and I found I had flopped some 2 m into a bed of very soft snow. So I gave that up and returned to the top of our previous pitch, finding a much better break on the left which I could see would take us on to the summit snowfield and easy access from there onto Tayapampa’s “cherry on the top”. But just as we were about move up, the snow came seething down, like polystyrene beads flowing off the face and forcing us to take shelter nearby in a small ice cave.

Tantalizing views of the Jankarurish and Tayapampa summits shortly before the cloud moved in to hide them

After waiting some 30 minutes with more and more snow pouring down, we felt there was little prospect of the weather improving and made the decision to follow the others down. We therefore traversed off our last pitch moving as far to the north as we could onto an exposed rock face where we bashed in a rock channel peg and abseiled down to a snow platform. We next hammered our snow stake into a groove and made another abseil over an incredible chaos of crevasses filled with icicles (including an involuntary descent into one of them accompanied by the chandelier like tinkle of falling ice) to reach our packs where we had left them on the slope below. Rather unhappy that the others had abandoned us, we picked up our packs and plodded back to the Crystal Palace, very fed up with the weather and disappointed that Tayapampa’s summit had eluded us! We settled back into the cave routine, only supper now consisted of salami and Felix mash together with the last of our brews. We went to sleep with some stars again appearing through the clouds.

Thursday 19 July

This was the day for our return to basecamp and we made a lazy start after eating a rather scrappy breakfast. Our old tracks were still just visible in the snow making for an easy return down the icefall before following a slightly less complicated route below, which was rather slowed due to Ed getting tied up with his rope!

Tayapampa's amazing ice formations

Descending back to basecamp from Tayapampa's ice palace

View of the peaks of the Pukajirka group appearing behind Jankarurish

Peaks of the Pukajirka group with Pukajirka Norte on the right (6 046 m)

Tayapampa's complex West Face with the West Ridge on the left

An easy walk down from the saddle to get off the glacier, then after shedding our ropes and crampons, a rapid descent down the rocks and screes onto the moraine to reach the river crossing below Laguna Jankarurish. On the steep slope above the lake Andre’ D lost his hat when it was caught by a sudden gust of wind. We made the last painful climb up to base along the by now well trodden path up the side valley – then good to see Tim and Jono safe and sound and amazed to find the valley at base almost empty, only the French climbers and ourselves still in the camp. Tim and Jono had stayed at base since their return and had been quite concerned for our safety when they too experienced heavy snow on the day of our bad weather. They had celebrated with the Spaniards the night before they departed and watched the other parties leaving too one by one.

As on the previous day the clouds gathered during the day and it became quite dark in the afternoon making Tim and Jono abandon their plan of going up the moraine to sleep on the ridge near the Dru before going on across the icefall to set up a subcamp at Allpamayo’s north col. Instead we all got to work constructing a much improved kitchen shelter with logs scrounged from the Spaniards’ camp covered with our bivvy bags. This was in preparation for the thrash to end all thrashes we were planning to celebrate Pete’s and Tim’s birthdays. Our effort continued with some of us preparing a huge celebratory feast of fettucine with garlic, anchovies and black olives with two loaves of bread to be followed with pudding, while others went through the ritual of preparing Pisco Sours with lemons, sugar and whisked egg whites. Unfortunately the latter ritual was completed before the culinary preparations were finished and the party rapidly degenerated as the Pisco Sours were passed around and, when they were finished, the bottle of Bols brandy that Pete had brought all the way from home was triumphantly pulled out. Dion, our “war correspondent” did manage to record the first part of the evening on tape and camera, until he too succumbed to the Pisco Sours! You could truly say it was the thrash to end all thrashes!

Friday 20 July

This was a day of recovery with a lot of very “bleek” faces around first thing in the morning! The weather still very unsettled so fortunately no regrets that we should already have been out climbing.

From climbing literature we had always accepted that you were supposed to lose your appetite as soon as you got up to altitude. But this turned out to be a myth - unfortunately this singular characteristic didn’t seem to apply to the members of our expedition – they all were constantly ravenous as soon as we became reasonably acclimatised. Later our conversations often fantasised around food!

So here again our day started with food and gradually built up with more and more nosh being prepared and consumed! For breakfast we prepared a large billy full of boiled potatoes and ate them with warm butter, sesame seed and salt and pepper before going on to boil up a marvellous mixture of dried apples and bananas spiced with cinnamon and cloves which we served up with hot custard. For lunch we managed to get our pancake mix to work and gorged ourselves on all manner of variations we could conjure up.

After the previous night’s riotous carry on we managed to return some semblance of order to our camp before dreaming up a magnificent dish of bacon, onion and smoked sausage cooked with dried beans. Alas, even after pressure cooking this in the pressure cooker in three stages for more than an hour, the beans were still like bullets and we had to rather be content with a slightly less ambitious meal.

Everyone was early to bed after the previous night’s excitement. The weather was still grotty but it did look as though it might clear.

Saturday 21 July

We were very disappointed on waking to find the weather was still lousy – we were now getting rather desperate that the bad weather was going on for such a long time. We had had six consecutive days of grotty weather! After breakfast Koos, Jono, Pete and I walked up the path going up to the top of the valley hoping to get some views of Abasraju, Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Chico. We reckoned that Allpamayo would most likely to be covered in fresh powder snow and that we might be wiser to choose an alternative objective further to the west (where we thought there might have been a less heavy precipitation), particularly if the bad weather persisted. Again our recce was dogged by poor visibility and there was not a great deal that we could see. Stopping on a small hump next to the path we had some fleeting views of the steep corniced summit of Loyaqjirka and of Kitaraju’s west ridge appearing out of the clouds, but, apart from some glimpses early on of Santa Cruz’s summit ridge, we couldn’t see any of the features we had really wanted to study. After a while Jono and Koos went further on along the path passing some derelict huts and then climbing onto the crest of a steep moraine wall bounding a lake on its north side. Then following some beacons they came to a prominent rock step and stopped there for a while before going on to reach a neck connecting with the east ridge of Santa Cruz Chico. They later commented what a pleasant approach this would be for going up to Santa Cruz or Santa Cruz Chico.

Pete and I watched the two of them at the start of this part of their recce and then returned quite slowly back to base taking some photos of the flowers we had seen along the path. Jono’s observation that the path and huts must have been built for the workers who constructed control works for the lake at the head of the valley, seemed feasible. But his suggestion that the massive breach in Laguna Jankarurish’s moraine wall may have been blasted, turned out to be incorrect – we later established that it was in fact caused by a huge ice avalanche that fell into the lake in 1950, which resulted in an aluvion descending the Quebrada de los Cedros destroying part of the hydroelectric installation at Huallanca.

Back at base Tim had successfully used the pancake mix to bake a cake, which we duly scoffed after a lunch of salami and cheese. As the weather was still so unsettled we spent a lazy afternoon in bed finalising the Alpine Sports accounts and sorting equipment (snowsealing our boots), etc. We also started to talk about possible climbing plans for when the weather improved, Pete and I were keen to look at Santa Cruz’s east ridge while Tim and Jono were talking about trying a very direct line up a rock rib (the east central rib) to the left of the Swiss first ascent route up the obvious ice ramp much further to the right.

In the late afternoon we were surprised to see our French student friends had returned. They were rather disconsolate as they had been hoping to climb Allpamayo, but, because of the bad weather, had been holed up in a camp on the glacier between Allpamayo and Kitaraju. They reported that Allpamayo was out of condition with about 200 mm of fresh soft snow. Rather than descending the icefall, they had elected to use the approach we had followed for Kitarau so that they could climb Loyaqjirka. They told us that they intended leaving base to return to Lima in two day’s time and then to go on to Cuzco and Machu Picchu. We resurrected our beans for supper, giving them another hour in the pressure cooker and Tim and Jono made another cake which we ate with custard. Tim and Andre’ D took some flash photos of the tents at base.

Sunday 22 July

On waking the weather looked more promising so we made a reappraisal of our plans, namely that, if a spell of better weather was forthcoming, we should tackle Allpamayo as our prime objective before looking at Santa Cruz. We set about our planning accordingly – Dion and Koos teaming up with Tim, Jono, Pete and myself to put up a subcamp at Allpamayo’s north col to climb Allpamayo, while Andre’ D and Ed would remain at base. After spending the morning preparing for this plan, Tim and Jono got away from base before the rest of us after an early lunch. Back up the painful slog up the screes behind the Dru again, our packs not too excessively heavy (as we intended picking up the food at the cache we had left on the moraine), so that we gradually caught up with Tim and Jono with Koos and Dion still some way behind us. Tim and Jono broke out to the right at the top of the gully behind the Dru, following the route they had taken before, and giving Pete and me a bad scare when they accidentally loosed a barrage of rocks onto us as we were exiting onto the slabs. Following the route we had previously taken took slightly longer than Tim and Jono’s short cut, so that, by the time we reached the end of the moraine at the edge of the glacier, they had already donned their crampons and had set off up the icefall, marking the route as they went, with small gaudily coloured flag markers they had discovered at base.

Setting off up the icefall with Koos and Dion we first encountered dry ice over simple undulating switchbacks with the odd obvious crevasses, but later the ice was covered with fairly firm snow becoming much steeper and with wider crevasses and a haphazard jumble of seracs requiring quite intricate route finding as all the old trails had been obliterated with the fresh snow. This part of the route we had followed was quite straightforward, but the next section, where we exited onto the wide plateau below Allpamayo’s west ridge, was more complicated as we had to cross a highly active zone of toppling seracs and wide crevasses. In particular I rather battled surmounting the short steep final ice wall where, flattened by my now really weighty rucksack (filled with the additional food we had picked up from the cache) I exited up the fixed rope aided by sundry helping hands, and arriving like a half stranded seal! Continuing up over the plateau in the half light of evening, we zig zagged to avoid more crevasses, now all getting pretty tired and wondering why the hell Tim and Jono hadn’t stopped earlier for the bivvy. Just as the light was finally failing, we skirted the steep flank of the west ridge and set up a fairly cosy bivvy in a small depression below the flank. After levelling the site, we laid out our bivvy bags and cooked supper before crawling into bed. Although the weather during the day had shown definite improvement, there was still some cloud around the peaks and we were uncertain what it was going to do.

Tim and Jono managed to push on slightly further to reach the snow cave below the West Ridge that they had previously used.

Monday 23 July

There was some spindrift spattering our bags during the night and, although we woke to a fine dawn, cloud starting to blow over Allpamayo from the east, seemed to presage the same pattern we had been observing – clear nights and early mornings, but the cloud rising from the valleys in the east starting to cover the peaks from around 10:00.

Late evening sun on Allpamayo (5 947 m)- the North Ridge on the left, the West Ridge in the centre and the Ferrari route up the flutings in the Centre of the Southwest Face on the right

There were fantastic views of the first sunlight striking Kitaraju and Abasraju. After a quick breakfast we moved on in very deep soft snow passing underneath an active threatening ice bulge at the bottom of the west ridge to reach the snow cave (festooned with impressive icicles) that Tim and Jono had again overnighted in and were preparing to leave. It had previously taken them about an hour to reach the col from there, but in view of the weather by now already clagging in, we knew it was probably going to take us a whole lot longer to get there. To climb the 60 m steep snow/ice pitch above the schrund at the back of the cave, Pete first went up the fixed rope, attached to the stakes left by the Germans, without his pack, brought me up carrying my pack and then after abseiling was going to return up the fixed rope carrying his pack and on a belay from the Germans’ snow stakes. Before he came up I brought Jono, Dion and Koos up to the stance and then handed the belay over to Dion so that Jono, Koos and I could go on up a snowy shoulder and make an unpleasant steep traverse across a snow slope above a big crevasse, having to break a new trail as the original one had been covered in new snow.

Our route finding from here was complicated by the cloud closing right in so that we had to climb in white-out conditions. Tim and Jono scratched their heads trying to remember where to go, so we stopped on a snowy shelf to eat a belated lunch while they recced the route, eventually shouting that they had found it as well as a cache of food that had been left by the Germans at the campsite they had used below the col (they had told us it took them a whole day to cross the icefall). After lunch we pulled on our packs again and trudged on having to traverse backwards and forwards to cross several huge crevasses before climbing up into an amazing overhanging cavern-like bergschrund and exiting up the steep ice wall above to reach the final diagonal exit leading up to the col. Here Tim and Jono had to stop again to recce the route before bringing us out below the huge ice mushroom on the north side of the col. Jono searched for a suitable cave, but decided it was too dangerous. Instead we climbed a short steep bulge to reach the col itself and in gathering darkness found a potentially good cave next to the exposed rocks on the west side of the ridge where we realised the French party must also have originally camped.

For safety we smashed down some of the huge icicles at the entrance to the cave and then proceeded with the considerable labour necessary to level the uneven floor (which we realised was actually suspended over a crevasse). After an impressive amount of work we tackled the coup-de-resistance, the necessary felling of the last enormous icicle to completely clear the floor, and when it came down with an almighty crash, were horrified to watch it, together with half the prepared floor, disappear into the abyss below! Much to everyone’s amusement Tim and Jono compromised and hacked out a comfortable gallery to the cave as we watched the snow come down even more thickly outside.

Allpamayo's North Col subcamp cave

Tuesday 24 July

The snow came down even more thickly during the night – not an auspicious start for our ascent of Allpamayo, especially after our late arrival the previous evening and a lack of time for us to prepare for the climb. We woke around 05:00 and ate a rather cold bleak breakfast as dawn arrived accompanied by even less auspicious looking black clouds drifting across the valley and covering the Santa Cruz peaks. These conditions filled us with foreboding and, as the weather looked so thoroughly miserable, we retired to our sleeping bags to watch developments! To our surprise at about 07:45 all the clouds miraculously disappeared and when we jumped out to take a look at the north ridge, we could see that it was now clear with only wisps of cloud trailing across it driven by a strong cold east wind, which decided us to go ahead with the climb. We accordingly gathered our gear and started out climbing in pairs (Tim and Koos, Jono and Dion and Pete and myself), first having to climb an ugly looking ice runnel right next to our cave (with a white nylon rope hanging down the runnel, probably left by the Germans or Americans) in order to get onto the crest of the north ridge at its base. From there the north ridge appeared very foreshortened, though still imposing, a band of rock exposed to the east of the ridge crest for about 250 m (and more rock exposed on the northeast face which also looked very uninviting - steep rock steps and ice cliffs festooned with huge icicles). The huge cornices which stretched out to the right of the ridge crest all the way up were particulary large and impressive near the top of the ridge.

Allpamayo's North Face with the North Ridge just to the left of centre

On the ridge we could see Tim and Koos were progressing quite well, but behind them Jono and Dion had followed a slightly different line with a lot of cheesy ice and snow which was making the climbing difficult and dangerous. So much so that Jono was seriously considering abseiling off the ridge over a horribly precarious looking ice cornice suspended over the west face. Pete and I, with our access past Jono and Dion blocked, finally persuaded them to get onto Tim’s line and go on up, though Dion who was following Jono was obviously having quite a battle. As we were watching the two parties above us, the weather again closed in obscuring the climbers from our sight, so that in view of the evident poor conditions on the climb, combined with the lousy weather and the fact that they were all progressing so slowly, Pete and I elected to abandon our attempt on the route and rather return to our subcamp hoping for better conditions on Wednesday. We were joined a while later by Koos abseiling down the runnel after climbing only a short way up the ridge. He proceeded with some further energetic hacking to level our cave’s floor some more and then we retired to our sleeping bags and books to sit out the bad weather. The others only returned several hours later, very cold from exposure in the strong east wind and thoroughly fed up with the conditions, especially Dion who seemed a bit shattered!

Some of the cloud did clear in the late afternoon giving us some alluring views of the ridge and of the late evening glow on the boiling clouds over the icefall. We went to bed early hoping for the best the next day!

Wednesday 25 July

We hoped the big day – we woke at 05:00 again, this time to the promise of a finer day, no early morning cloud rising out of the valleys to the east. Deon, still rather shattered from yesterday’s experience, elected to remain at the subcamp, so Tim, Jono and Koos decided to climb as a party of three, rejecting my offer to stand down too, so that there could then be two parties of two on the climb. Tim’s party got away first and were all up the fixed rope in the runnel by 08:00, so that we could get going then too. The runnel was probably one of the steepest pitches on the climb, with good ice on the lower part, but then some poor loose rock and very cheesy ice at the top.

From the notch in the north ridge where we exited the ice runnel, a short rock pitch up a steep slab gave access to a fairly continuous line or groove between the sheets of slabs and the adjacent ice band running into the cornices over the west face, making for fairly easy progress for perhaps another six pitches.

Belay station above the rock band on Allpamayo's North Ridge

Pete and I were climbing on a single 90 m 9 mm rope enabling us to make full length runouts (first pitch up the runnel – 60 m, second pitch 60 m, third pitch 90 m, fourth pitch 60 m bringing us to the top of the last rocks), while the other three could only climb 45 m pitches with Jono leading and the other two climbing together to save time.

All this time the weather had not been good – the clouds had risen up out of the Tayapampa valley and were swirling across the north ridge accompanied by a cold wind. We were wearing all our available warm clothing and windproofs to keep out the cold. The climbing conditions on these early pitches seemed to vary quite a lot, from reasonably good snow overlying firm ice, to powder snow over cheesy, rotten, sugary ice.

After the last rocks, the conditions improved and we climbed excellent pitches on good ice. First a 45 m steep (50⁰) ice wall over a huge cornice to a massive snow stake planted in the ice, then bearing to the left for 45 m over an awkward vertical ice step to another stance cut out of the ice and lastly up two more steep 45 m ice pitches still bearing further to the left, landing us in a delightful snow bowl (obviously the German bivvy site – a pair of abandoned Goretex trousers which were immediately swiped by Pete) at the gap between two massive cornices forming the north summit. Still in thick cloud, but then delighted when warm afternoon sun broke through while we were climbing the last ice pitch. From the snow bowl we had to climb on over the most incredible and pretty scary cornice (all very easy, but most impressive) to reach the col between the true summit and the north summit (about 2 x 45 m rope lengths further on).

The horrendous corniced traverse between Allpamayo's North Summit and the Main Summit

We dropped our packs in the col and followed Tim over the last steep step to reach the main summit, breaks in the clouds giving us momentary glimpses down into the Santa Cruz valley and of an unforgettable image of a beautiful Brocken Spectre cast against the clouds. No sign of the lower cornice to the south where the southwest and east ridges meet. Time for some hilarious photos of our summit parties and some mandatory sponsor promotion shots (eg like Zanko dried Bananas!)

Allpamayo summit photo - Pete and myself feeling pretty happy

After a quick snack at the col between the summits we returned to the top of the north ridge and made two long 90 m abseils off stakes to reach the top of the rocks in the last of the remaining light (18:30). From there we used the various bits and pieces of rope, slings, pegs, etc we could muster to set up belays for our remaining abseils making 3 x 45 m and 1 x 60 m abseils (three of them down diagonal lines) down the rocks to reach the notch above the ice runnel above our subcamp, this all made very dicey and unpleasant by the strong wind and driving snow that was battering us, the fact that it was pitch dark and most of our torches were not working at all, because we didn’t yet know some torch batteries give up working if it gets very cold - I did three of the four abseils without any light whatsoever. Koos treated us to a magnificent display of sparks from his crampons sliding down the rocks when he temporarily lost control on one of the last abseils, but was fortunately brought to a halt by the abseil ropes tied into the bottom belay point. Tim and I went down the fixed rope at the runnel above our subcamp first, soon followed safely by the others, though they did have to leave two 90 m ropes on the abseil above the notch, when one of them jammed (22:30).

Down at last we relaxed with a hot brew and the slept the sleep of the just!

Thursday 26 July

We made a rather later start – still unpleasant conditions after more snow fell during the night, the strong wind eddying over the north ridge piling up spindrift in the cave and over our bivvy bags (when we returned to our subcamp the previous night the cave was filled with about 50 mm of fresh snow, nearly burying Dion in his bivvy bag). Before we set off to return to base we noshed a huge breakfast, but also had the unpleasant task of re-climbing the runnel to retrieve the jammed abseil ropes. This last task was decided by drawing straws, Pete and I being the lucky ones to draw the short straws (in a first draw, Tim neglected to include a straw for himself)! Pete climbed the runnel while I belayed him, and managed to free the stuck ropes, throwing them down to be coiled (very unpleasant climbing conditions with a strong east wind blowing). He abseiled down and we completed packing.

Koos and Dion departed first, followed by Tim and Jono and finally Pete and myself. We made a quick descent of the upper sections of the glacier (over the tricky bergschrund and the long steep traverse to the snow shoulder below the west ridge), where we caught up with the others. After Koos and Dion abseiled on their 90 m rope, Tim and Jono tied the original 7 mm fixed rope to an excellent stake and then removed all the others so that we could also abseil down to reach the ice cave that Tim and Jono had previously used on the next traverse. We continued on along the traverse in deep fresh snow, at a stage moving faster due to the perceived danger of ice possibly falling from a very dangerous looking breakaway on the ice cliff above us. Going on we passed our first night’s bivvy spot and more crevasses (lowering our packs down the short ice wall) and then made a fast descent down the lower icefall to the edge of the moraine. After taking off our crampons and supergaiters (which had proved to be very successful), and having a snack and a drink of game with water scooped from the nearby glacial stream, the other four packed up and went on while Pete and I lingered admiring the views of Allpamayo, eventually emerging quite clearly from the clouds. Going on down we paused to chat with one of the two Germans camped at the last moraine camp and learned that they intended going on up to climb Kitaraju from the snow cave on the Loyakjirka col. Going on we meandered slowly over the boulders and screes down to the neck behind the Dru, stopping there to take more photos of Tayapampa and Allpamayo in the last light from the sun. Then we made a last fast run down the screes to reach base just as night was truly falling.

Good to see Andre D and Ed but sad to find their relationship had become very strained – apparently over a petty bust up over menial camp chores (boiling water and making food) to the extent that they were no longer speaking to each other! Unfortunately Ed seems very withdrawn and taciturn and this mood had obviously not been helped by Andre D’s childish behaviour. Clearly Andre D was terribly frustrated having to come to terms with his own lack of performance at altitude!

Friday 27 July

A delicious day of complete rest at base after all our “hard work” on Allpamayo. Warm sunshine persuaded us to bask around base in our shorts while catching up on writing up our diaries, washing ourselves and our clothes and eating our fill of basecamp goodies! The HA food packs had proved to be extremely successful, but it was still obvious that after a spell of high energy expenditure we had to have the opportunity for complete relaxation and big nosh ups at base to recuperate.

I washed some clothes, had an icy bath and tried to bring my diary up to date, but this last without much success, just preferring to relax in the warm sunshine. During the morning five more Germans strolled into base from their camp down at Laguna Jankarurish, asking about Allpamayo, as it seemed they only had sufficient time to have a bash at it and perhaps Kitaraju.

Big washing day in basecamp

The Germans walked by at about 14:00 on their way up to camp on the moraine past the Dru – they said they would move on across the icefall to Loyaqjirka on Saturday. Tim baked a cake and washed his hair – even Pete did some clothes washing! I took quite a lot of photos of the chaps around camp. All too soon at 16:00 the sun disappeared from base and it quite quickly became too cold to sit around unless one was warmly dressed.

Ed told me how his and Andre’ D’s petty feud had started. Unfortunately while Ed had assumed a very passive role, Andre’ D was actively goading him, which wasn’t enhancing his own image with most of the rest of our party! It seemed I would have to step in to try to resolve this active conflict!

Ed also indicated that he might wish to leave a day or two earlier to give himself time to visit Machu Picchu – we agreed to discuss this when we finalised all our plans on Saturday. A big nosh of fettucine for supper and a rather half-hearted round of Pisco sours before going to bed.

Saturday 28 July

A day when lots of things happened – the most important being important decisions that Andre’ D and Dion had to make about being prepared to make an effort to get something out of the expedition! This started as a general discussion around midmorning where we talked about plans to return to Lima and about the allocation of the balance of the promotional photos to be taken (we had promised to provide the expedition’s sponsors with photos they could use for promotion). We agreed that Koos and Ed could walk out early to try to get to Machu Picchu – Ed because he seemed to be unhappy staying. He was very quiet and reserved and for some reason seemed to place at least a part of the blame for his situation at the expedition’s door, whereas I was quite satisfied that his unhappiness must stem more from his own physical and emotional response to the climbing he had done (or perhaps failed to do when he declined to join the parties that did go out to climb) and obviously also the breakdown of his relationship with Andre’ D. On the other hand Koos’ decision to move on was quite logical – by climbing Allpamayo he had achieved the goal he had hoped to accomplish and his decision to bow out on this “high” rather than go on to perhaps climb a lower less sensational peak at the end of the trip was understandable. What was pleasing was the decision by Andre’ D and Dion that they would like to do a last trip with Pete and myself, probably to try to climb Santa Cruz Chico, which would give them the opportunity to gain more snow and ice experience.

Tim and Jono decided that they wanted to have a crack at the direct route up the rock spur just to the right of centre below the summit of Santa Cruz.

So it appeared that everything was going to work out very well for the end of the expedition, until some short while later Dion announced that he and Andre’ D had decided to change their minds and wanted to go to Machu Picchu as well! A very long and unfortunately sometimes recriminatory argument followed – basically Andre’ D claiming that too little had been done to help the younger guys on the expedition. I pointed out to him that of the four subcamps we had done to date, only Kitaraju had been a bad planning blunder on my part and that all the other subcamps had been organised bearing full cognisance of the experience of the younger guys into account. Particularly the last Santa Cruz Chico subcamp was being organised to give them opportunity to fulfil what they wanted to do – I made it clear that it was terribly important to me that every member of the expedition should return home feeling that he had achieved something and that Pete and I wanted this last subcamp to be a culmination for Andre’ D and Dion to gain the experience they are clearly seeking. It seemed as though Andre’ D’s frustrations came close to overriding Dion’s more common sense standpoint, but after a long chat with Jono he finally approached me and apologised for his attitude saying that after all he and Dion did appreciate that what they would eventually get out of the expedition would largely depend on their own effort and not ours. Based on this they confirmed that they would very much like to join us on the last subcamp! Thank goodness, all may end on a happier note after all!

Tim and Jono got away for their subcamping trip very late in the evening just as it was getting dark, Koos and Ed making their preparations to get away first thing in the morning. A big nosh up for supper.

Sunday 29 July

I wrote this on my return from our Santa Cruz Chico subcamp with very sore split fingers, so my writing was not so good. Ed and Koos packed up and got away very early with heavy packs heading for a camp near Kulliqocha. They left their excess gear in base to be brought down with the burros when we finally departed.

Much earlier Pete and I had watched Tim and Jono’s lights on Santa Cruz. They had taken about two hours to walk up to the big granite boulder on the moraine and, after sorting and discarding some of their food, had set out to cross the glacier and ice slopes exposed to rockfall below Santa Cruz’s huge north face, to reach the start of their projected climb.

Santa Cruz (6 259 m) and Santa Cruz Chico (5 800 m) North Faces - the line that Tim and Jono followed went up just to the left of Santa Cruz's righthand skyline

We first saw their lights close to the bergschrund and later at first light were rather concerned to find them climbing up a very unhealthy looking avalanche groove on the steep ice slope below the first rocks - later relieved to see they had made it to the rocks. We could then no longer see them as they later confirmed that they “holed up” and slept all day in a bivouac just to the right of the base of the huge dihedral at the base of their rib.

After Koos and Ed left, we had breakfast and then packed up food and gear for four days before finally getting away from base for the walk up to Santa Cruz Chico at about 10:45. We went up the easy path we had previously followed to the ruined huts below the lake at the head of the valley. Then up a zig zag path on the moraine containing wall to its crest, which we then followed to the big granite boulder below the frozen lake at the glacier snout (lots of ice debris from the glacier floating in it). There was no sign of Tim and Jono, though we tried shouting to them.

We continued up the gully between the boulder and the moraine and then traversed to the right across the scree and the granite slabs immediately beneath Chico’s glacier to a small col where our basecamp’s containing ridge abutted Chico’s northeast face. We stopped for lunch on a pleasant sunny rock terrace on the north side of the ridge (Andre’ D losing his ice hammer somewhere here!) and then started to traverse across the glacier on Chico’s northeast face. At first we started too high encountering difficult crevasses below a rock face at the base of Chico’s east ridge, then dropped down about 30 m to a glacier shelf below a rather active looking crumbling ice cliff, encountering no real problems other than a large amount of avalanche debris from the ice cliff, seracs and the rock faces above us (huge icicles on some of the seracs).

Traversing across the glacier to set up a subcamp beneath Santa Cruz Chico's Northeast Face

Close to the centre of the glacier we found it was possible to climb up over penitentes towards the col between Chico and Norte, but as it was already getting late, and Andre’ D was completely whacked (both he and Dion were suffering from upset tums either from the water they had been drinking or from the previous evening’s supper), we looked for and soon found an excellent small ice cave on a pleasant ice “balcony” spending some time filling in and levelling a floor space large enough to accommodate all four of us. We settled into the cave and cooked an excellent “Mountain House” supper before going to bed.

Altitude 5 200 m – reasonably good weather during the day but the usual afternoon cloud coming in and threatening to obscure the impressive views we could see from here.

Monday 30 July

We woke at 05:00 and after breakfast finally got away from the cave around 07:00 in beautiful weather – a spectacular sunrise over the Pukajirka peaks and Allpamayo. We made an easy traverse across the rest of the glacier and climbed up to the col between Chico and Norte, marking the route with marker flags as we went. There were fantastic views all around from Rosko, Champara and Millwaqocha in the north then Pilanco, Tayapampa, Jankarurish, the Pukajirka peaks and Allpamayo, to the east and finally Norte (which we could see once we started climbing Chico’s northwest ridge) as well as Lagunas Kulliqocha and Rajuqocha down below us. Seeing the lakes made us think of Koos and Ed who should be doing their last day’s walk out to Hacienda Colcas.

On Chico's Northwest Ridge above the col between Chico and Norte

There was great excitement when we spied the two tiny specs, that we realised must be Tim and Jono, high up on Santa Cruz’s snowy north ridge. For them to be so high up already, we guessed that they had probably elected to climb the ice ramp above their bivouac rather than their original proposed rock rib - they almost certainly must have climbed through the night so as to minimise their exposure to rockfall. We could see they were now clearly already very close to the summit. They later told us that, when they got to the summit, they had the rare good fortune to spend more than an hour on it in wonderfully clear conditions. Coming down, they nearly decided to descend Santa Cruz’s east ridge to avoid the exceptionally bad rockfall they had to contend with on the ascent, but then chose rather to go down the north ridge, reaching the dangerous rock portion of the ridge in the late afternoon and finally making the descent to the col between Santa Cruz and Chico later during the night again to reduce the risk from rockfall.

The heavily corniced first section of Chico's Northwest Ridge above the col between Chico and Norte

On Chico the first part of the ridge we intended following above the col looked problematical because of the cornices, but we reckoned, if we could turn the first two rocky sections, the upper part of the ridge might prove to be an easier climbing proposition. Pete climbed with Andre’ D and Dion and I led off, the first couple of 90 m pitches going very easily – spectacular situations on the narrow ridge and very photogenic. But we soon started running into problems with cornices and steep ice walls barring our way on the west side of the ridge, forcing us to traverse across sections of horribly loose rock on the east face. Regaining the crest of the ridge above a grotty rock stance, I was forced to negotiate a really dangerous corniced section of the ridge where large sections of the ice appeared to be simply “glued” to the rock and in other places were completely undercut with holes going right through the ridge. After dropping a huge slab of snow onto Andre’ D and Dion who were belaying Pete and myself (but fortunately just missing them), I was again forced to traverse onto the east face, finally reaching the gully leading up to the breche above the first rock buttress of our ridge by a delicate rock traverse, where I accidentally dislodged a monstrous block of rock the size of a wardrobe before completing the traverse with my heart in my mouth! The others were similarly impressed. When we all foregathered in the gully above this pitch, there was unanimous agreement that we should go down, in view of the time (it was already 14:00) and the similar problems we were certain still lay before us.

Fortunately we found that we could climb down the gully in a peculiar groove bounded with penitentes, quite easily reaching and crossing the bergschrund after two long descent pitches. At least this had all been very good experience for Andre’ D and Dion because some of the climbing during the day had been quite dicey! They had both managed quite well, though they had been very slow. We went on down to our cave and cooked supper, while Andre’ D vigorously attacked some of the icicles hanging from the roof of the cave that had been dripping on him. We enjoyed good weather during the day though there some cloud that built up in the middle of the day that dispersed again in the afternoon.

Tuesday 31 July

The day’s plan was to have another go at Chico. Instead of trying to repeat our route of Monday, we elected to try as direct a route on the northeast face as possible, choosing a line up a steep runnel going up the face above the bergschrund. We woke early again to find that the weather wasn’t very good. When we asked Andre’ D and Dion to come along, they declined – they evidently had already had enough! Pete and I set out from the cave at about 07:30 dropping down slightly to cross the serac debris below the centre of the face.

Santa Cruz Chico with its Northeast Face on the right

By crossing a number of large crevasses we were able to make our way across a fluted slope to below a promising looking gully cutting through the seracs on the left. We free climbed up to its base and then Pete led off up the ice above, complaining about the tricky ice conditions (water ice but rather cheesy), these persisting for about 40 m, at which point he hammered in a stake before continuing (now on good snow) for the full 90 m runout. This landed us on the broad snow terrace below the main face. Here it was necessary to traverse to the right for some 90 m to where we could cross the bergschrund next to a magnificent ice palace. We now set off up a diagonal line sloping up to the right across deep runnels in the face, eventually reaching the bottom edge of the rock outcrop in the centre of the face in about two and a half ropelengths. We continued a short way beyond this to get into the main runnel we had previously identified, leading up to the right of the summit seracs. Up to here we had been climbing rather variable snow and ice at about 45⁰ - usually quite good snow and ice conditions on the west side of the ridges between the runnels (ie in the shade) and softer elsewhere. We were making full 90 m runouts with one protection stake halfway up. In the main runnel however, we encountered tall penitentes which made for large and sometimes exhausting step ups, but very safe climbing.

Climbing the ice runnels on Santa Cruz Chico's Northeast Face

We continued up the main runnel for another 2 x 90 m ropelengths until we started running into difficult water ice, at which stage we tried stepping over into the runnel on the right, where we found we could make rather better progress, because there was still some snow cover over the water ice. I led on up to the top of the runnel, where I put in an ice screw, to let Pete lead through after he had unsuccessfully battled to extract the snowstake from the ice at his previous stance. It now looked as though we should be able to reach the summit in one more pitch. But Pete didn’t much like the ice conditions on the pitch, so stopped again to belay from about 25 m above me, so that I could again lead through on good, but steep (55⁰) snow to reach the summit, which I was surprised to find was a fragile thin comb of snow (15:30). Disappointingly there were no views as the cloud had already moved in.

Nearing Chico's summit with the cloud starting to come in

There didn’t seem much point in Pete coming up to gaze at the non-view too, so after only a short sojourn on the summit, I went back down past Pete to my previous belay stance so that he could descend back to the jammed stake and then bring me down to it too.

We abseiled from there to get back into the main ice runnel, which we were able to safely down climb to reach the bergschrund. As the light was by now already failing, we put in an ice screw and abseiled off it onto a snow ramp between the seracs we had passed on the way up and used the last of the available light to cross a crevasse and then find another ramp below it which we knew we had to follow to get back to our subcamp ice cave. But, it was too late. Our headlamps weren’t working because our batteries had again succumbed to the cold and we were fumbling around in the darkness and the whiteout conditions that had by now developed. Faced with abseiling into the unknown and certainty that we would encounter problems with the big crevasses we knew were there, we made the decision to return to a good snow cave we had seen a little further back, and set up a bivouac in it. After reaching the cave, we felt better when we managed to shout and make contact with Andre’ D and Dion to at least let them know we were safe.

Our cave was huge and boasted a magnificent “dance floor” of flat ice on which we piled our ropes and pulled on our bivvy gear in preparation for what we knew was again going to be another very long cold night! A vigil only broken by odd snacks, some vigorous exercising and interminable clock watching! We did make one sortie after a partial moon rose, to see if we might be able to get down by moonlight, but decided against this when we realised how little light there was.

Jono and Tim had in the meantime descended from the Santa Cruz/Chico col and spent Tuesday night at a bivvy next to the large rock on the moraine on the way back to basecamp.

Wednesday 1 August

At last we could welcome the dawn and some meagre warmth from the rising sun, at least being able to admire the stupendous view from our ice cave of its icicles glowing in the first sunlight against the backdrop of Chico’s northeast backlit ice and the stark silhouettes of the Pukajirka peaks and Allpamayo.

Dawn - the icicle fringe at our bivvy catching fire with the first sun with the silhouette of the Pukajirka peaks and Allpamayo behind

After a battle to pull on our icy boots we stomped around to try to warm up a little before going on down, working our way through the seracs, which in places looked very active and dangerous. Where we hadn’t been able to see in the whiteout and in the dark of the previous evening, we found we could now follow an easy break below the bergschrund (where it also appeared that we could possibly have quite easily climbed down the schrund instead of having to abseil, because we couldn’t see). Continuing down in a very direct line, we made two more abseils off ice screws (as the ice was too hard to hammer in stakes) to get across short serac barriers which landed us in the original ice basin where we had started our climb. By now very tired, we continued over more penitentes up the final slope to reach Andre’ D and Dion waiting to welcome us with steaming mugs of tea at the snow cave – pleased to be together again. We felt a whole lot better warmed by the sun and sitting on our gaper mats in the snow after we had addressed a huge nosh up!

Andre’ D and Dion stayed with us lying in the sun for a while and then after packing up, moved off across the glacier to go over the col we had originally come over to return to basecamp. In the meantime Pete and I relaxed and went on eating, simply soaking up the sun and savouring the incredible view of the northwest faces of the Pukajirka peaks and Allpamayo slowly becoming bathed in sun in the perfectly clear conditions.

Tim and Jono were enjoying the same conditions at their camp next to the large rock on the moraine – recuperating after their big climb with lots of food and relaxation.

In the latish morning we started packing up and then moved on slowly back across the glacier, crossing the more complicated avalanched section unroped and quite quickly, but finding the odd uphill sections quite tiring. We stopped at the col above the lower valley to take a breather and take off our crampons realising this would be the last time for now we would be doing so. After taking some promotional photos of Coolmint and Super C we set off back down the slabs below Chico’s southeast glacier, descended the long moraine and zig zag path to the valley floor and finally walked down the last stretch of the path to cross the river to base, noticing that there was now a “new” geodesic North Face tent that had been erected at the French expedition’s former camp site.

Tim and Jono as well as Andre’ D and Dion were already well settled in and Tim and Jono wasted no time before enthusiastically regaling us with the story of their climb – fantastic. We learned that the new arrivals were evidently Canadians who had just arrived. When we soon met them they told us that they had used Pedro Huaman and his burros for the walk in and had also met up with Koos who had apparently taken so much strain climbing back up to the 4 800 m pass above the Quebrada Allpamayo with his heavy pack, that he had managed to arrange to hire one of Pedro’s burros to carry his pack for the remainder of the trip out. When we later met up with Koos and Ed again after our return to Lima, they told us that their second day’s walk out had similarly been particularly strenuous, especially the descent to the Hacienda Colcas, where they had been pleased to be able to hitch a ride on a tractor.

In the evening we invited the Canadians Rob, Andy and Jim (all from Banff) over for dinner and enjoyed some Pisco Sours with them afterwards (for which it seemed they were well prepared). We later discussed the plans Rob and Andy had to make an attempt on Santa Cruz’s East Ridge.

Thursday 2 August

This was the designated day for us to dismantle and pack up basecamp in preparation for the arrival of the burros with Pedro Huaman, ready for us to descend back to Cashapampa on the 3^rd and 4^th. Pedro made his appearance early in the morning and of his own accord said that he would be bringing the burros up to base during the course of the day (when we walked in, we had originally agreed that the burros would only come up to the lower camp, but this better arrangement had now been made possible as the path up to base had improved since then). There would be six burros in total with one extra for Pedro and his diminutive 11 year old nephew he had brought with him – a lad with a light fingered reputation according to the Canadians who had walked up with Pedro!

For packing we allocated loads so that one full sack was allowed for each climber’s personal gear with all the communal gear distributed among the remaining sacks and the larger items like the tents packed separately. This worked quite well although someone like Koos had carried out too much of his own gear – the rest of us would be carrying about 15 kg each. The biggest problem facing us was the final sorting and disposal of our excess food – the remaining HA packs were still stored in the cave on the scree at base and the balance of the LA packs in one of the tents. All the excess food was finally taken out of the packs and put into plastic bags and all the non-perishable food was put on one side so that it could be cached for future reference on the scree. The Canadians were invited to help themselves to as much of the rest as they thought they could use to boost their own supplies and the balance was given to Pedro after the fancy items like chocolate had been taken out, to be left for the time being with the Canadians until Pedro returned to fetch them with a few extra burros to accommodate the extra. This arrangement meant that we would retain the full carrying capacity of the burros that had been brought up for us for the trip down.

For the second evening running Tim concocted a huge fish pie made with tins of tuna – with everyone so ravenous after all the exertions, some of the especially hungry partakers with eyes slightly larger than their tummies and who possibly slightly overindulged at supper, found themselves rather green about the gills later in the night! Pedro and his arriero “handlanger” helped to demolish the balance, then settled down for the night in a picturesque muddle of saddles and saddle blankets next to the kitchen. All the tents were taken down and packed and the rest of us also slept in the open, the evening clear and cold with quite a good sprinkling of frost. We waited until Pedro had gone to bed and then surreptitiously trooped off up the scree to a good cave under a huge boulder, preselected by Dion, where we cached the food we were leaving behind for possible future reference.

The Canadians appeared highly delighted with their unexpected food bonanza and were quite impressed by the quality and variety of the food we had catered. Most of the balance of the Mountain House was packed with the food we were taking out.

On final appraisal we found we had a couple of gallons of fuel remaining when we packed up base. We had also perhaps used about two thirds of the HA packs. Counting up the snow stakes, we discovered that we were returning with the same number that we had originally brought in (quite a few of which we had borrowed before leaving home).

Friday 3 and Saturday 4 August

On the last two days we walked out to Cashapampa. After the last sorting on Friday we left base at about 09:45, greeted our Canadian friends and wished them well for their east ridge of Santa Cruz attempt. Sad leave taking of our basecamp site which had come to feel like home for us, now looking rather empty and desolate again. The pleasantly cool weather was ideal for walking out, our packs weren’t too heavy and most of us enjoyed walking in the relative comfort of our lightweight footgear rather than our boots. Easy going down to our previous Quebrada Allpamayo camp that we had used on the walk in and then the relentless grind for 600 m up the first pass dropping down the other side for lunch at a beautiful clear bubbling stream. Then an easier pull up more zig zags over the main pass (4 800 m) before making the long descent to our overnight camp next to Kulliqocha – marvelling again at the incredible views of the Santa Cruz peaks.

On Saturday, again in decent weather, we returned over the Colcas ridge and the long waterless zig zags going down to the first cultivated fields, animals and people, finally reaching Cashapampa in the late afternoon. The conclusion of a memorable experience for us all.

Yuraq Janka Map Northern Section Nev Huandoy to Nevado Pilanco (Courtesy Juraq Janka – Cordilleras Blanca and Rosko by John F Ricker)