The 1991 Bolivia MCSA Centenary Expedition

Introduction

1991 was the Mountain Club of South Africa’s Centenary Year – which in the end turned out to be truly a year well celebrated with a commendable number of overseas expeditions organised and undertaken by its members. While most of these were to more remote regions with objectives that would involve challenging logistics and in most cases more technical climbing, the Club’s National Standing Expeditions Subcommittee also recognised that there might be aspirations among its younger and less experienced members to participate in an organised overseas expedition where they would have the opportunity to learn something about the logistics of planning and organising the expedition and also gain experience climbing in a “big mountain” environment.

This is perhaps best set out in the article written about the Bolivia MCSA Centenary Expedition in the Club’s 1991 Centenary Journal.

“The Bolivia “91 seed was sown in 1988, when CENCOM accepted the National Expeditions Standing Subcommittee recommendation for the Club to consider applications for financial sponsorship for centenary expeditions conceived and initiated by members, and for the Club itself to organise a national overseas centenary meet , which would be open to all members. Recognising the exclusivity of the members’ centenary expeditions, the Club further encouraged participation in Bolivia ’91 by providing generous financial assistance at both national and sectional level to participants who needed help and who would benefit from training which the expedition would offer. The training concept was aimed at providing opportunities in technical snow and ice climbing as well as actively involving participants in the organisation of the expedition.

To achieve the training objective the expedition organisers had to select an accessible venue which would offer a wide range of climbing opportunities and technical difficulties. In hindsight it would have been difficult to improve on the final choice of the eastern cirque of the Illampu/Ancohuma massif of the Cordillera Real, which was made on the recommendation of Stephen Kelsey and Denis Quaife, who climbed there on a trip partially sponsored by the Club in 1989. The mountains in this massif are heavily glaciated with Ancohuma rising to 6 427 metres and Illampu to 6 368 metres and with numerous summits between 5 500 and 5 800 metres. For the most part the scale of the peaks is alpine and the ice conditions are benign. However, the east face of Illampu and the south face of Pico del Norte are steeper and higher and offer more technical climbing. The massif enjoys good stable weather during the recommended climbing season from June to August.

The response to the first expedition circular and questionnaire, which was sent out in May 1990, was overwhelming with about 140 members indicating an interest in the expedition. The next circular shed some of the faint-hearted, because it included an Alpine Journal article about a 1966 British expedition to the area, which described an accident on Casiri Este in which the expedition leader had been killed. The prospect of actually having to pay for their own expedition costs shed the irrevocably impecunious and by natural attrition numbers finally dwindled to forty committed participants.

The participants’ enthusiasm to become involved in the organisation of the expedition, together with the generous baggage allowance offered by the expedition’s chosen carrier, Varig Brazillian Airlines, encouraged taking most of the expedition’s food requirements from South Africa. Ultimately much of the food was provided through generous sponsorship offered by local commercial organisations, though there were moments when it seemed that the expedition might only be living on bottles of donated fishpaste! South African equipment manufacturers and distributors displayed similar generosity and played the same important role in helping to reduce the expedition costs, thereby making it possible for many participants to go to Bolivia, who might not otherwise have been able to do so.

At the same time contact was made with the Club Andino Boliviano and agreement negotiated with that club to handle all the expedition’s logistical requirements in Bolivia. This would involve meeting various expedition parties arriving in La Paz at different times and then transporting them into and, on our return, out of the mountains. It promised to be a daunting task taking the expedition numbers into account , as the journey into the mountains involved travelling some 200 kilometres in minibuses and fourwheel drive trucks via the provincial town of Sorata to the roadhead of Mina Candelaria, then finally trekking in to basecamp using llamas. Due to the real problems experienced communicating between Cape Town and La Paz, all this detail planning had to be left over until we arrived in La Paz. Sadly, the Club Andino could not respond to an invitation which the Club extended to it for two Bolivian climbers to join the expedition.

Saturday 22 June 1991

We arrived at La Paz airport at about 07:30. With the Miami transfer we had had to make, we found our food and equipment boxes hadn’t arrived. After reporting same (one of many passengers with missing baggage), I then tried to find if Peter Iseli (Club Andino) or Roger Daley (American Embassy) had come to the airport, however as this was evidently not so, I caught a taxi to the Milton Hotel where the others had booked in. I found Denis Quaife there (or rather woke him up), and over breakfast caught up with his news about the poblems the Transvalers’ had experienced trying to get in to Illampu, frustrated by a lot of the Campesinos, roadblocks and a strike by lorry drivers on the transport that the Club Andino had organised for the expedition. Denis and Mike together with Dermot Gordon-Graham had tried to climb on Condoriri, but had been turned back by heavy snowfall and a violent windstorm – both quite unseasonal. However, they did succeed getting up Huyana Potosi. After breakfast I checked into the hotel and then walked down the road to buy an alpaca jersey – it was feeling really cold with snow lying quite low down on the altiplano.

At 12:30 we went down to the Club Andino where Denis had organised the bus to collect the members flying in from Rio. At the airport we found Peter Iseli who was also waiting for the flight arrival, which eventually turned out to be rather late. Notwithstanding Peter’s help organising this, it was still a time-consuming performance checking out our boxes and getting them through customs. After piling everyone, together with the boxes, into a bus and an extra minibus, we drove to a point as close as possible to the hotel – not too easy as the hordes of people in the streets for the Saturday market posed a real problem. After carrying the boxes into the hotel we stored them all on the roof, eventually discovering that 18 were still being held back in Rio. After everyone got organised, we went to eat at Verona, a restaurant on the main street. And then a well deserved good night’s sleep.

Sunday 23 June

After breakfast at the hotel, we walked around the streets close to the hotel to get a feel of the city – it transpired that this Sunday was a special market and fest day to celebrate the shortest and coldest day of the year – amazing sights of the busy market stalls in all the streets.

Market day in La Paz

We then went back to the hotel to meet Huascar Pacheco, Armando, Jimmy and Peter Iseli from the Club Andino to discuss and agree on the final arrangements for the transfer to the roadhead and for getting all our food and equipment into basecamp. After this, Peter and I drove out to the airport following a report that our boxes had arrived, but after lunch at the airport we found that they hadn’t. Back at the Milton I had a short rest before attending a full get-together of all the expedition members to inform them about the arrangements made with the Club Andino for getting in to basecamp. Then we held another meeting with Pachheco, Armando and Jimmy to talk about financial arrangements and the fact that some of our members would have to stay on in La Paz for a while longer because the boxes with their personal kit had not yet arrived. After a late supper we all strolled around the streets close to the hotel to look at the festival bonfires burning everywhere, filling the sky with smoke and a little later to watch fireworks going off everywhere. Earlier in the day the members of a New Zealand Alpine Club expedition that had come to climb in Bolivia, visited us and we were able to exchange cards on the two clubs’ centenary anniversaries.

Monday 24 June

After breakfast Ant Smith took off with a couple of helpers to buy mostly the fresh food we needed, buying most of it in the local market near the hotel, because the prices there were more favourable than at the supermarket that had been recommended to us. I also went out to buy the last few items that I needed and then prepared a list of the expedition members’ names and passport details for Peter Iseli to type out and give to Armando. Garth helped Eckart to sort the medical equipment while the others packed the last of their personal equipment and took the boxes upstairs.

Peter Iseli came at about 11:00, the same time that Armando was supposed to arrive for us to make a payment to the Club Andino, but when we phoned Armando he said he would only be able to come later. We also established that the loading of our gear and food onto the Club Andino’s trucks would only be done at 18:00 instead of 14:00 as originally planned, so most folk went back to browse around the market again. All this posed a bit of a problem because Peter had taken all our passports earlier in the morning to arrange for our Bolivian visas to be extended and we knew we would need them to draw extra dollars for the expected payment of US$ 2 650 that we would have to make when the llamas reached basecamp with our food and baggage. Fortunately we were able to get around this problem by drawing extra dollars at the Hotel Gloria where we did not need to have our passports. At 18:00 we carted all our food and gear down to form a huge pile in the Milton’s foyer and then loaded everything onto the two trucks that arrived. This loading was rather haphazard, but the drivers assured us that everything would be properly repacked in their depot. About 20 of us then went down the Club Andino where we talked to Huascar Pacheco and were all given Club Andino pendants and badges. After supper at the Verona with Huascar and one of his friends, we went back to the hotel, paid our bill and did our last packing before crashing.

Tuesday 25 June

Everyone got up quite early and were ready to leave after a quick breakfast, all of us together with our equipment climbing onto the assortment of vehicles waiting outside – 2 minibuses and 2 trucks for passengers and equipment and another truck just loaded with equipment, eventually setting off at about 07:00. Andy Wood, Lars Strydom, Adele McCann and Hennie Niemand left rather disconsolately standing on the pavement waving us goodbye – waiting for their boxes to arrive from Rio, which they would bring on with them in a second trip on Friday. A long, but quite easy drive to reach Sorata (2 678 m) along the western side of the Cordillera Real – stops along the way to take photos of the stunning scenery unfolding.

First views of the Cordillera Real peaks from the altiplano

The drive in to Mina Candelaria – looking down on Sorata with Illampu and Ancohuma behind

We stopped for lunch at the Grand Hotel and also found a shop in town to buy a big sheet of plastic. Then a long grinding climb out of the town on a road with some bad patches, eventually turning off on the road leading to Mina Candelaria. This climbed in a series of hairpins to about 4 800 m with some very steep and rough sections of the road where the minibuses just couldn’t make it, everyone having to climb out and help push. A long walk to the top of the pass for some of us (16:30).

Going over the high passes on rough roads to reach Mina Candelaria

On the way we were passed by some Austrians (on their way to Ancoma to attempt Illampu) in vehicles owned by a German who we were told had another hotel in Sorata. Then another long and tortuous descent to Ancoma (3 784 m). Coming into the village our vehicles were mobbed by a very rowdy and potentially aggressive crowd of villagers who threatened to break the vehicles’ windows if we didn’t pay up a “ransom”. Jimmy, the driver in the vehicle I was travelling in, was visibly quite shaken. He explained that the villagers had been partying since the festival of San Juan and they wanted money from us to buy more alcohol. After managing to get away, now in near darkness, we started up the next pass, grinding our way up it, again in several places having to get out to manhandle/push the vehicles up the steeper sections of the road and in others to remove rocks that the locals had rolled onto the road. After tediously climbing up a second similar pass, we again made a long descent, eventually arriving at our destination – Mina Candelaria (4 118 m) at about 19:30. Although it was pretty well pitch dark we could make out that we were in cloud covering the Ancohuma valley, the last part of our journey and our arrival quite eerie in the pitch darkness! But it was wonderfully reassuring to be met here by Lorenzo who we learned would be organising our llamas. We made a huge pot of soup for the ravenous mob and after unpacking what we needed from the vehicles, dossed down quite comfortably between the mine buildings. It had been a very long and quite exciting day!

Wednesday 26 June

Getting up we found that Anthony van Tonder was suffering from the altitude and not feeling so good so we arranged for him to descend to Cocoyo (3 512 m) and spend the day there with Chris Jones and Jane Futter. We re-packed the contents of all the boxes into polyprop bags and stashed the empty boxes in one of the vacant mine buildings.

An introduction to llamas - the coloured wool tassel at the ear defines ownership

Mina Candelaria - collecting the llamas and packing up for the walk-in to basecamp

The arrieros loaded the first llamas and got them away at about 09:30 with everyone else then also moving off in dribs and drabs setting off for Cocoyo and the long walk in to basecamp. Eckart and I stayed until the last of our llamas had been loaded and finally set off from Candelaria at 11:00 after saying goodbye to Jimmy and Armando who would be setting off on the long drive back to Sorata and La Paz. We made a quick descent of some 500 m down the narrow precipitous road to the very small settlement of Cocoyo with all its inhabitants turning out to enjoy the passing parade of our expedition members and the llamas with their arrieros walking through the village. Apart from the llamas which are highly prized animals used for packing the food and equipment for expeditions like our own into the mountains and transporting the villagers’ produce to the markets in Ancoma and Sorata, the main farming activity in Cocoyo was clearly livestock – there was obviously good grazing for sheep. Another interesting feature of the settlement was the many pits excavated for freezing part of the potato crop that grown there – the freeze dried potatoes are called “chuno” and have the important characteristic that once processed they have a very long “shelf life”.

The small settlement of Cocoyo at the start of the walk-in to basecamp

The excavated pits in the foreground are used for freezing part of the potato crop

After crossing the village’s meadows the trail we were following started climbing diagonally up to the right on the main river’s true righthand bank. A haul of about 300 m brought us out at the first good water where we stopped for a rest, then going on we passed Ansa and Molly and the Whites before traversing further to the right above some gullies. After passing Geoff, we came out on the crest of the massive ridge bounding this side of the valley (4 hrs), the cloud now rising up towards us from the valley below. As the trail traversed along the side of the ridge with little ascents and descents, we were treated to spectacular views of a couple of curious condors flying back and forth past us. After crossing a strong stream coming from a lake beneath the snowclad summit above us we continued up a long gully to find Mike Schaff was resting at the top. After making a traverse, we climbed up another long gully, walked down the slightly snowy slope beyond and found we had arrived at our basecamp site (17:15 - 6¼ hours from Mina Candelaria). We were all pleased to have arrived – everyone quite tired after the long walk in. And delighted to find the folk from the Transvaal – Ulrike, Hermann, Merv Prior and the Kendall brothers already “in residence”. They had all come out in advance of the main group and had already started exploring the valley, also with the scalp of Viluyo III already bagged!

After relieving the llamas of their loads, we set about unpacking and erecting our tents. The basecamp was sited at 4 660 m in a truly beautiful setting next to Laguna Negra with a whole cirque of big mountains from Ancohuma (6 427 m) and Illampu (6 368 m) to Pico del Norte (6 095 m) looking down on it from the head of the valley. Checking the tally of arrivals we sent a small party back to shepherd the last of the expedition members in to basecamp - Sue and Terry White, Ansa du Toit and Molly Smit, welcoming them with warm soup and food on arrival. Fantastic to finally be in basecamp and a well-deserved night’s sleep with Eckart sharing the new Moss Stardome III tent (that I had bought in the States on the way to Bolivia), with me. Before finally settling in we had to stop the arrieros burning the grass around basecamp – we certainly didn’t need our sleep disturbed by smoke!

Setting up the Laguna Negra Basecamp

Thursday 27 June

We planned this to be a rest day at basecamp sorting gear and food a lot of which had got rather mixed up during the packing for the llamas due to the arrieros trying to equalise weight. We gathered everyone together and explained how food would work for both basecamp and individual parties choosing to go out on subcamps. We also got more organised in basecamp setting up the big primus stove and a big pot for communal cooking in the new “kitchen” shelter that had been erected and arranging for the digging and “furnishing” of decent loos. We designated Raoul, Lorenzo’s (ie the chief llama contractor’s) 14 year old son to be our general factotum in basecamp.

Laguna Negra basecamp’s idyllic setting

Apart from getting organised, we spent most of the day simply relaxing and enjoying the fantastic vista we had of the major peaks we hoped to explore – from Ancohuma and Illampu across to the massive granite pillars to the right of Pico del Norte. Anthony van Tonder, Chris Jones and Jane Futter all arrived safely from Cocoyo with two arrieros carrying their packs. The party of Transvalers set off to put in a subcamp below Jankhopiti. Early to bed with a near full moon bathing the whole valley in a magical light. Unfortunately I was still feeling some effect of the altitude – my own sleep still pretty restless.

Friday 28 June

In the morning we showed the newies how to adjust crampons, tie on their axes and other gear and at about 10:30 set off up the valley to get onto the glacier below Viluyo II (5 445 m) to let them get a feel of some ice. On the way up the party split, but re-united on the granite slabs below the glacier to have some lunch, enjoying a fine view of the Transvalers climbing Jankhopiti (5 875 m) and of Denis and Mike Byrd playing on the peak above us. We scrambled up to the top of the slabs (5 100 m) and put on our gear next to the glacier before explaining the basic principles of climbing on snow and ice and then letting some of the beginners get a feel of the ice. Mike, Denis and Graham Whittaker passed us on their way down, Graham having already traversed over the three Viluyo peaks. After stashing our gear at the place where we had climbed, we ran down in about an hour to basecamp. All day we had been treated to magnificent views of the peaks in the cirque ringing the valley, including Ancohuma.

Supper was a special stew of fresh vegetables and our irradiated meat cooked with the Bolivian freeze dried potatoes we had picked up in Cocoyo, but it rather flopped because we found that the potatoes tasted quite horrible! We also discovered that the petrol we had brought to basecamp must have been dirty because we found our MSR stoves were clogging up. I took some photos of the mountains above basecamp in the beautiful bright moonlight with infill flash of the camp itself.

Basecamp lighting up in the evening

Saturday 29 June

A lot of activity in and around basecamp where we had decided to have a rest day. Phillip Lloyd climbed the Viluyo peaks and Merv Prior came back to basecamp with Roy and Andrew Kendall to stock up with more food for their subcamp. They said that they intended trying to find an ice cave so that they could relocate their subcamp closer to Jankhopiti. They also regaled us with a hilarious story of Merv Prior throwing away his false teeth when he flung them out of his mug from where he was sleeping. Steve Kelsey, Graham Whittaker and Cathy O’Dowd also set off to climb Jankhopiti, but Cathy wisely decided to come down after reaching the Transvaal subcamp as she was taking some strain from the altitude. I had a bath and washed some clothes then caught up writing my diary before starting to set up our communal kitchen shelter. In the evening we all went to bed quite early in preparation for the early start we wanted to make the next day.

Sunday 30 June

This was my first real climbing day and it turned out to be quite successful. We set off from basecamp at about 06:00 after waking at 05:00 on a beautiful cold clear morning. To start with an easy walk up the valley in bright moonlight, to the top of the gully leading out of the valley on its true righthand side at which point it just started getting properly light. We disrobed there before continuing up the slope onto the moraine beyond to reach our equipment cache where we picked up the equipment we needed and then carried on to where a rock buttress joined the glacier. We sat there for about three quarters of an hour in the sun putting on our gear and getting ready for the climb (± 5 250 m). Moving up onto the glacier we roped up – Ant with Mike Schaff, Garth with Craig, Terry and myself and Clive on his own. The crampon conditions on the glacier’s soft ice, sometimes covered with a thin layer of snow, were perfect enabling us to easily angle up to the left past a rock buttress to reach the ridge coming down from Viluyo II where we dumped our packs and took a break for lunch. Then a hot climb continuing up into the glacier bowl above in the sun, all the time admiring the stunning views unfolding - from the mountains far down in the south to Huacana (6 200 m), close to Ancohuma, and to the Cordillera Apolobamba in the far distance to the north. Just as we dropped our packs, Geoff, Eckart and Mike de Wet appeared climbing up the glacier directly above basecamp. Continuing along the ridge we climbed Viluyo I (5 586 m) and then Viluyo II (5 445 m) before walking across to climb Viluyo III (5 540 m) , but decided against also ticking off the next unnamed peak to the northeast which would have necessitated having to descend some 150 m. After some debate about the route we should follow down back to basecamp, we decided to go down the route that Geoff and company had come up, which proved to be quite easy except for having to cross a snow bridge over a large crevasse quite high up (which we safeguarded with a fixed rope) and having to front point down the steep slope below, beyond which we found we could go down an easy granite gully to get off the glacier. After a pleasant rest enjoying the sun, we continued down an easy rock ridge and then made a tedious but fast descent down the screes below to reach the top lake, which we skirted on its south side over some burnt grass. We then had to scramble over the granite slabs on the south side of the main lake to get back to basecamp at 17:00. We all felt quite tired, but it had been a good day.

Closer to supper time, just as we were sitting back and starting to relax, basecamp erupted into complete disarray when Mike de Wet (undoubtedly tired after our long day) tried to top up his MSR stove with petrol from his spare bottle, while the stove was still burning! Of course there was an instantaneous “woof” as everything went up in flames and then an even more impressive pyrotechnic display when Mike with great presence of mind, grabbed the stove and hurled it in a flaming arc into the lagoon, spraying burning petrol over himself and Clive Louw’s tent and immediately setting everything alight. In another moment of inspiration Mike also dived into the lake while everyone else successfully set about putting out all the other flames. Fortunately in the end the incident was more spectacular than really serious. No-one was really hurt and only the flysheet of Clive’s tent had to be repaired. After supper, Ulrike and Hermann, back from the Transvalers’ subcamp, joined everyone for what would become a regular feature – basecamp’s nightly sing-song held in the kitchen shelter.

Summit of Viluyo II

Running repairs after the previous night’s impressive pyrotechnic display

Monday 1 July

The day was spent getting basecamp properly organised, before setting off for our first high subcamp – Clive, Mike Schaff and Adele expertly repairing Clive’s tent flysheet which was damaged in the previous evening’s fire. After finalising the plans for our subcamp, a whole gang got together in the afternoon to re-site and improve our kitchen communal shelter. To celebrate the event I baked a magnificent big loaf of bread in the morning (filling the whole of one of our big communal cooking pots) – it took 2½ hours to cook it! Everyone in basecamp was invited to attend the shelter’s inaugural bash in the evening and it was a big success, kicking off with a huge pot of soup served with the bread and popcorn. 26 of us crammed into the shelter, Terry White sang and there were lots of jokes and improbable stories told. It was encouraging to see there was such a good spirit among all the people in basecamp.

The inaugural bash in the kitchen communal shelter

Tuesday 2 July

The plans we had made to set off for our subcamp at 10:00 didn’t materialise – with all the last minute preparations and packing we eventually only got away at 11:30. We followed the stream up past the first big lake, stopping for a rest close to the first tributary to the southwest below the “gates”, magnificent sheer granite cliffs enclosing the upper valley. Shortly after we got away from basecamp Garth again complained that his back was taking strain from the heavy load carrying – our packs really were heavy with food and equipment packed for a five day stay at our planned subcamp. Thus Garth decided to do this carry with a part of his load only, to descend from the subcamp and then to come up again with the balance of his load on Wednesday. John Grindley, who was only coming out for the day, kindly took over some of the items from Garth’s load. Those of us who would be staying at the subcamp were myself, Clive, Craig, Ant Smith, Eckart, Mike de Wet and Mike Schaff – Geoff Ward and John Grindley had planned to come up for the day and would also be dumping stuff at the subcamp. After climbing up through the “gates” we continued along some pleasant grass meadows beside the quiet glacial stream to a convenient nek with some large boulders where we stopped to have some lunch. Above this we crossed the last flat marshy meadow before climbing steeply up beside the east tributary – we made the decision to do this only after some debate as it appeared from the map that we might be able to find a campsite next to one of the two lakes marked on the map. However, climbing up the moraine from which we could look back down on the lakes, we could see that they looked rather bleak and decided to rather set up our camp on a pleasant terrace on the west side of the moraine at about 5 100m, opposite Yapuchanani (5 526 m), a rather attractive looking peak to the east. Those who were returning to basecamp dumped their loads at a cache on the moraine and the “stayers” started setting up camp – in my case that meant pitching my VE24.

Small lake at the subcamp below Yapuchanani

The sun left our subcamp at about 17:15 and after an excellent supper of irradiated meat with smash we settled in for the night – four of us, Craig, Clive, Eckart and myself squeezing into the VE24. I suppose because of the altitude this turned out to be impossibly claustrophobic – so much so that Eckart bailed out into his bivvy bag in the middle of the night.

Wednesday 3 July

Garth caught up with us just before we were leaving to climb, but was too tired to accompany us. As Ant also wasn’t feeling so well and had decided to stay in the subcamp, the rest of us (Clive, Craig, Eckart, Mike and myself) walked across the moraine and skirted the upper frozen lake to reach the glacier below Point 5523 m, We put on our boots and crampons and climbed up on good ice along the well-marked track left by a previous party to reach the summit of Point 5523 m at about 12:00, the last steep slope leading up to the summit proving quite exciting. We then continued along the easy rock ridge to the south, putting on our crampons again at the next col before crossing over through a rock notch to the east, where a rock tower barred further progress. We bypassed this by traversing the glacier on the east side of the ridge for another 100 m and then climbed back up to a pleasant lunch spot next to an ice wall where we were delighted to find a trickle of running water (as the water at our subcamp had still been frozen when we left in the morning). From the nek above our lunch spot we climbed up and onto the snow summit of Pico de Linea (5 570 m) from which magnificent views of the many summits to the south and west unfolded, two particularly impressive being Jankhopiti (5 875 m), which we now nicknamed “Great White” (because it really did look like a great white shark breaching) and another big peak which we thought might be Mescatanta (5 660 m).

Ancohuma from the summit of Pico de Linea with Jankhopiti on the left and Illampu on the right

To get back to our subcamp we reversed the last part of our route of ascent up Pico de Linea and then traversed diagonally down onto the lower icefall which higher up had impressive tiers of steep ice walls interspersed with snow clad ramps. After some rather exhausting ups and downs crossing the icefall (the glacier bowl was like an oven in the afternoon sun), we picked up a ramp which took us right across the icefall to a snowy terrace and later a scree slope on the rock ridge on the west side of our valley which we were able to follow to where we could easily descend back to our subcamp.

The view of Illampu and Pico del Norte from Pico de Linea

The view of Jankhopiti and Ancohuma from Pico de Linea

On the way we were excited to put up two large (we thought) ibex which had been browsing on the terrace. Also quite a few viscacha on the scree slope and among the rocks as we neared our subcamp. This was altogether an excellent day which served to give us a very good idea of the lie of the land.

Subcamp below Yapuchanani

Thursday 4 July

By unanimous decision we agreed this must be a rest day. Except that Garth was now champing at the bit and he set off up the Yapuchanani glacier with Ant and Craig to have a crack at climbing an impressively steep (50⁰) and attractive looking south facing snow couloir on the ridge overlooking our camp. Eckart and I decided to explore the rock ridge above and to the west of our subcamp which would enable us to recce the access onto the glacier next to Point 5524 m and also to get a good view of the progress that Garth’s party was making. In fact after going up the glacier quite quickly they seemed to have come to a stop at the base of the couloir. Later, after Garth and the others returned to the subcamp, they said the snow conditions in the couloir were horrible. As they were setting up a belay at the base of the couloir, they were alarmed to hear cracking noises coming from the ice or snow close to where they had stopped and decided to give their project a miss (in fact a little later we could see the tracks of several small snow slides that had started in the couloir).

Eckart and I climbed up the easy granite slabs to the crest of the ridge at about 5 350 m from where we could see there was a straightforward passage from the rock ridge onto the glacier on the west side of Point 5 524 m. We sat there for a while on a sunny terrace watching a pair of hawks flying close by and admiring the vista of all the peaks spread out before us, though this was slightly marred on this and other days by smoke rising from fires burning in the lower valleys. Descending from the terrace, we recced and beaconed the route across the moraine to reach the scree below the glacier on the west side of the ridge, seeing as this would be the critical first part of the route that we intended following (most likely in the dark), to get to Jankhopiti on Friday. Returning to the subcamp we had some lunch and then lazed away the rest of the afternoon. Various other folk came up from basecamp during the course of the afternoon. Garth, Craig and I elected to sleep in the VE24 again that night.

Friday 5 July

We woke at 05:00 and after swallowing some muesli and coffee got away at 06:00 to climb the Great White. We retraced the route we followed on Thursday to the col on the ridge on the west side of our subcamp and then followed the route we had beaconed to the crest of the moraine, all in good light. From there we descended to the snout of the first glacier tongue, but then had to climb up and descend a little again to pass another snout. After this we climbed up onto a rocky shoulder and then embarked on a very long gradually ascending traverse over loose screes and large shattered boulders to reach a small rocky terrace below the last col we intended reaching to access the Great White glacier. At the col we put on our plastic boots and crampons and started up the glacier immediately discovering that our original proposed route over the first hump of the glacier looked rather tenuous. We therefor descended about 60 m down a steep snow slope (Adele’s first experience on steep snow) to where we could reach easier ground, but then found that we had to plough through deep powder snow in the south facing glacier bowl before we could reach firmer snow leading up to the col between the “hump” and the main peak.

Climbing the Great White

All the time we were afforded magnificent views, particularly of Ancohuma to the west and Kasiri to the south, Kasiri East, a rock peak, looking quite challenging. We dropped our packs on the col and went on without them, still unroped, to a point where Garth, Clive, Craig, Adele and Mike decided that they would like to tackle the attractive looking face we could see on the lower summit, while Ant, Eckart and I went on to the next col before continuing to the main summit (5 875 m). This took much longer and was more exhausting than we expected, but hugely satisfying once there – a corniced summit cone with stunning views of peaks in all directions. From here, the others appeared in quite a spectacular situation front pointing up and down the steep east face, choosing not to go right to the top as a crevasse split right through the summit cone.

Great White summit

After taking a couple of photos we descended quite fast to join the others and pick up our packs before continuing down a snow slope covered in small penitentes. After pausing to snatch a bite of lunch we went on and climbed the last summit of the “hump” and then descended the steepish ice face on the north side to get off the mountain (± 16:00). After taking off our gear we slid down the screes and made very good time traversing the boulders to reach the glacier snout. A last tiring climb back up to the moraine crest and then coasting down to the subcamp, on our arrival finding quite a few fresh faces – Geoff Ward, the Whites (who told us they had climbed Point 5 523 m), Mike de Wet, Lars Strydom and Merv Prior. It had been a grand day. An excellent Mountain House meal for supper.

Saturday 6 July

By unanimous consent we decided that after our strenuous Great White day, this must be another rest day. Mike de Wet with Terry and Sue White climbed the two rock peaks at the top of the ridge above camp. During the afternoon Mike Schaff and Clive Louw vied with each other to see which of Mike’s Peak stove or Clive’s MSR would boil a billy containing 800 ml of water faster – Mike winning, much to his glee! In fact all our stoves suffered quite severe operating problems due to clogging caused by the dirty high octane petrol we had bought. Eckart went down to basecamp after he learned that the Kendall brothers had both suffered from frost-nip climbing on Ancohuma.

By evening there were 15 people in the subcamp and after supper we had a “high altitude” get together and sing-song with Terry White making some excellent contributions.

It was a cold and windy night.

Sunday 7 July

Our good intentions to get up at 06:00 went awry when we ignored the alarm, but we did eventually get away from camp at about 07:00. Garth with Geoff, Terry and Sue, Adele, Ant, Lars and Craig climbed up the glacier between Yapuchanani and the rocky summit to the south and then climbed Yapuchanani by a short rock pillar (“D”) from the nek where the glacier continued to form a horizontal ridge connecting with Point 5 586 m. They had originally planned to continue beyond Yapuchanani, but eventually decided not to because cooking tea at their nek took longer than expected. On the other side of the valley, Clive, Mike, Andy Hackland, Nick Good and I (followed a little later by Neil McQueen and Dermot Gordon Graham) climbed up to the crest of the rock ridge above the subcamp and then continued traversing around the east side of the rock peak at the top of the ridge over slabs and large blocks to a point where we could easily access the glacier. Putting on our boots and crampons there we continued climbing up the glacier to the next col and a little beyond to where we could dump our packs to climb Point 5 723 m. Andy and Nick set off up a 45⁰ couloir leading to a nek while the rest of us climbed the rock and snow ridge just to the left of the couloir and then an obvious line climbing diagonally to the left up the slope above to reach the peak’s southeast ridge (and by doing so circumventing a continuous band of shattered granite). Reaching the ridge we found it to also be a rather tenuous broken edge but climbed it on mixed rock and snow in a very exposed position to finally reach quite an exciting snow summit.

Again magnificent views in all directions, particularly of San Pablo’s (5 610 m) various summits to the east, which looked as though they would offer quite a challenging climbing proposition (a very narrow and tortuous ridge of corniced snow and shattered rock). Mike who had felt he would not be up to the climb had descended to wait for us at the packs. The rest of us descended quite easily on snow down the peak’s west face passing a magnificent icicle bedecked schrund on the way and after picking up our packs walked back down the glacier and exited onto the snow terrace we had previously used when we came down off Pico de Linea. After stopping for lunch on the granite slabs where we left the snow, we walked back down to the subcamp. We packed up the tents and equipment, said goodbye to Geoff and the others, who were staying on at the subcamp, hefted what now seemed to be especially heavy packs onto our backs and trudged back down the valley to basecamp (about 1¾ hours, but I was impressed that it seemed quite a long walk).

Nice to be “home”! Ulrike had cooked a huge pot of stew and we sat up in the communal shelter until quite late with everyone telling jokes (the standard of which seemed to progressively deteriorate). We were glad to hear that the Kendalls’ frostnip problem was apparently not too serious.

A rather cold and windy day.

Monday 8 July

This a very successful day resting and getting organised in basecamp. After a huge breakfast (we all seemed to be perpetually hungry) I had an icy bath in the river and managed to wash all my (by now very dirty) clothes. I re-organised the tent as Eckart had now moved into his own tent with all the medical stuff in it. I spent most of the afternoon catching up on writing my diary and picking up the news of everyone else’s climbing activities. Ant made a huge rice and tuna dish for supper, the meal finished off with jelly mixed with tinned fruit and served with a rather nice custard that Adele made. We seemed to be spending a lot of time eating!!!

And then a really fabulous evening with everyone in basecamp joining in a sing song in the communal shelter and with Merv, Terry, Hermann and Garth contributing their songs. Ulrike played her recorder and Raoul enthusiastically playing his pipes – a truly haunting refrain in this wild and beautiful valley.

The haunting sound of the pipe playing

Tuesday 9 July

Another day spent at basecamp to rest and to get everyone organised who would be going out to mina Candelaria on the 10^th. After breakfast I finished writing up my diary to bring it up to date and then organised a meeting of the people who would be going out on Wednesday. I decided to do this because there were quite a few changes from what people originally said they wanted to do. Chris Jones, Jane Futter, Ansa du Toit and Ken Biesheuvel had already left basecamp and walked out to Mina Candelaria to do the Gold Diggers trail. Of the original group Denis Quaife, Mike Byrd, Terry and Sue White, Molly Smit, Merv Prior , Mike de Wet and Anthony van Tonder said they also wanted go out to do other trails and the Kendall brothers said they would return to La Paz because of their frost nip together with Graham Whittaker and Dermot Gordon-Graham. The purpose of the meeting was therefore to organise the llamas going back to Mina Candelaria and to spell out that the people for whom earlier transport from Mina Candelaria had originally been arranged would obviously enjoy priority for their ongoing journeys. I spent much of the day writing a long letter home with detail news about what the members of the expedition had been doing, the idea being that this could then be copied and circulated to other family and friends back home.

Adele McCann and Phillip Lloyd walked up the valley to do some rock climbing on the “gates”. Mike Schaff made another vast loaf of bread using my recipe with cheese and raisins added. In the late afternoon we got everyone in basecamp to congregate on top of the big boulder above the lake so that we could take some group photos, both in normal wear and then also with down jackets and dark glasses, this last requirement greeted with much amusement by Lorenzo and the arrieros who had just come up with the llamas from Cocoyo.

The group in basecamp – Tuesday 9 July

A pleasant evening spent with everyone in the shelter lubricated with rather too little “soetes” that Adele somehow still managed to find in her kit. I spent a couple of hours before going to bed writing a few more letters that I’d be able to send out with Dermot Gordon-Graham.

Wednesday 10 January

An early start with all the people walking out to Mina Candelaria getting their last packing done. I learned in the morning that Adele McCann and Andy Wood also intended going out, Andy wanting to go to La Paz so that he could get to Macchu Picchu and Adele wanting to join Mike de Wet and Merv Prior. Worse still Garth also spoke to me saying he didn’t feel his back was really up to doing more climbing – he also wanted to go out to La Paz with the vehicle. I had no concerns about the people who had always said that they would spend part of the time in the valley climbing and the rest going on some hiking trails. I felt the same for Merv who had really not acclimatised very well as well as for the Kendall brothers with their frostnip. But in the cases of Adele and Mike I felt disappointed in view of the Club’s financial support given to them and so strongly in the similar case of Andy Wood that I had a long chat with him saying that while the final decision would obviously rest with him, in view of the motivation I had given the Club for providing financial support that would enable him to join the expedition, it might look rather bad if he spent a substantial part of his trip going on a “grockle” tour! To his credit Andy fully agreed with me and made the decision to stay. I was pleased that Garth also finally decided to stay.

After all the packing was completed everyone who was going out to Cocoyo finally got away from basecamp by about 11:00, the rest of us finishing off our own packing and getting ready to set off for our intended Ancohuma subcamp. Similarly Steve and Cathy had prepared to have a crack at climbing Illampu and I gave them one of our MCSA Centenary flags after we had sat down together having lunch. An interlude greeting Nick Good and Andy Hackland who had just returned to basecamp. After our own last preparations, we managed to get away at about 14:15 (Eckart, Ant, Craig, Garth, Clive and myself). After rather slow progress walking along the true righthand bank of the lake we continued along a pleasant well beaconed path going up a tributary valley to reach our subcamp site next to a large boulder we intended using (5 020 m) at about 16:15. We erected our VE24 and Wild Country Hyperspace tents and at around 17:30 while cooking supper (irradiated meat) greeted a lone American descending past our camp on his way down to base.

Thursday 11 July

We waited for the sun to reach the tents before getting up, which wasn’t really justified because it had been quite a mild night (but still sufficiently cold to still the stream). After breakfast we got away at about 10:00 leaving a cache of some of our food under a large boulder and then started out on a long and tiring slog up the crest of the moraine above camp following a good line of beacons. Higher up we veered to the right and clambered over some big boulders into the gully formed next to the glacier where we took off our Skywalks and cached them before pulling on our plastic boots. Then after climbing the first quite steep section of glacier we had to make a deviation to the right to avoid some crevasses before continuing to a lunch spot on the col overlooking the glacier bowl below Ancohuma, the peak looking quite impressive from there. From the col we could see the American subcamp next to the rocks in a small bowl about a third of the way up the ramp we would have to climb to get onto Ancohuma’s southeast ridge. During lunch we watched with some trepidation as a big cloud bank started to stream in from the Amazon, however nothing did develop and the cloud dissipated during the course of the afternoon. After lunch we made a long traverse in a clockwise direction around the bowl, stopping along the way to investigate what looked like a promising ice cave, and then climbed straight up to the obvious campsite. Before this we saw three of the Americans, who had been at the campsite, walk straight across the bowl on their way out, so that on reaching the campsite at 16:00 (altitude 5 650 m) we found only one American (Mike) alone in his tent in residence. Just before reaching him, we were astonished to see about a dozen other climbers coming across the bowl behind us, surmising that they must be the Germans who we knew would be coming up to the camp. To our relief in the end they fortunately stopped and set up their camp further down the glacier.

Approaches to the Ancohuma

We pitched our two tents facing each other and quickly got ourselves organised (the temperature then was already -10⁰C) collecting water from a small pool in the ice next to the rocks.

Friday 12 July

We did manage our planned early start, waking at 05:30 and finally getting away at 07:00. Mike, who had asked if he could accompany us, got away first starting off up the snow ramp above our camp. Clive and I followed with Ant and the rest lagging behind, Craig evidently not feeling very fit. The result of this was that, after traversing the undulating rounded shoulder, Mike, Clive, Ant and I reached the bottom of the ridge (altitude 6 000 m) quite a long way ahead of Garth, Craig and Eckart and consequently decided to start climbing up the ridge straight away, this first section going up the ridge’s side slope for about 75 m. We climbed this using our axes and hammers, but not front pointing and then went on up the crest of the ridge climbing unroped all the way. It was surprising that there was so little track remaining in the snow from previous parties. The ridge went up to a first steeper step in the ice and then continued in two further stages, each culminating at the top of a snow covered rock tower. This was all quite straightforward climbing, either on the crest of the ridge or on its west side where the ice face was covered with fairly small penitentes. At about the time that Garth and the others reached the start of the steep climbing, the horde (of what we later discovered were Austrians) appeared at the col, hot on their heels. By the time that Mike, Clive, Ant and I had finished the steep part of the ridge and were sitting in the notch below where the ridge became broader and more easily angled a short way below the summit cone, the first of the Austrians had already caught up with us.

Southeast ridge just below Ancohuma’s summit

After having a drink and eating an energy bar at the notch we pushed on to the summit. Whereas I had been in the lead all the way to here, reaching the notch was almost like attaining a goal – once attained it left me feeling quite drained and extremely tired, especially plodding up the last 100 m to get to the rounded snow summit.

Mandatory Ancohuma summit photo holding the MCSA Centenary flag

From the summit we had the most magnificent views all around. To the west the bright blue of Lake Titicaca beyond Huacana and to the north Illampu partially obscured by cloud. After reaching the summit at 13:00 we messed around taking photos there for about half an hour before starting down, meeting Eckart close to the top and then a string of the Austrians striding out with their ski poles – most of them quite elderly, but all obviously very fit and well acclimatised. Meeting up with Garth he explained that because Eckart had been fazed by exhaustion and the exposure on the ridge and Craig also was not feeling happy, they had made the decision to rope up for the last steep portion of the ridge. We stopped in the notch where we had left our packs waiting for the others to come back from the summit and then roped down the ridge in two parties of two and one of three, making snow stake belays as we went down.

By this time the cloud had clagged right in and snow was beginning to sift down. Clive and I in the lead party pushed on as fast as we could to stay ahead of the Austrians, who by now were also starting to stream down the mountain. However this started to look like a disaster in the making when they caught up with Garth’s party of three. They had set up their own very long fixed rope and simply walked all over Garth’s ropes, belays and the members of his party in their determination to go down as fast as they could – a potentially quite dangerous situation because, if anyone had slipped and fallen, there would have been a high likelihood that they could have pulled down a lot of the other climbers with them. At the last pitch getting off the ridge onto the glacier Clive and I waited for the Austrians to push off and then with Mike, who had by now also joined us, put in a snow stake with a single 50 m rope tied to it so that we could all abseil the greater part of the pitch. As the others followed, one by one, they went on down to the col and headed back to our subcamp, but I waited for Garth, Craig and Ant to get down too, all of them seeming to move painfully slowly! Although by now most of the cloud had dissipated I was out the sun and felt really chilled by the freezing wind. Eventually Craig and then Ant abseiled too before also tottering off to the col (Ant still muttering about the Austrians’ roping shambles). At last Garth doubled a rope and abseiled down too, (leaving a carabiner at the stake) and we could coil the ropes and push on to the col, just reaching it as the last light was fading. Putting on our headlamps we descended the ramp to finally fall into camp – everyone too bombed to eat, just brewing one billy of tea after another with stacks of sugar!

All in all it had been a fantastic day, though one we would certainly have appreciated more without the Austrians. Ant found the outside temperature was -16⁰ C when he had to get up at about 02:00!

Saturday 13 July

We woke up after a cold and rather windy night, the night sky criss-crossed with lightning from storms over the Amazon. A fairly tardy start with a cold wind gusting over our camp and no-one really looking forward much to packing up and getting away. After a rather skimpy breakfast we slowly started packing, first striking the tents – feeling the cold and only too pleased to start moving at about 10:00. By this time the Austrians were already long gone from their camp below. We trudged back down the glacier to where we joined the Austrians’ tracks and then continued to the col where we had entered the glacial basin. We took some last photos of Ancohuma, noticing a now obvious change in the weather – high cloud speeding past Ancohuma’s summit, an icy wind starting to blow over the glacier and cloud rising up from the valley below. We quickly got off the glacier where we had cached our boots, took off our crampons and repacked before going on down past the boulders and over the screes to a more restful lunch at our first campsite next to the big boulder (noticing two American climbers on Jhankopiti as we came down) - the best part of our lunch was the Mountain House fruit salad of peaches, strawberries and blueberries. We picked up the trash that we had previously collected and set off back to basecamp following the beautiful clear stream coursing down the valley and then continued along the true lefthand bank of the lake.

Looking back at Ancohuma on the way down to basecamp

Arriving back in basecamp Geoff Ward gave us an especially big welcome which we soon discovered was because it was his birthday! Derek, Andy Hackland, Nick Good and John Grindley in camp too. We learned that Hermann, Ulrike, Neil, Daniel, Mike Schaff and Lars Strydom had gone off over the Sorata nek to try to climb the standard route on Illampu and that Phil, Steve and Cathy had gone off too to look at one of Illampu’s frontal ridges. Andy Wood, Hennie and Ross had also gone off to have a go at the big rock pillar on Pico Esperanza. Those of us in basecamp enjoyed a magnificent birthday bash for Geoff – Raoul and Theopholis playing a duo on their pan pipes, but a rather meagre ration (500 ml) of Chivas Regal stretched to the limit! The weather at basecamp was cloudy (misty) and cool, snow reported there the previous afternoon.

Sunday 14 July

This was our first rest day in basecamp with quite a lot of people away on subcamps. The weather was still unsettled with mist creeping up to basecamp by early afternoon, cool too and not conducive to having a bath and washing. I had a big breakfast and then caught up writing my diary. Theopholis had gone back to Cocoyo (Lorenzo had sent him up to basecamp with more kerosene on Saturday). I also finally decided that I could no longer stand the dusty patch on which my tent was pitched and after taking everything out of the tent, repitched it on a grassier patch, did a big re-sort and put everything back into it. In the afternoon Nick, Andy Hackland and Derek Ward set off for the Ancohuma subcamp and shortly after they left another seven man Austrian group arrived with a whole bunch of heavily loaded llamas, impressing us with the huge cottage tents and a massive mess tent that they set up close by – fortunately this time the Austrians seemed to be much friendlier! Then we watched the recent American arrivals who hailed from Boulder, setting off up the valley carrying monstrous packs and a little later (about midday) Andy Wood, Ross Suter and Hennie Niemand arrived back from their attempt to climb their rock pillar on Pico Esperanza, which turned out to be abortive. They had made two bivvies to get to the bottom of the pillar, but on reaching its lower sections had discovered that the climbing was not on – the rock badly vegetated and all the cracks full of earth. But they said they had been impressed on the approach they had made crossing the intervening valley below the peak.

The afternoon turned cold and misty – Nick came back quite late saying he was not feeling so good. He, together with Garth, Craig and Geoff said they planned to walk out to Sorata on Monday. We finished the day with a good communal supper in the shelter – soup, stew made with fresh mutton served with rice and followed by instant puddings.

Monday 15 July

Clive, Eckart, John Grindley and I decided we would explore the possibility of setting up a last subcamp on the ridge leading to Aguja Yacuma from the front of Illampu and after breakfast and saying a final goodbye to Garth, Craig, Nick and Geoff we set off on a recce going down the valley that contained the stream running past basecamp. Once again rising mist and smoke from down the valley threatened to spoil our day. We branched off from the stream a little way down the valley and dropped down to a beautiful and very clear small tarn in a side valley before following this smaller stream down to a strange “dry” tarn next to where the main stream emerges. Strange because our smaller stream meandered across the dry tarn bed and there was mist rising from the surface of the cracked mud. Stranger still the great mass of water from the main cascade then disappeared entirely underneath the moraine. Climbing to a higher point above a cliff where we could look down on the main valley we discovered that the stream then emerged further down before joining the much larger main glacial stream coursing down the valley.

While we were eating lunch there, we spied Steve and Cathy returning from Illampu – they could obviously hear us shouting, but were too far away for us to hear how they had fared on their climb. After lunch we descended to the valley floor and took some photos of the Puya plants growing there. Clive and Eckart decided to return to basecamp up the sidevalley by the route that we had descended, but John and I decided rather to walk up the main stream with the idea of traversing back to basecamp by a circular route at a higher level. This proved to be really interesting – the walk up the valley next to the main river was easy but quite spectacular where the valley’s high enclosing granite walls had been striated by earlier glacial action. Where the valley levelled out again we came across what was obviously a previous camp site, our views from there unfortunately slightly spoiled by the mist that had now clagged in. It had also got a whole lot colder. From the point where we left the stream (4 750m) John and I started traversing and were surprised to pick up a good path with a line of beacons going over the nearby shoulder. This route proved to be easy and climbing to 4 820m gave us fantastic views looking down onto Laguna Negra. Each time that it looked as though the route must pinch out, it just about squeaked through. I felt certain that this must have been one of the routes that Jack Miller’s party used when they were in the valley – it really seemed it must once have been quite a highway.

Looking across at Pico del Norte from one of the tarns in the valley below Aguja Yacuma

When we got back to basecamp, Steve told us that they had only got about 300 m up on their chosen frontal ridge on Illampu. They had encountered difficult water ice conditions in the approach couloir and had decided to come down after they discovered the snow conditions on the ridge were also very poor – soft unconsolidated snow.

Tuesday 16 July

The start to the day did not auger well for our subcamping trip because we woke to find quite a heavy spattering of snow in basecamp. We wondered how Garth’s party had fared on their walk out to Sorata. After breakfast Eckart and I decided that we would go ahead with our planned subcamp reckoning that we should stand a chance of getting at least a day’s climbing in if the weather was fairly reasonable. So we took food for Tuesday and Wednesday nights with some extra in case we decided to also spend Thursday night out. Clive, Ant and John Grindley also packed food and equipment for a planned subcamp at the moraine camp on the way up to Jankhopiti hoping to climb the peak the next day. Eckart and I eventually got away at about 12:00 with ominous clouds still looking threatening. To our disgust (and apparently to the huge amusement of everyone else staying in basecamp), we had hardly reached the scree boulders in the middle of the high traverse, when the heavens opened and polystyrene beads of snow started to souse down, really heavy snowfall continuing all afternoon. However we pulled on our anoraks and stomped on – the little rock pitches that we had to climb to reach the higher ledge, presenting quite a problem because all the ledges were already choked with new snow. At the corner above the main stream I tried to follow a higher line, but then a little later had to retrace our steps as we could see that this would bring us out above the rockbands. From the beacon I had built with John Grindley on the large rocks next to the stream (4 750m), we pushed on upstream with the snow still pelting down. Our efforts to find some sort of shelter there for the night among the rocks were to no avail as all the rocks we could find in this part of the valley were too small.

So we walked on for about another hour and made another more concerted effort to find some shelter (the beaconed path now continuing up the moraine) but could still not find anything suitable. Going on still further we came to the glacier snout, very broken up on the true righthand bank, but more rounded and looking slightly more hopeful on the true lefthand bank. After scratching around I was at last successful discovering a reasonably decent ice cave and we thankfully brought our packs up to it. However after hacking away some major ice blocks in an effort to level the cave floor, we still didn’t really fancy the cave as everything in it was coated in glacial dust and we knew all our gear would soon be filthy too. Just as we were scratching our heads to decide what next we should do, the snow abated and we could see that the clouds were starting to clear, so we rather happily changed our plans and decided to rather bivvy outside – the final subcamp site we chose was at 5 000 m and we soon set up our bivvy on the crest of the granite slabs between the two glaciers. This was a bit like being on the bridge of a ship with a magnificent view stretching down the valley. After excavating a rather uncomfortable level spot, we climbed into our sleeping bags (inside our bivvy bags) and set about cooking a magnificent Mountain House meal. Eckart said he saw a fox (he described a bit like a black backed Jackal). And it snowed some more during the night.

Wednesday 17 July

It looked like the promise of a better day so we let the sun wake us. After a slowish start we got away at about 09:00. We scrambled back down onto the moraine and then climbed up it quite easily for about another 150 m to a point where we could easily gain access onto the glacier on the north side (at this stage we still didn’t have a good idea of how the peaks lay on the ridge to the north of where we had bivvied). But our choice of route worked out quite well – we climbed up in the trough formed next to an ice wall which rose with the glacier to a point where the wall petered out and we could gain access onto the level glacier bowl. We could then see that the bottom section of the ridge comprised a couple of small rock and ice peaks, but that a more prominent ice wall going across the middle part of the glacier also had a ramp that would give access to the upper glacier right next to the ridge. From there it appeared that it would be possible to climb the highest rock and ice peak on the ridge (5 651 m) and also gain access to the ice peak (5 916 m) at the top of the ridge.

We got onto the ramp quite easily and walked up it – for the most part on beautiful clean ice but with a few penitentes and a light covering of powder snow. But in the bowl formed at the top the conditions changed and we got into trouble having to forge a track through deep powder snow.

Bivouac below the ridge coming down from Aguja Yacuma

Setting off to climb from the Aguja Yacuma bivvy

A little further on we stopped for lunch in a now quite heavily crevassed part of the glacier. Looking through the binoculars we could see Andy Hackland and Derek on Ancohuma and Andy Wood, Hennie Niemand and Ross Suter on the steep southwest snow face of Viluyo II. Three people that we saw on Jankhopiti we discovered later were the Austrians from basecamp.

It had turned out to be a good day for climbing, but again with a considerable build-up of cloud in the afternoon. After lunch we pushed on through more powder snow to get onto a big ice bridge giving us access through a crevasse field to a col on our ridge. This worked out well enabling us to climb the fairly short west ridge of our peak – working our way up through ice penitentes between massive granite blocks. At a point we took off our crampons, left our axes and scrambled up the last few metres to the summit on superb granite. This peak (5 651 m) was an absolutely incredible viewpoint where you looked straight onto the spectacular faces of Illampu and Pico del Norte to the northwest and the full ridge of the Aguja Yacuma summits stretching down to Ancohuma. Further round we could see all the Jankhopiti summits to the south and the full range of the Vilujos to the east. Sitting on the summit drinking all this in, we were startled to hear people shouting and looking up could see five climbers silhouetted against the sky on Illampu’s summit ridge. Stranger still, a while later it didn’t seem that they had moved, and we could hear someone playing what sounded like a bugle – when we talked about this later in basecamp, it seemed most likely that this must have been the first party of Austrians. We retraced our route (at 16:30 the Illampu party had still not moved away from where we saw them) and went back down the glacier, now in quite thick mist which had risen from the valley below. We followed a lower line to get off the glacier and cross the bridge, bringing us out closer to our bivvy where we planned to overnight again. After supper the clouds built up even more and later in the night it snowed heavily again – a good testing ground for our bivvy bags !

Thursday 18 July

Not a very bright start to the day with an icy wind blowing spindrift around and everything in the bivvy buried under the new snow. We eventually surfaced with a rather feeble sun dodging the clouds lower down the valley and got a brew going on the MSR. This improved our immediate situation, but we could see lots of spindrift being blown around on the ridge above us and reckoned that there must be a strong wind blowing on the glacier. This dissuaded us from following our original plan of perhaps doing another climb and instead we slowly packed up in preparation to return to basecamp. We left our bivvy at 11:00 and made an easy descent down the moraine back to the boulders where we had started looking for shelter on our subcamp's first evening. We took our time going back across the high traverse enjoying the views and taking a few photos before there was a little more excitement for us descending the scramble which was covered in fresh snow.

Back in basecamp we were delighted to hear that Ulrike and Herman had returned from a successful climb on Illampu. Chatting over lunch, they told us that they had been away for six days with only one of those on the actual climb (Monday 15 July). Mike Schaff and Lars Strydom hadn’t attempted the climb, but Neil McQueen and Daniel Ryding had climbed the 400 m ice face with them to get to the summit ridge, with Neil and Ulrike continuing to the summit. The descent down the climb had been made a whole lot easier because they were able to use fixed ropes that a Chilean party had put up.

By now the weather had really clagged in again – basecamp was cold and miserable. Clive and John Grindley had left basecamp earlier to try to climb Janhopiti I and Andy Wood and Ross Suter had set off after lunch planning to have a go at San Pablo. Steve , Cathy and Phillip came back from their Ancohuma subcamp without doing any climbing because of the lousy weather.

I spent the afternoon unpacking after our subcamp and also updated my diary. Mike Schaff cooked a pot roast of a sheep that Neil McQueen and Daniel Ryding had brought back from their Illampu climb which turned out to be a veritable feast. We were delighted when the weather cleared in the evening – this was the first really clear night with a good moon that we had enjoyed for ages. Taking advantage of this, I tried again to take a night photograph of our camp.

Night photo of the Laguna Negra basecamp in moonlight

Friday 19 July

This, our last day in basecamp was spent packing up and getting ready for the walk out back to Mina Candelaria on Saturday. That meant a final wash, packing personal gear and then the major task of Ant sorting out the remaining food into what we would need going out and the balance that we would have to distribute – fortuitously a party of two Bavarian/Austrian climbers and a French party were only too delighted to purchase some of this surplus from us. We would similarly have to arrange for some 80 litres of petrol to be taken out on the llamas.

After a good lunch of bread which Ulrike had made, we collected all the rubbish together and sorted it into that which we could burn, the compostable stuff buried in a couple of deep holes that were dug on the hill on the south side of basecamp and all the tins, foil and other stuff that would not decompose taken out with us. Before lunch I walked across and climbed the small hill above the Randburg part of our camp and spent ten minutes there just drinking in the peaceful scene of what had been a very happy camp for us all, with the quiet dark waters of Laguna Negra behind.

Andy and Ross arrived back from their subcamp, very pleased with themselves after doing a good climb on San Pablo. Hennie had also gone out early and had soloed Viluyo I and II. Despite all our activity in basecamp we were not very warm. It was a cool day and definitely not a day for bathing ! In the latish afternoon Lorenzo arrived with his llamas and a big entourage of arrieros, Garth’s food tent being cleared out to make room for some of them to sleep. A last big get together in the communal shelter for supper, finishing off the last of Neil and Daniel’s sheep – a fitting last basecamp meal and good company, some snow spattering down on us during the evening and certainly a great deal more being deposited higher up on the glaciers.

Saturday 20 July

This was the day for finally packing up basecamp and walking out to Mina Candelaria. We made an early start and after breakfast started striking the tents and finished making up the llama loads. There were about 60 llamas that had been brought up to basecamp and and quite early on Lorenzo expressed his concern that there was too much baggage to be loaded onto them. It was a long process loading the llamas, but in the end everything was completed with the exception of three large sacks of rubbish which we finally agreed Lorenzo should take out on a subsequent trip. This was confirmed with the Bavarian/Austrian party with whom we have had quite a lot of contact. Herman organised closing up the now empty rubbish pits and the top loo, Phillip Lloyd dismantled the communal shelter and we ceremoniously lowered the expedition flag. At about 12:00 all the llamas were away and we shouldered our own packs and bid a final rather sad farewell to our Laguna Negra campsite – taking away fond memories of the good times we had spent there. A slow start walking out behind the llamas on the long ascent to the nek above our valley, but we were able to pass them on the traverse beyond. In a completely different state of fitness and acclimatisation from when we had come into basecamp, walking was now a sheer pleasure. What did strike us all, was the astonishing difference in the state of the path going in to Laguna Negra – the path showed an enormous amount of wear had taken place during the time we had been in the mountains. Particularly the steep sections of the path going down to Cocoyo were really badly worn. We met up with most of the others at the stream and then walked the last short section into Cocoyo with the mist just starting to creep up the valley from below.

Entering the village we spent time enjoying watching the villagers going about the normal activities of their lives – we even came across one of the women panning for gold next to one of the streams close to the village. We congregated outside the village shop to enjoy fresh pan and our first cerveza for quite a long time – this eliciting plenty of interest among the village children. After some negotiation we managed to organise a lift up to Mina Candelaria on a landcruiser (for 100 Bolivianos each) rather than having to finish our day with the horribly steep walk up to the mine – an impressive ride with the landcruiser having to reverse to negotiate the many hairpin bends and elsewhere having to climb over the rocky debris from the many landslides along the way. The American Kurt came up with us - he said he intended to fly the parapent he had with him from the Chuchu pass down to Sorata.

At Mina Candelaria we found that some of the llamas had already arrived so we got ourselves organised while we waited for the rest to come in. The mine was now looking far more organised than when we had passed through on our way up into the mountains – many of the buildings had been re-thatched and were now obviously occupied with the mine back in operation. When Lorenzo arrived we got our boxes out of the room where they had been stored and started repacking our equipment from the balsas into the boxes.

We had expected Armando and Jimmy from the Club Andino to meet us at the mine with the transport we had arranged to get back to La Paz, but they didn’t arrive. We enjoyed a good communal supper of tuna and noodles and then settled down for the night in our bivvy bags.

Sunday 21 July

We were somewhat concerned when we got up in the morning because the Club Andino vehicles had still not arrived. Still waiting, we sat down to a desultory breakfast, then just as we were arranging to get the Landcruiser off with as much of the baggage as possible (with Andy Wood and Eckart accompanying it), Jimmy and Victor arrived with the Chev Silverado and one minibus. Jimmy explained that the previous evening the Club Andino had been commissioned to transport some 60 delegates attending the Pan American Congress on mountain rescue and they had consequently only been able to drive as far as Sorata and sleep there on their return journey to pick us up. They had left Sorata at 03:00 to get to Mina Candelaria to collect us as early as possible. We finalised all the packing and loaded the vehicles based on Jimmy’s advice that the Club Andino would be prepared to take over all our excess food and fuel and any equipment we might like to sell and that the items to be taken over by the Club Andino would be left at Mina Candelaria. With this arrangement and after listing and reaching agreement on payment, it was a whole lot simpler task to pack all the items we would be taking with us into the boxes and to load these onto the vehicles. After a last sad farewell to Lorenzo and Raoul who had contributed so much to the success of our expedition, we split up our group between the three vehicles (the Silverado, minibus and Landcruiser) and left Mina Candelaria at about 11:30. Now returning along the section of the road we had previously driven in the dark, we could fully appreciate the steepness of the terrain. After the last quite moving glimpses of the snow clad peaks we had come to know so well, we crested the first pass (4 600 m) and started the long descent to Ancoma. I was driving in the Silverado and was quite impressed that it coped quite easily with the steep gradients and the roughness of the road, though it did have to reverse several times at the sharper hairpin bends. The minibus seemed to cope quite well with the steep sections of the road too, but often scraped its underbody due to its lower clearance. Eckart who was travelling in the Landcruiser, later told us that the driver was quite a bolshie character insisting that the American Kurt (who was also with us), should sit on top of the cab with his hang glider, rather than sitting inside with the other passengers.

On approaching Ancoma, we came across several places where rocks had again been rolled into the road and expected that we might experience problems similar to those we had previously experienced with the locals, but were relieved to find that this time they seemed a whole lot friendlier (possibly because many of them in the town were watching a local soccer match that was in progress) and there were no problems going through the town. Leaving Ancoma we started climbing again to go over the Chuchu pass (from which we could see the valley Hermann’s party had walked up on their way to climb Illampu). At the top of the pass, just as we were starting the descent, we came across Kurt running after the Landcruiser – it seemed the driver was again messing him around after stopping to let him out and offload his hang glider. He said he intended flying down to Sorata (we never did see whether he had managed to complete his flight, but Victor later said someone had seen him trudging down the pass towards Sorata with the hang glider on his shoulders). To be sure that he would be able to pick up the baggage he had left with us, we dropped it all off at the Hotel Copacabana in Sorata.

After completing the long descent driving down the pass, after the minibus had to change a flat tyre and the Silverado experienced battery problems, we arrived in the town at 16:30 (about a five hour drive from Mina Candelaria). Jimmy stopped at the Grand Hotel again – this time we said we wanted to eat for a reduced price of 10 Bolivianos, but after a long wait for the food, when it did finally arrive the helpings were very meagre. Certainly not good value !

Then we climbed back into the vehicles and started the tedious climb out of Sorata to reach the altiplano, a seemingly interminable part of the journey, but after that much easier driving to reach the main road and go on to La Paz. We arrived at the Milton at about 11:00 and after offloading our baggage, fell into the shower and very welcome beds after midnight.

Monday 22 July

I woke with the sun streaming into the room and bought some naartjies and bananas which I had for breakfast followed by a substantial omelette. After washing my critical clothes I tried to phone Peter Iseli, but without success as he had gone to the airport. However after changing money and buying some presents for the family, I did manage to speak to him making an arrangement to meet him at 19:45 at the hotel for the farewell function in the evening. I then walked to the American Consulate to meet my diplomatic friends, Roger and Dalene Daley and had a really pleasant relaxed lunch with them at the Plaza hotel’s rooftop restaurant. Lots to talk about since we last met with them in Istanbul. Going back to the Milton, Roger arranged with the driver to drop me off at the imposing and very beautiful Plaza de Murillo, after which I dropped the presents I had bought at the hotel and then, picking up my rucksack and camera, set out to look for the Inca gold exhibition at the museum in the Casa de Murillo, but unfortunately found it was already closed. After changing some more money I walked home through the San Francisco Arcade and Sagarnaga Street where I bought myself another alpaca jersey. Back at the hotel I was moved when Phillip Lloyd gave me the Miseli “La Cordillera Real de los Andes” climbing guidebook as a special thankyou gift from Steve, Cathy, Nick, Andy Hackland and himself for the organising of the expedition.

After scratching around to raise some MCSA ties from the expedition members we met Peter Iseli and his wife Elizabeth with the others and all walked down to the Casa del Corregidor restaurant in the calle Murillo where everyone had forgathered (39 out of 41 of us from the expedition – only the Kendal brothers had already moved on to Peru), together with Armando Monasterias and Janine Varela from the Club Andino and Peter Iseli. Sadly Huascar Pacheco from the Club Andino had to pass on his apologies as he was unable to attend. The evening at the restaurant to wind up the expedition was a fantastic and hugely successful finale, excellent (and reasonably priced) food and wonderful folklorical music played by two musical groups (Ross, Steve, Cathy and Andy Wood especially expressive in the appreciation of the music). When the music was finished, to thank the Club Andino, we presented Armando and Janine with MCSA Club badges, ties and copies of the journal together with the MCSA Centenary flag and a duvet each (plus one for Huascar). We similarly called Peter Iseli up and presented him with an MCSA tie and journal. It was another touching moment for me when Merv Prior stood up and thanked me on behalf of everyone. The evening a fitting culmination of the expedition proceedings.

A rather scruffy bunch arriving back in Cape Town

Map of the peaks in the Ancohuma/Illampu region of the Cordillera Real

Members of the 1991 Bolivia Centenary Expedition

Name MCSA Section Name MCSA Section

Ken Biesheuvel Transvaal Hennie Niemand Tygerberg

Michael Byrd Transvaal Cathy O'Dowd Transvaal

Mike de Wet Cape Town Merv Prior Transvaal

Ansa du Toit Free State Denis Quaife Transvaal

Jane Futter Eastern Cape Daniel Ryding Natal

Nick Good Cape Town Michael Schaff Cape Town

Dermot Gordon-Graham Cape Town Andre' Schoon Cape Town

John Grindley Cape Town Molly Smit Free State

Andrew Hackland Cape Town Anthony Smith Cape Town

Garth Hattingh Cape Town Lars Strydom Eastern Cape

Chris Jones Eastern Cape Ross Suter Cape Town

Andrew Kendall Transvaal Anthony van Tonder Natal

Roy Kendall Transvaal Hermann Vogl Transvaal

Craig Kenmuir Cape Town Eckart von Delft Stellenbosch

Stephen Kelsey Transvaal Derek Ward Non Member

Ulrike Kiefer Transvaal Geoff Ward Cape Town

Phillip Lloyd Cape Town Terry White Transvaal

Clive Louw Cape Town Sue White Transvaal

Adele McCann Cape Town Andrew Wood Cape Town

Neil McQueen Natal Graham Whittaker Non Member