Alpamayo, mi amor...

August 27, 9:20am- 19,300+ ft:

At this elevation, removing the ice screw that Rolfe placed for protection is taking an inordinate amount of concentration. Slowly the screw turns, and the runner attached to it twists into a tight wad which I periodically have to let unwind. Rolfe snaps me out of my stupor with this casual statement- "She's creaking, we had best get a move on." I look up at the multi-ton slug of snow overhanging the ice runnel that we are climbing, and removing the screw suddenly becomes much easier...

August 24, 11:00am- 7 chicas, 4 chicos & 3 gringos in the back of a truck on the dusty road to Cashapampa:

After a 1.5 hour ride in the disco colectivo from Huaraz to Caraz (late 70s all the way!), Rolfe, Rick and I have landed in the back of a truck with 7 girls and 4 guys in their late teens/twentys on their way up to the hot springs pool near Cashapampa. The most beutiful and gregarious of the girls quickly steers the conversation to Peruvian/Gringo relationships, and an hour of flirtatious (and likely mis-interpreted) banter ensued. Upon finding out that one of the girls had a husband named Marco, my comment that she must be my long-lost wife brought a hearty round of laughter. We were also introduced to one of the 700 (or is that 7000?) varieties of potato not available in the US- it had the texture of a potato and the taste of a pear- yum! The wiles of the young women were not strong enough to deter us from our other love, and primary objective, Alpamayo- and so with a peck on the cheek and a wave goodbye we once again headed up the trail from Cashapampa with our trusty arriero Augustino and three mules packed to the hilt with climbing and camping gear.

August 25, 7:00am- Llamacorral:

Augustino is obviously not impressed with our oatmeal; nor with the freeze dried dinner of the night before. No doubt he would much rather be dining on comida de Luciano, but a cook wasn't in the cards this time, and so he graciously accepts the food we offer and says "Yum, that's great!". After washing the oatmeal down with some tea, we head up the trail and reach Alpamayo base camp by noon. Augostino unloads the mules, and we split the group gear and have a relaxing lunch, trying not to think of the arduous trek up the hill to moraine camp. After lunch we bid Augustino adieu with 3 days pay, stash our extra gear behind a boulder, and our love/hate relationship with Alpamayo begins in ernest- mostly hate at this point. Hauling our heavy packs up the steep, loose, rocky trail to moraine camp at 5000m (16,400ft) is pure hell. But we figure better hell now than hell tomorrow morning, which turns out to be a wise decision indeed. At 4:00pm we gratefully dump our packs at moraine camp, set up the Taj (my 3 person tent, aka Tajmahal), and glug copious amounts of water.

August 26, 9:30am - near Alpamayo/Quitaraju col:

After leaving moraine camp at 6:00am, Rolfe, Rick and I are roped for glacier travel, and we are making our way up the last steep pitch before the col (low point in the ridge) separating Alpamayo and Quitaraju. I have been dedicated as rope leader because my pace is the steadiest (read slowest), and now I find myself precariously perched mid way up a 50 degree pitch of snow. I look down between my legs at Rick and Rolfe, and I am thinking that this would not be a good time to fall. Rolfe offers to take the lead, but I am currently sandwiched between a serac (big hunk 'o ice) on the left and an even steeper snow slope on the right, and I decide that the switch would be more difficult than just continuing on. So I take a deep breath and continue upward. Gradually the slope eases off, and we reach the flat top of the col and drop our packs, taking a much needed rest and water break. After crossing a crevasse on a spooky thin snow bridge, we arrive at col camp (5300m; 17,400 ft) at 10:00am. After a short rest and conversation with two other Americans who just returned from attempting to climb Quitaraju (they were turned back because no one had climbed since the storm a few weeks ago, and they had to break trail), we set up camp, rested and melted snow.

August 27, 3:15am- col camp:

Damn! I forgot to turn on my alarm- we should have been up 45 minutes ago. A hurried frenzy ensues, and we are roped up and on our way by 4:00am. The first part of the climb is across the glacier leading up to the face of Alpamayo and the bergshrund (the topmost crevasse where the glacier separates from the snow above), and so I am in the lead again. At the first sign of steepening snow, I relinquish my lead to Rolfe, who charges up several steep snow slopes and over a crevasse, leaving Rick and I breathless just below the bergshrund. At this point we get out Ricks rope, and prepare to climb the last 7 pitches up the 50-70 degree snow and ice flute on two ropes with Rolfe leading and setting up the anchors, then belaying Rick and I simultaniously. After a brief rest Rolfe disappears over the bergshrund and up the first section of the flute. Ten minutes later Rick and I get the 3 tug signal that we are safe to climb, and we head up and over the bergshrund. Getting over the bergshrund is no small task, involving a high step over the crevasse followed by 10 feet of nearly vertical scrambling up snow. I make it over with one short fall, and Rick clears it easily, and then we look straight up the flute 350 meters (1000+ ft) to the summit of Alpamayo. Wow. Rolfe is 100 feet above us, encouraging us to continue on. And so we progress up the gradually steepening flute, one pitch at a time, and about the 5th pitch the conditions change from hard snow to ice. Which brings us to the aforementioned ice screw and snow slug.

Now the climbing is on 70 degree ice, but fortunately there have been many climbers here before us, leaving buckets and holes in the ice which we can hook our ice tools and crampon points into, rather than having to hack and kick our way up. This saves much energy and speeds our progress greatly. We reach Rolfe at the last belay anchor, and he quickly heads off for the summit ridge. Ten minutes later we hear whooping and hollering, and a resounding "On Belay!", and Rick and I head up past the snow slug into the now converging clouds and on to the summit ridge of Alpamayo. Wow. 5947m- 19,511ft. It is really hard to comprehend that we are on the summit ridge of Alpamayo. The actual summit is 10 to 20 feet higher than where we are at, but the traverse along the thin and corniced ridge is so dangerous that very few people consider it worth the risk to climb- us included. And so we take our summit photos, have a quick drink and snack, and then head back down the same route we just climbed.

The ropes are heavy, and I have a hard time rappelling because the rope is binding tightly in my belay device, so the going is slow, but we make it back down to the glacier with little event and head back towards camp. As we cross the glacier the clouds clear, and by the time we reach camp at 4:00pm it is a bright, clear day. Back at camp we get our first good views of the face of Alpamayo that we have just climbed, and it looks absolutely incredible. I can't believe that we just climbed it. Rolf, Rick and I take a group photo, then individual poses of triumph in front of the awesome face. Then rest, melt more water, soup for dinner and bed.

August 27, 10:30pm- col camp:

I awake in the night to relieve myself, and as I pear out over the dimly starlit glacier below col camp, my eyes start to burn. The pain increases as I return to the tent, and becomes so intense that I can not open my eyes and tears stream out as I am lying there. Snow blindness. I can't believe I was so stupid, after years of skiing in the bright light of Colorado winters, today I did not wear my sunglasses all day. And now I lie in the tent in pain at 5300 meters, conjuring up the worst case scenario: I can not climb down tomorrow, and a storm comes in and traps us here. I awake Rolfe and Rick, and inform them of my dilemma, and Rick gives me some aspirin to ease the pain. Other than that there is not much they can do. So I lie back down, and gradually the pain eases, and by morning it is bearable to open my eyes with my sun glasses on. No small miracle. As we pack my eyes gradually adjust to the light, the weather has held, and we are able to make it back over the col and down to morain camp by 10:00am. I have never been so happy to be off of a glacier in my life! After rest and lunch, Rolfe bids us adieu, as he has a bus to catch to Lima tonight, and then a plane to England, where he is interviewing for a position on an expedition to climb in Greenland. Rick and I rest for a while longer and then lug our packs (which seem to have doubled in weight over the past few hours) back down to base camp, where there is yet more gear awaiting our sore backs, hips and shoulders. We grudgingly split the extra gear, filter some water, and then stumble down to the camp at the main trail. The air seems exceptionally warm and thick even though we are still over 13,000 feet. We set up camp in the late afternoon and have some oatmeal and peanut butter crackers for dinner. All day my eyes have been feeling better, and now no pain impedes my plummet into sound sleep.

August 29, 8:00am- trail camp:

As much as I would like to, I can not sleep any more. Gradually Rick and I wake up and pack. At this point we are hoping for an empty mule train to pass by that we can load our packs on for a casual 12 mile stroll back to Cashapampa. But by 10:30 none have appeared, and some people heading down from the pass have informed us that there are none coming. So we don our now ridiculously heavy loads and start down the trail. Fortunately we got no further than 20 feet down the trail when we met an Arriero coming up the trail with two empty mules. After a brief discussion, we found out that he had a contract to pick up several other people coming off of Taulliraju, but then another Arriero appeared, and the first, Ronoldo, passed off his contract to the second, and Rick and I had two mules back to Cashapampa. Wooo Hooo!!! By noon the mules are loaded up and we are on our way. Even without packs, the long hike takes its toll, and we have to rest several times en route, but we finally make it to Cashapampa at 4:30pm. Fortunately there is a colectivo waiting to take us (and other locals) down to Caraz, and we eventually end up in the Thai restaurant in Huaraz at 9:30 pm for a great dinner, and then off to bed at the Hostal Quintana for a good nights sleep.

Which brings us to today, and now I have been hacking away at the keyboard for much to long. Rick is heading back to Lima tomorrow to catch a Friday flight to Dallas, and then hopefully a Saturday flight back to Denver. I will head up to the hot springs at Monterrey about 15 minutes out of town for some much needed R&R. I may get back here and hack out one more short diatribe before I leave-