6 day expedition: Huaraz: Cordillero Blanco

A 6 day climbing expedition in the Andes, beginning with 4 teachers, me, 2 guides and a cook and ending up with just me and the cook!  Then a day later I ended up in hospital for 5 days!  So what happened?

The aim was to climb Ishinca, then Urus and finally the big one: Tocllaraju, all from the same base camp.  Possibly a bit ambitious but Rommel, our guide was convinced we could do it.  However the weather was against us.  Every afternoon it poured at base camp and that meant snow on the mountain. SO much snow!!

I arrived in Huaraz (3100m)  3 days before as I had been at sea level for several weeks and knew I needed the extra time to acclimatize.  Rommel took me for a “gentle cycle” on mountain bikes.  Gentle? – my arse!   We went up to the top of the hill overlooking the town on very steep roads.  So steep that at times I had to get off and push my bike because I found myself going backwards!  The second half the ride was on a track that was akin to a dry creek bed!  However the views were worth the effort, plus it was good training.

Staring Monday morning, we walked about 14 km to the basecamp through beautiful scenery!  This time we had donkeys to carry the loads as the going was easy.

We were the only ones at the 4350m basecamp (not really a good sign! Why no other climbers?)  After setting up camp and preparing all our climbing gear, we had a hot meal and an early night in anticipation of our 2am start.


At 2am we headed off with the light of our headlamps. The going was pretty tough!  It took us over 4 hours to get to the glacier.  The last section before the glacier was climbing over rocks that were quite slippery and treacherous.  I had chosen to walk that far in my trekking boots and change to plastic boots when on the glacier.  It was a good decision as those in plastic boots really suffered!

Once on the glacier we roped up into two groups with a guide leading each then headed off towards the summit in deep soft, fresh snow. It was not easy and slow going as the snow was covering the crevasses.  This meant that Rommel, the leading guide, had to really carefully check every single step.  We had our ice axes at the ready in case someone fell.  Plus four on the rope made things safer. Luckily no one fell.

Even with Rommel breaking path we sank knee to thigh high in the snow and the snow stuck to our crampons, getting heavier and heavier so that every few steps we had to knock off the snow with our ice axes.

We made the top ridge of the glacier by 9am, which was far too late to attempt the next section to the summit.  Even if it was not too late, it was too hazardous as the next peak had many crevasses. Not a problem normally, as Rommel knew the route well, but this morning, everything was covered in fresh snow.

We did not feel too disappointed, as we had made it quite far to the top of the glacier, which was over 5000m.  Plus we were all pretty exhausted!

Heading down was even tougher, plus it began to snow. We seemed to sink even deeper and I kept falling over, losing my balance as I sank with each step.  It was steep and the danger of stepping into a crevasse was still very real.

By the time we got off the glacier, we were all pretty exhausted and we still had to negotiate the slippery ice covered boulder field, which was more trecherous going down than up. Finally we got to safe ground and took a break.

The rest of the walk down back into the valley was really wonderful, despite our exhaustion and we all made our way at our own pace – this time in daylight!

The plan was to summit Urus the next morning, but 3 of the guys decided they would not be able to make it.  One guy had terrible blisters from the plastic boots and I felt really sorry for him facing the 14 km walk back to Pashpa. I gave him my blister plasters and a pair of my double lined trekking socks. The three guys headed back down the next day.

Myself and one other guy were up for climbing Urus, although it was even steeper, it was not as far to the glacier. We dried out our gear then packed ready to go and went to bed, prepared for another 2am start. Unfortunately I did not sleep well and when I got up at 2am I most definitely had a fever.  I was gutted!  I was half tempted not to tell Rommel and attempt the climb!  I really wanted to climb so badly!  Then I had all sorts of weird thoughts about how fighting a virus can be tough on the heart if exerting oneself.  No idea if this is true, but in the end I told Rommel and he said most definitely he was not taking me up.  I crawled back into my tent, sobbing like a baby!  I woke up with a full on head cold and feeling like I’d been run over by a train.

Rommel and Cerial came back pretty late.  Cerial did not recover from the climb well and Rommel was concerned about him. The next day Cerial rested and Rommel and I walked up to the lake.  It was pretty amazing and not too taxing for my ailing body.

In the end Rommel took Cerial back down as he had not improved, and my little tent stood all alone at the basecamp.

Now it was just me and cook, Umberto! (Who by the way, was an excellent cook!)

The donkeys came the next day and Umberto and I headed back down.

One last look back at Tocclaraju which was to be my first over 6000m mountain – not this time baby, but I will be back!

Back in Huaraz I did not improve and the next day the fever came back along with a cough. I decided to go see a doctor and he promptly put me in hospital with bronchitis.  I was there 5 days on a drip with antibiotics and who knows what else, plus regular nebulizing. I developed an empathy with asthmatics. I also improved my Spanish! Rommel’s mother visited me twice a day – she is a real sweety!

The bronchitis really knocked me for six.  I took a very long time to recover and am still quite weak.  It will take a lot of hard work to get fit again. I suspect also the antibiotics have something to do with this.  I am sure they were meant for horses.