Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Join The Blogging Post as we head around-the-world with our friends Drew & Erin. They’ll be sending us regular dispatches and updates from around, across, and all over the globe. This is their fourth and final post from Peru…

Finale in the Cordillera Blanca

Our adventures in South America started in the mountains of Patagonia. It is only fitting that three months later our adventures in South America culminate with a return to the mountains. After a long, windy, and fascinating road trip from the Southern Cone all the way north through Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and finally Peru, I was quite excited for our return to big peaks, this time in the Cordillera Blanca of central Peru.



I am a mountain person. I love the mountains. I feel most alive, excited, and in my element when I am in the mountains. So it was with great anticipation and joy that we arrived in Huaraz, the gateway to the peaks of the Cordillera Blanca.

Santa Cruz Trek

Our first foray into the Cordillera Blanca was the Santa Cruz Trek, a world-renowned four-day, point-to-point backpacking trip. The trek is a gorgeous hike through two dramatic mountains valleys, the Quebrada Santa Cruz and the Quebrada Huaripampa, and the high Punta Union pass that links them at a height of over 15,600 feet. The Cordillera Blanca is a particularly picturesque range with aesthetically shaped peaks, striking faces, and lots of active glaciers. The mountain views were as dramatic as any we have seen on the whole trip. Unfortunately, this secret is out, though, and we shared the trail with many other users, including lots of large groups with their supporting guides, porters, and donkeys.

We actually knew going in that this trek is one of the most popular in Peru so we were well prepared for what we saw and, in the end, very satisfied with our experience. But our experience reiterated a common theme of our trip, which is that we are very fortunate in the United States to have wilderness areas and national parks that are preserved as well as they are. The valleys of the Santa Cruz Trek sit within Huascaran National Park and are supposedly protected, but they face a huge impact from both trail users and locals. The large groups on the trekking route leave a large trace in terms of litter and human waste. And the local farmers raise and graze a wide range of animals in the valleys that have a big impact of their own. Indeed, at some of our campsites, we shared our space with cows, horses, donkeys, chickens, and dogs. It was quite the animal farm.

Despite the large impacts and heavy trail use, the Santa Cruz Trek remains a Peruvian national treasure. Its gorgeous mountains and jade-green lakes are world class in terms of beauty. And for those seeking a more private backcountry experience, the Cordillera Blanca has lots of other less heralded but equally spectacular areas to explore.

After our joint backcountry trip, Erin and I split up and headed our separate ways for the first time on the trip. She had made contacts in a small local village with some Peace Corps volunteers with whom she wanted to write a final e-book about their community for her Global Library project, which I explained in my last post. I was off for a final adventure of my own.

Climbing Mount Pisco

Another traveler I’d met in Patagonia had given me the beta on a big peak called Mount Pisco that he had climbed. I was intrigued by the idea and asked around for some details. I made friends with a Peruvian trekking guide named Lucho who owned and ran the lodge in which we were staying. He said he was interested in climbing Pisco also, and we decided to combine forces and tackle the mountain together.

Mount Pisco stands at 18,887 feet and was probably the most challenging - and definitely the highest – mountain climb of my life so far. Pisco is a beautiful, glacier-clad mountain that sits in the heart of the Cordillera Blanca with a ring of other even mightier and more stunning peaks surrounding it in all directions. The climb itself was generally straightforward but entailed glacier travel and a pitch of more technical climbing on a snow and ice slope to the summit at just under 19,000 feet. It was the perfect level of challenge and reward.

The first day of the two-day climb consisted of a three-hour hike up to the base camp and then an additional few hours of picking our way across a large moraine to reach the advanced moraine camp. By early afternoon, we had reached the high camp for an afternoon of rest, hydration, and preparation for our summit day. The high camp sits at 4,900 meters, or just over 16,000 feet. It is the highest altitude at which I have ever camped, and I could tell. I had a pounding headache and felt a general sense of malaise from the altitude. I chugged water profusely, took an aspirin for my headache, and laid down for a rest in the late afternoon in hopes of feeling better.

By evening I was back on my feet and felt significantly better - no headache. We cooked an early pasta dinner and went to bed by 7:30 PM, knowing we had an early alarm and a big day ahead of us. Before settling in for the night, I spent some time gazing across the valley under the light of a near-full moon and a cloudy sky, reflecting on the situation and feeling confident that things would go well the next day.

We woke early and started to climb by 3 AM. After a half hour more of walking on the moraine, we reached the foot of the glacier and donned our glacier gear - crampons and ice axes - and roped up. It was the night before a full moon so for a while - until the moon set behind a nearby peak - we did not even need headlamps with the bright moonlight illuminating the white snow and ice under foot.

The climb generally consisted of a glacier walk over varying degrees of slopes. There were a countless number of rises along the walk that would max out at around 45 or 50 degrees for a stretch and then level off, then steepen again and then more level. On and on, one step at a time, gradually higher we walked.

At about the halfway mark - two hours into the ascent - the altitude really started to take its toll on me. I could tell I was in new territory as far as altitude goes. I had a constant headache and a feeling of mental haziness and ill health. I just kept thinking I wanted to get up to the top as soon as I could and then get down again. Although I felt ill, never was the summit in doubt, and I always felt we would make it. Gradually, we got closer to our goal, and the sun rose, creating amazing lighting situations in the alpine world around us.

The climbing itself also got more interesting towards the end. The final three rises were steeper than the others, and the final slope in particular provided a special challenge. The last slope is a 50-foot pitch of gradually increasing angle to the summit. It probably maxes out at 65 or 70 degrees, which is pretty steep, albeit not fully vertical. The slope was a mix of snow and ice, and as I reached the middle of the slope, it was necessary to change the use of the ice ax to an ice climbing function. It was necessary to swing the ice ax overhead, set it in the slope, move my feet up by front pointing my crampons into the ice, and then repeat the process. I have been ice climbing before so I knew what to do, and it was not too challenging of a slope. But at an altitude just under 19,000 feet, it added a degree of challenge and interest to the climb that was absolutely perfect.

The best thing is that once we reached the top of that pitch, we were on the summit and surrounded by an amazing vista of white-capped peaks. Across a valley in one direction were the dual summits of Huascaran - the highest peak in Peru; in another was Alpamayo - a picture-perfect peak once proclaimed as the most beautiful mountain in the world. And in every other direction was one after another of stunning, glacier-clad 20,000-foot peaks - Chacraraju, Chopicalqui, Huandoy, Artesonraju, Caraz, Santa Cruz, and others. It was awesome! To tell you the truth, though, I still felt pretty terrible and was eager to start heading down.

Lucho and I rappelled off the summit to avoid down climbing the steep last pitch; our guide belayed us and then down climbed it. Then we were off, and the walk down was much more enjoyable than the climb up. For one, going downhill was much easier. And two, the sun was up so we could take in the outstanding scenery all around us, and the dawn of a clear, beautiful day in the mountains. Also, as we descended, I gradually felt better and could enjoy the experience more with each step.

In the daylight, we got a much better view of all the incredible snow and ice formations through which we were walking. We could also view and peer into the huge crevasses and snow bridges that crossed our paths. Eventually, we were all the way down to the foot of the glacier, and the climb was done. We had made it in good time and good style. The climb up from base camp to summit took four and a half hours and the descent two and a half hours - seven hours in total.

Because my time in Peru was short, we had to head all the way down in the same day - walk back to camp, pack up, and hike a further four hours down to the road. It was an incredibly long day, and my body was taxed, but I haven’t been this excited about an accomplishment in a long time. It was literally the perfect culmination to an incredible year.

Now we are headed home. A year of travel around the world behind us. A return to the U.S., our families and friends, and our futures ahead of us. I am as excited to go home as I was to embark on this trip. I will give you my closing thoughts on my final post.

PHOTOS

Photo #1 – Animal Farm on Santa Cruz Trek
Photo #2 – Camping Under Taulliraju
Photo #3 – Mount Pisco
Photo #4 – The Ascent
Photo #5 – The Final Pitch
Photo #6 – Looking Back Up the Route