After hanging in town for about two weeks with a few days sport climbing at Hatun Machay and bouldering near town, i am off again to Quebrada Ishinca for three days to climb a nine pitch rock climb, Karma de los Condores. i am going with Kelly Carbone who i know from Oakland, CA, and Alex from Brazil. it is a hard but safe rock climb, famed as the Astroman of Peru. we will see.
i´ll be back in town Tuesday afternoon.
-cj
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Chavin de Huantar
Spent a day at the ruins of Chavin de Huantar that are about 2 hours from Huaraz.
The ruins are Eguiptian aged, around 3,500 to 4,000 years old, some of the olderst in South America.
The ruins are Eguiptian aged, around 3,500 to 4,000 years old, some of the olderst in South America.
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| Chavin de Huantar |
Friday, August 15, 2008
Ranrapalca, The North Face
Twenty-two hours is how long it took to climb the North Face of Ranrapalca. Climbing Ranrapalca is representative of my new understanding of what it means to be an "alpinist".
The climb started with 4 days in the Quebrada Ishinca base camp (14,500 ft) waiting for the rain and snow to dissapate. On the 4th day we shuttled a load of gear to the Ranrapalca high camp (17,000 ft) and returned to base camp. On the 5th day we carried the last load to the high camp in the rain and set up a hopefull camp there. On the 6th day, the sky cleared to a miraculously blue cloudless sky! Wonderful. This day consisted of us sleeping in until 10 - eating, napping, eating some more, drinking fluids, scoping out the approach to the climb, more napping, eating, and reading. Went to bed at 6 to get up at 11 pm! all the sleep and eating the day before was to charge us for meager 5 hours of sleep before the climb. we left camp at 12:20am, started climbing the 3,000 ft wall in the dark at 1:30. with headlamps we simulclimbed through some easy 50 degree snow, hard rock, thin ice (JJK, the ice was rotten and about 2 inches thick over rock) to about the half way point when the sun came up. we sumilclimbed some more through more ice and snow to the middle snow finger you can see on the pics of the face. just then the sun hit the face around 8 or 9 and rock and ice started falling down the face but we were tucked safely in the snow couloir by then. buy this time i got really exhausted as i hadn't fully recovered from my previous Shaqsha climb and subsequent fever sickness. so i slowed us way down. at the top of the snow couloir i led over the final rock band, which was loose 5.9 at 20,000. holy cow, that was scary. we summitted at 2:30. our rack consisted of 2 screws, 2 pickets, 8 nuts, 4 cams, 1 hex, and 4 pitons, and we protected the climb with almost exclusively the rock gear. Boy, i don´t won´t climb an alpine climb without those lovely pitons (two KBs and 2 baby angles).
On the summit ridge we post holed in deep powder toward the decent route, the north east face. AFter two long rappels on rock the sun set. We did 4 rappels in the dark on snow from rap stations of two snow bollards, a picket which we left, and a screw. We left the picket and screw without hesitation. then we had to navigate through a heavily crevassed glacier for hours, finding our own way as we were the first party on the mountain after the most recent storm so there were no tracks anywhere. we arrived at our high camp around 10pm. our Argentinian friends were camped next to us and had hot tea for us. most of which i didnt enjoy as i just passed out in my tent. 22 hours round trip. holycow, i am still tired.
The climb started with 4 days in the Quebrada Ishinca base camp (14,500 ft) waiting for the rain and snow to dissapate. On the 4th day we shuttled a load of gear to the Ranrapalca high camp (17,000 ft) and returned to base camp. On the 5th day we carried the last load to the high camp in the rain and set up a hopefull camp there. On the 6th day, the sky cleared to a miraculously blue cloudless sky! Wonderful. This day consisted of us sleeping in until 10 - eating, napping, eating some more, drinking fluids, scoping out the approach to the climb, more napping, eating, and reading. Went to bed at 6 to get up at 11 pm! all the sleep and eating the day before was to charge us for meager 5 hours of sleep before the climb. we left camp at 12:20am, started climbing the 3,000 ft wall in the dark at 1:30. with headlamps we simulclimbed through some easy 50 degree snow, hard rock, thin ice (JJK, the ice was rotten and about 2 inches thick over rock) to about the half way point when the sun came up. we sumilclimbed some more through more ice and snow to the middle snow finger you can see on the pics of the face. just then the sun hit the face around 8 or 9 and rock and ice started falling down the face but we were tucked safely in the snow couloir by then. buy this time i got really exhausted as i hadn't fully recovered from my previous Shaqsha climb and subsequent fever sickness. so i slowed us way down. at the top of the snow couloir i led over the final rock band, which was loose 5.9 at 20,000. holy cow, that was scary. we summitted at 2:30. our rack consisted of 2 screws, 2 pickets, 8 nuts, 4 cams, 1 hex, and 4 pitons, and we protected the climb with almost exclusively the rock gear. Boy, i don´t won´t climb an alpine climb without those lovely pitons (two KBs and 2 baby angles).
On the summit ridge we post holed in deep powder toward the decent route, the north east face. AFter two long rappels on rock the sun set. We did 4 rappels in the dark on snow from rap stations of two snow bollards, a picket which we left, and a screw. We left the picket and screw without hesitation. then we had to navigate through a heavily crevassed glacier for hours, finding our own way as we were the first party on the mountain after the most recent storm so there were no tracks anywhere. we arrived at our high camp around 10pm. our Argentinian friends were camped next to us and had hot tea for us. most of which i didnt enjoy as i just passed out in my tent. 22 hours round trip. holycow, i am still tired.
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| Ranrapalca |
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Shaqsha
Shaqsha was, let´s say, a little rigorous. Arriving at the village of Huaripampa in the morning, my partners James (from Austalia), Kyle (from Seatle) and I were unable to locate any burros to carry our gear to mountain. Shaqsha is a rarely visited peak, so there is not a climber-friendly infrastructure like the other trail heads. but that is partially what drew us to the climb, the adventure of going to the mountains without burros, refugeos, other climbers, and a well warn trail through the snow to the summit.
The town Mayor or doctor (as identified based on being a well-dressed, charismatic guy in a leather jacket who knew everyone in town and certainly didn´t seem like a farmer) informed us that all the burros were being used for construction of a building outside of town. Soooo, we hiked the 7.5 hours to base camp with our heavy packs across country with no trails, burros, or people. then James and I woke at 2 in the morning the next day for the 13 hours summit push, Kyle was sick and didn´t join. We climbed for 13 hours with 4 hours used to decend the 6 pitch climb with only one rope. this meant i had to make about 4 additional V-thread rappel stations in the ice (see photo of one) and we had to downclimb about 5 pitches. it was exhausting but that is what we were looking for, a little adventure. It was a really nice climb up a beautiful southern arete that should be a classic, with steep snow of mostly 50 degrees but up to 80 degrees and some ice pitches up to about 70 degrees. in the pics, our line is the right most arete, it is the same line that is on the cover of the Brad Johnson Guidebook. after the climb, the next day, we had an exhausting 5.5 hour hike out along a aquiduct canal. i am destroyed, and taking two full days off in town doing nothing but reading, writting, eating, and lots of sleeping.
much amore para mi todos amigos,
-Chris
The town Mayor or doctor (as identified based on being a well-dressed, charismatic guy in a leather jacket who knew everyone in town and certainly didn´t seem like a farmer) informed us that all the burros were being used for construction of a building outside of town. Soooo, we hiked the 7.5 hours to base camp with our heavy packs across country with no trails, burros, or people. then James and I woke at 2 in the morning the next day for the 13 hours summit push, Kyle was sick and didn´t join. We climbed for 13 hours with 4 hours used to decend the 6 pitch climb with only one rope. this meant i had to make about 4 additional V-thread rappel stations in the ice (see photo of one) and we had to downclimb about 5 pitches. it was exhausting but that is what we were looking for, a little adventure. It was a really nice climb up a beautiful southern arete that should be a classic, with steep snow of mostly 50 degrees but up to 80 degrees and some ice pitches up to about 70 degrees. in the pics, our line is the right most arete, it is the same line that is on the cover of the Brad Johnson Guidebook. after the climb, the next day, we had an exhausting 5.5 hour hike out along a aquiduct canal. i am destroyed, and taking two full days off in town doing nothing but reading, writting, eating, and lots of sleeping.
much amore para mi todos amigos,
-Chris
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| Shaqsha |
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