by: Ulrike Kiefer
The Cordillera Blanca, one of the few high ice-clad regions within the tropics,
exceeds the mountains of Africa, Ecuador, Colombia and New Guinea in altitude
and extent, and is much more extensively ice-covered than other high Andean
mountains - including Aconcagua. She is home still to the condor, vicuna and
viscacha and testimony to ancient, once flourishing civilisations. The range
of peaks stretch North-south between the Rio Santa Valley in the west and the
low hills to the east, which eventually drop down to the Amazon basin, and includes
over two hundred summits above 5000m. Today, most of the Blanca is included
in the Parque Nacional Huascaran which serves to protect the mountain environment
and to regulate the number of visitors to the most popular valleys.
Four climbers from South Africa, Ian Slatem, Andrew Hoy, Andreas - my son - and myself went there in July 2003 to savour the views of fluted ice faces and delicately corniced snow ridges, to meet a colourful and friendly people and to climb some of the peaks. Our main objective was Alpamayo, the gem of the region, by some called “the most beautiful peak in the world”.
After spending some 14 hours in planes, a short night in Sao Paolo, about half an hour in Lima and one day in Huaraz to do our shopping, we were on our way to the Ishinca valley. We hoped to acclimatise there on some not too technical peaks. A four hour walk along the Rio Ishinca through forests of gnarled, papery-barked qenwa-trees and open alpine meadows brought us to base camp (4300m), a wide basin surrounded by snowy peaks. We were lucky to find a camp place next to a rock-overhang, which provided very welcome shelter during the rains that came down on us every afternoon. We took our acclimatisation programme quite serious and so walked up to Ishinca hut (5000m) the very first day, despite low clouds and lots of drizzle. The weather seemed to follow the same pattern every day: fine in the morning, cloudy by lunchtime, rain in the afternoon. We therefor set off for Urus (5495m) very early, walking up the ridge and snow-covered boulders in the dark. Not knowing what the climb would be like, we had carried a rope most of the way, but when reaching the glacier high up, we left it behind not expecting difficulties on the last stretch. A steep ice slope and a few tricky moves on rock later, we were all sitting on our first Peruvian peak, a tiny platform, hardly big enough for all of us.
The other obvious acclimatisation peak in this valley is Ishinca (5530m). To add a bit of spice to this otherwise straight-forward peak we decided to sleep twice in the vicinity of Ishinca hut at 5000m, to get our bodies used to altitude, and to do a traverse of the peak. Ian had better things in mind. A German girl, Kathy, had joined up with us and the two wanted to try Ranrapalca (6162m). While Andrew, Andreas and myself had a pleasant day crossing Ishinca, Ian and Kathy were dodging crevasses and finally had to retreat below a steep rock band.
After a week at Ishinca we went back to Huaraz to eat, wash and stock up on provisions. We didn’t waste much time in town, hardly more than a day and we were already in a minibus on the way to Caraz, the stopover for Alpamayo. From there it’s a steep drive up to Cashapampa, the starting point of the popular Santa Cruz Trek. We followed this route for one and a half days, at first steep up the southern slopes of the gorge, then more gently following a clear stream to two beautiful lakes, until we had to turn off North. A steep path led us up the Quebrada Arhuaycocha to Alpamayo base camp, the last green spot below moraines and glaciers. We stopped there only for a quick lunch and to repack and then continued up to moraine camp at the edge of the glacier, an inhospitable and cold camp. The following day we packed gear and food and brought this up to high camp, about three to four hours away. The route follows the gentle slopes of the glacier, avoids a few crevasses and only steepens up the last hundred meter below the col. High camp is placed on a big snow platform, a little way down the other side of the col, offering stunning views of Alpamayo’s photogenic SW face and the similarly attractive Quitaraju. Our intended route, the Ferrari or Italian route, was clearly visible; we were becoming excited.
Back at our moraine camp Andrew decided that Alpamayo would be too hard for him and offered to guard our camp while we were climbing. As Kathy had joined us again this caused no problem; we were still two parties of two. We left moraine camp early the next morning to have a good rest at high camp and to have time for melting water and attending to final adjustments of gear. All afternoon our eyes were fixed on Alpamayo’s impressive fluted SW face as we followed the route we were going to take the next day. The evening sun lit up the mountains around us and painted them pink as we went into our sleeping bags for a short night. The alarm went off at 2am, by 3am we were walking, first a little down to cross a basin, then up the lower snow slopes of Alpamayo, bypassing a few crevasses, to the bergschrund. Ian set off first with Kathy on the other end of his rope, then Andreas followed with me in tow. Getting across the bergschrund was quite tricky past lots of unstable icicles and hollow, sugary ice, followed by some very steep and hard ice to the first stance on the face proper. After that it became a bit easier. Four pitches of about 60deg on good solid ice followed, the fifth one being a bit steeper. A last short pitch traversed below a huge ice cornice to a gap, which led to the top, or what is being accepted as top. The very top is so corniced and overhung that it is generally avoided. A strong, bitterly cold wind made us leave very quickly. On the way down our rope jammed on the first abseil and Ian had to prussic up to free it. The rest went smoothly and by lunchtime we were back at the tents enjoying the sunshine. I had been bitterly cold during the climb and needed all afternoon to warm up again. On Alpamayo the sun never touches the face until late afternoon, by then everyone is well off the climb.
When we reached the bottom of the Santa Cruz Valley we learned that three days after we had climbed the huge ice cornice on top broke off killing nine climbers below. How easily could that have happened three days earlier, while we were not only climbing the very same route but also messing around for a long time with our stuck rope.
We recovered for a day in Caraz, doing some washing and shopping, and then boarded a collectivo to Musho, the starting point for Huascaran, with 6768m the highest peak in Peru. For a few hours the path leads gently first through Eucalyptus, then indigenous forest and later steeply over smooth granite slabs to moraine camp close to a refugio. That night I caught a stomach bug, or better it caught me. For some 36 hours I was completely out of action. Andreas stayed with me; Ian and Andrew went on for what seemed a straightforward climb in perfect weather and snow conditions. When I felt strong enough again to walk off the mountain, Andreas and I left, totally oblivious to what was happening above us.
As we climbed off the taxi in Huaraz, two Peruvian mountaineers approached us and asked whether we were from South Africa. Rather surprised we answered “yes”. They then asked whether we were friends of Ian and Andrew. Even more surprised we answered again “yes”. They now told us that they had been on a rescue operation on Huascaran, evacuating Ian and Andrew. They had fallen into a crevasse and Ian had broken his legs. More they did not know. Andreas and I were now trying to find Ian, but our limited knowledge of Spanish made this quite a difficult task. We happened to meet Kathy again and with the help of her friend, who spoke fluent Spanish, eventually found Ian in a hospital in Huaraz, propped up in his bed and smiling. And happy to tell us his story. He and Andrew were on the way to the col between South and North summits of Huascaran when Andrew broke through a snow bridge that Ian had just crossed before him. Ian could hold his fall to some extent, but then his anchor pulled out and Ian followed Andrew in a free fall some 22m down onto an ice bridge. Andrew only suffered bruises, but Ian two broken legs and a fractured hip. Luckily for them, two locals were sitting close by having a rest and watched everything happen. And luckily again, some Austrian mountain-guides were in calling distance and came rushing to help when the locals shouted to them. They got Ian and Andrew out in short time. From there the Peruvian Mountain rescue and the police took over. Ian was full of praise about the efficiency and competency of his rescuers. A helicopter took them from the refugio to Caraz, an ambulance to the hospital in Huaraz and then the next day to Lima. The South African embassy in Lima went out of their way to help and to make the return to South Africa for Ian as painless as possible, but he still landed up having to travel back with us due to insufficient insurance. That meant being lifted from bed to wheelchair, to seats in planes, again to wheelchairs and into busses, to hotel beds in Sao Paolo and back into wheelchairs and planes. He endured all this without even one complaint.
As I write this - three month later - Ian is still depending on crutches to
move around, but he is determined to return to Peru next year - simply because
it is such a beautiful country.