by Greig Stewart
On 23rd June fifteen members of the KZN Section together with the two Magaliesberg members set off on the track of the big Johannesburg contingent that was already in Bolivia. The youngest member of the party was Serge Wessels (18) on his first mountaineering trip, and the oldest, Iona Stewart (61). We started by hiking the pre-Columbian Taquesi Trail as an acclimatisation trip. We were particularly struck by the high standard of construction of the trail, much of it in perfect condition even after more than 500 years of use. With a view to using their methods in the 'Berg, notes were made on how these early silver and gold miners had built their trails.
Then back to La Paz along the scariest road one could wish to travel. The road clings to almost vertical mountainsides. The road was often barely wide enough for the bus in which we travelled. There is definitely no need for an ambulance service in that part of the world. Nothing could possibly survive an accident! Undoubtedly the most dangerous part of the expedition?
While six of the party went via Lake Titicaca to Peru to explore Inca trails, eleven of us set off for the principal objective of the expedition viz: to climb in the north western Cordillera Real. Base camp at Laguna Negra at 4600 meters is surrounded by snowy peaks, but more important, while not a national park, the area is effectively a wilderness area. We were the first expedition of the year and in ten days there, we saw only one other party.
When we left home I was quite sure that we would make it to the summit of at least one 6400 meter peak if not two. In the event, not a single member of the expedition got to the top of our main objective, Ancohuma (6443 meters) probably more correctly spelt Nevado Janq'uma (pronounced ANCUMA or ANCOOMA). Gavin Raubenheimer, Willem and Linda Daffue, Cesar De Carvalho, Serge Wessels and Charl Brümmer climbed Wilyuyu Janq'uma (5640 meters) from base camp and then a few days later Gavin, Willem, Linda and Cesar did a two-day ascent of Cerro Umajalanta (5723 meters). Meanwhile, after a rest day, Iona and I, Eric Penman and Brett Nicholson also attempted Wiluyu Janq'uma. Iona was unfortunately unable to take the extreme early morning cold and had to give up and return to camp after about two hours. It seems that her aging Meindl boots were simply inadequate for the conditions and it is impossible to climb over 800 meters elevation of scree in rigid plastic boots. In fact, cold feet, even in plastics were to plague Iona for the whole trip and effectively prevented her from attempting anything serious as she was for practical purposes confined to action when the sun was up. The rest of us got within about an hour of the summit when it began to snow and blow and we decided to retreat rather than get caught in white out conditions on a somewhat crevassed and very steep glacier.
Eric, Charl, Brett and I then decided to concentrate our efforts on Janq'uma (6443 meters). We tackled the mountain expedition style with two intermediate camps at about 5000 meters and 5600 meters. The second camp was in a snow crater on a huge ice field or glacier. We got there with heavy packs just as it was getting dark and had to dig snow shelves on which to pitch the tents. Not much fun as we were very tired and the snow so cold and dry it would not compact. Much to my surprise the tents were remarkably stable and snug despite the minus plenty conditions. We had followed a professional guide with two clients and two high altitude porters up to the camp. He was on his twenty-ninth ascent of the peak so we were grateful for his advice and knowledge of the best route up and across the ice field. We went to sleep surprisingly comfortably but very tired. Eric had not been feeling well and Charl was concerned that we were climbing far too slowly to tackle a 1000-meter ascent, in places on 60-degree ice, the next day. During the night there was a thunderclap so loud that we thought the whole mountain had avalanched above us. This was followed by high winds and snow flurries that sounded like buckets of stones being hurled against the tents. Conditions had not improved much by two am when we were due to start preparing for the final ascent and our guide decided to wait and see. We were hardly settled back in our sleeping bags when he said that there could be lot more snow coming and that we should have something to eat and then pack up and descend.
Without debate we decided to take his advice and follow him down the mountain. It was a unique and special experience to rope up and cross and descend the glacier by the light of head torches while the wind did its best to blow us off the mountain. We arrived back at base camp later that day somewhat tired and definitely chastened by what the mountain had thrown at us. There was in fact very little more snow that day and the next day was clear, if somewhat windy. Would we have succeeded in summiting if we had taken a rest day at Camp 2 and not followed the guide down the mountain? We will never know. On the way down we had met Gavin et al on their way up, told them about the snow conditions and they too decided to return to base camp.
On our last day Iona and I set off just after sun-up and had another go at Wiluyu Janq'uma. We got to a spectacular high arête an hour or two from the summit at about 12:30 and after enjoying the views, descended happy in the knowledge that even if we had not achieved any real summits we had had an Andean and high mountain experience that will remain with us for the rest of our lives.
On returning to La Paz, Charl and Serge had a day or two to spare and went off to climb the exceptionally beautiful and popular Huayna Potosi (6088 meters). They had an uneventful ascent, meeting many other climbers en route.