Our goals were to summit four peaks in the Cordillera Blanca. The peaks in the order of ascent are Ishinca (18,150ft), Urus (17,783ft), and Tocllaraju (19,800ft) all from our base camp at 14,400 ft. in the Ishinca Valley. The final climb was Chopicalqui (20,847ft) in an ascent from the Llanganuco Valley side of the mountain.
The expedition was put together and run by Brad Johnson, of Peaks and Places. The climbers, several of whom carried the experience of numerous expeditions including the major Himalayan peaks, all agreed that Brad's staff of guides, cooks and porters were unequalled. For me, this experience was definitely the finest overall of any major climbing trip I have done.
What you are viewing is a greatly downsized version of a DVD produced through the still image and video footage contributions from many of the climbers. I have tried to capture a feel for each of the four climbs as well as little of the relative pleasures of base camp.
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Brad's acclimatization program worked very well for all of us as everyone seemed to function very well at altitude. Aside from some minor illness (perhaps from a restaurant while in Huaraz) we felt strong, especially for the final summit. Bernardo, our head cook, made miracles happen each day keeping appetites high with amazingly good cuisine. One of his greatest miracles took place after reaching the summit of Chopicalqui. After sixteen hours from high camp to the summit and all the way back down to base camp at 14, 400 feet, it was getting dark as I descended the last few hundred meters to base camp. All I could think of was crawling into my sleeping bag. I was too exhausted to be hungry, but upon reaching my tent I was told that Bernardo had been hard at work all afternoon preparing a special dinner to celebrate our success on the summit. I summoned the energy to wander over to where he had a hot fire going and discovered that he had positioned a large flat rock on top of two other rocks and built a roaring fire underneath. On his improvised rock grill, he was just beginning to cook steaks, chicken and potato slices basting them with a fabulous marinade he had concocted. This man was truly amazing! He had even improvised the basting brush from some grasses tied around a stick!
Well, sitting there watching him cook and the aroma did the trick. My appetite quickly returned and I enjoyed a wonderfully recooperative dinner fit for a king. I suspect that most everyone felt much the same upon returning to base camp as we all just kept expressing our amazement at his incredible feast.
The camaraderie of our group, some of whom had, trekked and climbed together previously in the Bolivian Andes, Mt. Rainier, and elsewhere, was truly exceptional. I sincerely hope to be able to reunite with and to climb with everyone again soon.
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