This is it: Huascaran 6768m!!

The Big One will be the Huascaran, or will not be. If you have read my last post, I have now found some suitable boots, and have booked a similar trip to Peru to attempt the climb of the Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain and South America's third summit. Maybe slightly less technical than the Alpamayo, but 400m higher than the Chopicalqui, that should be challenging enough. Apparently, 3 people who summited on the Alpamayo+Chopicalqui expedition last summer are now attempting this Huascaran, so it certainly is serious enough an objective!

I don't know a lot about this expedition, except that I have to go now. If I stayed home 2 more months I probably wouldn't get much fitter, but would have 2 months to create opportunities to get unfit. My girlfriend will be busy in July but free in most of August, so if I'm back on 2^nd August it works out perfect. At work there will be a whole new lot of things kicking-off in August and September, so probably a good call to be here in that season.

All-in-all timing is good, just a little bit unplanned and unexpected, but I have the luxury of flexibility, a rewarding prerogative. I'm also quite happy to just go, not think and stress about it for another 2 or 3 months. There's lot of fine-tuning to do before I go, keeping me busy enough to not overthink it.

The gear:

I tried my brand new Spantik boots on, learnt how to tighten them in such a way that they respond to the command of my feet, but don't squeeze the feet to death – the last thing you would want at 6700m of elevation. The rest of the equipment I either have or will borrow, mostly from Ulf my colleague from Mannheim who has a little palmares of 6000m peak climbs. Being my first one, I don't even know what I don't have but should have, so I'm highly relying on him for the equipment checklist, and for the equipment itself!! I thought my alpinism gear was starting to be decent, but I realise that 6000-7000m climbing is a whole different class. Not playing around in Chamonix any more, boy!

The organisation:

„Terres d'Aventures“ is the organisation I used in 2010 for the Kilimanjaro trip. I kind of trust them, also because they are well-known in France. When you spend those sums on a trip to the extreme, you want to be a bit wary of who you give it to. I had a shortlist of 4 organisations which I somehow had some trust in. Terre d'aventure is one of them. You can find the trip description at:

http://www.terdav.com/Produit/Fiche/ASC010/huascaran-6768-m

The costs:

All this is costing me a fortune in equipment, late flight booking, transfers to Paris and airports, leave time, but with the idea of „The Big One“ I knew it would cost a lot, so I try not to think about it when I throw a big part of my savings into various websites... International banking is not making this whole aspect easier: the german debit cards are useless, the german Visa card also happens to not work on most websites, the french Visa card sends you a text message with a confirmation code for internet transactions, except it only takes french phone numbers... It reminds me the time when I bought my car in Germany, or the time when I booked the Kilimanjaro trip in 2010... It's hard to earn money, and it's hard to spend it the way you want too!

Practically:

I am flying on Thursday, I will already go to Paris on Wednesday night. Of course communication will be difficult while I'm over there, and I don't think Terre d'Aventure have a page with updates from their ongoing expeditions. I'll try to keep my girlfriend updated, if you're anxious you can ask her what I'm up to, but I also suspect I might only be able to send a text message every 5 or 6 days! Unless you read in the news that some french people have frozen to death in Peru, I'm fine!

Option #6: Alpamayo 5947m & Chopicalqui 6354m - close call

After hours and hours looking for the right peak, my attention was caught by South America (with some advice I must admit). And all of a sudden I saw this picture of the summit of the Chopicalqui (see below), a 6354m summit in Peru.

Photo from Mountain Madness

I immediately wanted to be there giving an assault on the beautiful summit. This expedition also involves climbing the Alpamayo at 5947m, a more technical climb graded AD, involving prolonged front-pointing at amazing altitude.

Photo from Terre d'aventures

So last night I sent a text to my girlfriend asking for her permission to go. I got it later in the night. Today is monday, my boss was back from holiday and I cheekily asked if I could get 3 weeks leave starting this Friday. Given the holiday planning of our whole team and the current status of my projects, this could work. I called the agency organising the expedition, the guy said a dropper left one place empty for this expedition, he checked my climbing history, and said he would get back to me about flight availability. He rang me later in the afternoon with the good news: for "only" 130€ extra, I could be in. Compared to the costs of flying, hiring the guide, buying the gear, this was a detail so I asked him to send me a final proposal. He needs my final confirmation and payment by tomorrow 12pm. For an insight into this expedition click on:

http://www.terdav.com/Produit/Fiche/ASC084/alpamayo-5947-m-%E2%80%93-chopicalqui-6354-m


In the mean time a checklist was running through my head. Kitbag and sleeping bag both suited for high altitude, I can probably get from a colleague. Boots... Bummer I need some boots. So after work I went to this place the colleague recommended in Ludwigshafen, clearly stated the objective: I'm going to Peru climb Alpamayo three days from now, I kind of need some boots. I had already had a brief discussion about boot models with my mountain guide, so when I pointed at one of them I looked like I knew what I was doing. Then I looked stupid when I didn't know which socks I would take. Now with two pairs of socks on, I started trying out some astronaut-like boots. both of the makes and models I wanted were not available in my size, and the other ones were not fitting right either. Tried about 5 pairs, some with additional saules, but some hurt and some were too wide.

I decided to not take a flyer with my feet's safety. On the Mont Blanc last year I understood that cold could be stronger than me. My left big toe is just about back to normal sensation (no worries it didn't look or feel bad, just weird). At 6000m, when front pointing for hours and hours, if the toes hit the front at every banging of the crampons in the ice, you finish with broken toes or something. If the shoes are too tight, you finish without toes. If you haven't had the time to practice with your boots, wear them to walk around and climb, it hurts so bad you can't finish and have to turn around half-way up. Not good enough. You'll always hear stories of people venturing in mountains with insufficient equipment and still succeeding, but nobody relates the embarrassing losses of toes, fingers or more which happen all the time at 6000m.

Would have been beautiful to embark on such a trip at such short notice, but anybody with an ounce of wisdom would not do it. Today's learning point is: equipment for summer mountaineering in Chamonix has nothing to do with winter mountaineering or high-altitude expeditions.

The Alpamyo and Chopacalqui remain interesting objectives. My guide confirms the Alpamayo would be an appropriate challenge for me, not overly difficult but a good start for 6000m climbing. Let's say the Mera&Island Peak idea might well have revealed disappointing. South America might be better suited for technical 6000m mountain climbing. However July/August is the season, but I'm not free in August. September is slightly late, still a couple of options in Bolivia (for a next post!), October woudl be Nepal. To be continued....

Alpamayo, not overly technical, but at almost 6000m that will be enough of a challenge for me!