Mar 25-26 Nevado Chachani 6075m

There are 2 large volcanoes that tower over Arequipa, Nevado Chachani (6075 m) and Volcan El Mistí (5822); both are popular non-technical climbs.  Since I have never been at altitude and I have a good guide, I thought that one of these peaks would make an excellent test piece. Julver, my guide, suggested Chachani because there is more snow which is generally preferrable to crappy volcanic rock.

We departed at 9:00 on Friday morning and I was functioning, unfortunately, on little sleep owing to intestinal cramps and paper thin wallsin the hostel.  It is about a 2.5 hour drive to the trailhead.  The last hour and a half of the drive is on rough 4WD track that gets progressivey worse the more we ascend.  By rough, I mean barely passable.  The road ends at 4900 meters (16,076 feet).  For comparison, there are 3 or 4 camps on Mt McKinley to acclimatize before getting to this altitude. I have been staying in Arequipa at 2400 m and have taken a few day trips to over 4000m, but have not really acclimatized properly.  Hence, this is an experiment.

View on the approach trail

The trail was relatively benign with the exception of some talus hopping.  The guide set a slow pace because of the altitude.  I was carrying 6.5 liters of water (13 pounds) because there was no water in camp.  I can´t really complain about this because Julver is carrying the tent (VE 25), stove, and fuel in addition to his 6 liters of water.  Thankfully, it was cloudy because I struggle in direct sunlight and don´t want to overheat on the approach.  Soon grauppel (small snow balls) began to fall which added to the splendor of the area.  The landscape is mainly red rocks, green lichen covered rocks (only found above 4500m), and large mountains.  There is no vegetation, but there are vizcacha (rabbit) and vicuñas. 

We reached basecamp in 2.5 hours and were all set up and resting by 3:00 p.m.  I ate jamon y queso and drank some coco tea when we arrived, but about 2 hours later I developed a headache.  I think it was dehydration rather than the altitude.  When I ascend quickly, my blood wants to be thicker and one quick way for my body to adjust this is to bail out water; I seem to pee a lot.  I think the other reason I was feeling crappy was stress from not being able to breath.  The air is so thin that your heart rate and breath is very fast.  Against my wishes, Julver encouraged me to get up and walk.  It is much easier to oxygenate when you are moving than sitting in a tent.  Indeed I felt better.  I paced back and forth for an hour or so on the only patch of flat ground while sipping coco tea.  Feeling better, I retreated to the tent, but sleep did not come.

At 12:50, my alarm went off.  Julver started heating water for tea and water for the climb.  This is one of the advantages of having a guide- I don´t need to cook!  I choked down a piece of cake and a gu and we set off at 2:00 a.m.  I was thankful for the cool temps, but it still was a little too warm for me at around 0 degrees C.  Julver set an excruciatingly slow pace.  Even though my body is trained to move much much faster, indeed a slow pace was all I could manage without getting winded.  My goal was to move slow enough to breath through my nose.  I was still skeptical as to whether I would reach the summit given the lack of sleep, lack of food (not hungry), intestinal cramps, and headache the previous night.  Still I plodded along quietly under the stars.  Every 20-30 minutes Julver would ask how I was doing.  Headache? No, surprisingly.

After about 2 hours it got really windy and really cold.  We put on all our layers and I used hand warmers for the first time since I left AK.  We stopped once an hour and I drank as much as I could, but wasnt very hungry.  I started to move more slowly.  My feet felt so heavy and my legs were aching and not recovering in between steps- the effects of low oxygen.  I felt drained of all energy mostly likely because I had only eaten 2 gus and a tiny piece of cake.  I was asking a lot of my body.  I was so drained that I started to think about turning around.  I knew that I didn´t really want to, but I didn´t have much to give.  It became too windy and cold to want to take breaks (eat and drink); it is very difficult to warm up when you are moving so slowly.  It took all of my resolve to keep moving.  One foot, other foot- I could hear my father´s voice say.  I thought about the stupid Everest movie when Arecelli Segara talks about how hard it is to move at altitude.   I secretly hoped for bad weather because I could not accept whimping out but wanted to turn back.  I kept going.  We decided not to use crampons as the small party ahead of us had.  It took all of my concentration to maintain my footing, though mostly the snow was good, but variable, the run out was not so good. 

At one point I sat down on a rock.  I told Julver that I needed water.  He tried to get me to walk another 50 m up into the sun.  No, I said.  Ok, we stay here.  I drank a half a liter, while Julver helped me fish out my sunglasses.  I felt like a baby.  More than anything I was sleepy.  I continued.  The sun wasn´t really warm because the winds were stronger on the ridge, but I could see the summit and that gave me energy.  Julver said 40 minutes more.  It was hard for me to hear, because it seemed so close, but at this elevation you move so slowly.  Julver stopped to talk to the other guide returning from the summit an I picked up the pace.  Can´t believe I made it!  Aside from intestinal cramps and being sleepy, I actually feel pretty darn good.  No headache!

Views from summit

self portrait with my guía, Julver

posing with the summit marker

 It took only an hour to descend.  There was a coulior that ran directly to camp that was mostly filled with soft snow.  I was so happy to plunge step down and immediately needed to strip off all my insulating layers.  We packed up camp quickly, and like all guides, Julver had the barn door syndrome- once the climb is complete they want to go home asap.  I should have insisted on a 10 minute break because I still hadnt eaten.  I bonked hard on the hour plus hike back tot he truck.  Julver set a fast pace, but we still were at over 16,000 feet and I had no fuel left in the tank.  All and all it was nice to know that I could accomplish all of this on little sleep, little food, and virtually no acclimitization.  I was pretty pleased with myself.

looking up from basecamp

I made it back to town, showered, sent clothes to the laundry, then napped.  I set an alarm for dinner and treated myself to some Peruano classics Cuy and chocto relleno (sp?).  The guinea pig was far from satisfying.  It took me a while to figure out how to eat it since I was the only one in the restaurant at 6:00 pm.  I ate it like a piece of fried chicken only there was very little meat.