Ishinca (05.07.2006)
| Start point | Pashpa |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | Ishinca |
| Characteristic | Hike |
| Duration | 77h 00min |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Ishinca (5,530m) | 05.07.2006 10:00 |
|---|
First few days of acclimatisation in the Ishinca valley
Wednesday, 5th July 2006: Huaraz – Pashpa – Ishinca base camp (4390m)
The first part of our journey involved a bus journey from Huaraz to Pashpa. The roads weren’t great but we had many interesting sights along the way, passing some tree plantations and people working or walking along the roadside. They seemed to be very cheerful and friendly and gave us a wave or smiled as we drove past.
After arriving in Pashpa and sorting out the mules, which were carrying some of our kit to the camp we began the trek at about 10am. It was pretty ok and grassy to walk on, but immensely hot. The views across to Huascaran and the surrounding peaks of Huandoy and Chopicalqui were unbeatable though and we took our time to fully appreciate the scenery around us. There was no rush to get to base camp and we had virtually the whole day to get there! We reached the Parc Nacional Huascaran (Huascaran National Park) lodge at approximately midday, where we had to sign in and get issued with permits. After our brief stop, the route into the base camp at 4390m continued along the valley bottom beside the river for about another 2 hours-ish, and after what seemed like a never-ending walk, we finally got in at 2.30pm. Not exactly a long day, but it had seemed like we’d taken longer than that!
The base camp itself was well-situated; the most dominating peak above the site was Tocllaraju (6032m) and just a little further south-east, Nevada Palcaraju (6274m). A lot of other groups and teams littered the site with an interesting variety of colours and sizes of mountain tents, and a small but fast-flowing stream was useful for getting water for boiling and washing etc. All in all it seemed like a rather busy place to be, full of climbers and local cooks and guides. Our cook, Elias, was an absolute star and rustled up tea and slices of marble cake for us very soon after we’d finished pitching our tents.
We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out, as the route into base camp had been about 14km long and involved at least 1000-1100m height gain from Pashpa, so it was important to keep drinking and rehydrating to help acclimatise effectively.
Thursday, 6th July 2006: Acclimatisation walk to Laguna Ishinca
Leisurely start with breakfast at 7am: pancakes with syrup, bread and butter/jam and endless tea, coffee and Milo. After feeling suitably stuffed, we got washed and packed up our rucksacks for a walk up to the small lake at around 4900m, beneath Laguna Ishinca and Ishinca summit itself. Richard wasn’t feeling too well unfortunately, with his sinuses giving him a lot of discomfort and disturbance during the night. Consequently he didn’t sleep much at all. Nevertheless, the rest of us were feeling good, with no headaches yet – although we’d all suffered from a lack of sleep as well. Anyway, we set off up the path from BC at about 9am, and followed the winding route across the hillside. It had started off a little breezy at BC, but once we’d started walking and gradually ascending, it became warmer and perfect weather for a gentle(ish) walk at altitude.
The trail was well-sign-posted, and we took a decent break after about only 40 minutes of walking. After that we walked up to the next “rest” stop at a flat, sandy spot where a number of paths appeared to merge at that junction. We weren’t far from the lake now – about 100-150m in height, and eventually reached the lake after more ascent over the dry, stony path at about 11am. Here we got excellent views of Ishinca and the comparative beast-of-a-mountain next to it, Ranrapalca. It was also an ideal place to have a much-deserved snack break and sit around lazily in the sunshine for another good 40 minutes. After getting back down to BC, Richard decided to take some Diamox to help him try and sleep since he was apparently suffering from symptoms of the worst hangover in the world. Dinner was the usual course of soup followed by some sort of meat casserole and rice. Bedtime at 8pm.
Friday, 7th July 2006: More acclimatisation on Urus Este
It was Simon’s 33rd birthday today, Richard was feeling slightly better this morning after sleeping plenty during the previous afternoon/evening/night. We had another 7am breakfast and then got washed and packed up rucksacks as usual to get ready for our walk up the moraine “motorway” ridge on Urus (we nicknamed it that because of the well-trodden path that shot straight up the crest of the ridge). Simon, Matt and I donned our wonderful plastic boots while Jan decided to just wear her walking shoes. I was feeling very uncomfortable in my plastic boots soon after we started walking. They just felt so clumsy and irritated me a lot. So much in fact that I realised that it was a good thing I was walking separately from Simon, Matt and Jan, otherwise they’d have had to listen to my growls from frustration!
After finally reaching the top of the moraine ridge, we all took a good break and had something to eat and drink. A couple of Spanish climbers ahead of us had also decided to stop here, and Simon and Matt wandered over to have a chat with them, as they appeared to speak a little English. We continued a little further from the ridge to reach the 5000m-mark before turning to go back down. The views from our stopping point were fantastic, really spectacular, and we even saw a huge condor swooping across the sky. Only Simon was fast enough to snatch a photo of it passing though. Although the weather was still dry and sunny it was also very windy, so we didn’t hang around more than about 5 or 10 minutes before heading back down to BC again.
Simon dished out some fruit cake he’d brought with him later in the afternoon when we were having tea and coffee in the mess tent to celebrate his birthday We slept early since it was going to be a 3am-start the next morning.
Saturday, 8th July 2006: Ascent of Ishinca (5530m)
Ishinca ascent day started with coffee and Milo at 3.15am, followed by semi-frozen bread with some butter and jam to go with it (also semi-frozen). We left quite punctually at 4am. My rucksack felt like it weighed a tonne as I’d opted to do the walk up to the glacier in walking boots. So basically I had about 3kg of plastic boots, plus waterproofs, crampons, ice axe, climbing gear and 2.5l of drink to carry as well as also having (stupidly) offered to carry the rope for Richard to help reduce the amount he had to carry since he was still not feeling 100% healthy.
However, Richard and Matt, who were in front of me, seemed to be setting a nice steady pace so it wasn’t too taxing and I kept up with them. We took a couple of breaks along the way, mainly for Simon and Jan to catch up and we were at the lake within 2 hours. I thought that was reasonably good time, and daylight was just approaching. There was quite a bit of cloud cover on the other side of the valley, and the tops of Urus and Tocllaraju were obscured but it didn’t look very threatening, and didn’t look like it was going to come toward us either.
We got on the helmets, harnesses and crampons at the start of the glacier. I also had to change into my plastic boots and pulled a pair of waterproof trousers on as well for extra warmth. It was quite a relief to empty the contents of my rucksack! Simon and Matt roped up as a pair and Richard, Jan and I roped up together. The feeling of crunchy, frozen snow underfoot was very exciting and the gradient was moderately steep to begin with. Jan, tied into the middle of our rope, was going pretty slowly and I found it difficult to keep warm enough at that pace.
The route traversed across the mountain’s north-west side across some avalanche debris. Once we’d passed this we were close to the sunlit slopes further up which looked very tempting and warm. The surrounding peaks created a stunning 360-degree panorama around us, and we could now see across to Nevada Pucaranra (6156m) where the clouds seemed to be billowing over the top in a very impressive fashion. Nearer the summit ridge, I was feeling increasingly dehydrated and a bit dizzy by the time we reached a plateau. The final 50-100m was on quite soft and unconsolidated snow. Not really a joy to walk up and a little tiring to make sure we got a solid footing in poor snow.
But soon we found ourselves on top of Ishinca (5530m) and here we took a few photos each before stepping down to allow Simon and Matt to pass and have their photos. After a short time admiring the landscape we began the descent via the gentler southern slopes, which were accessed via a steep gully a little way down the summit ridge. The whole gully was guarded by seracs and overhanging cornices, so we made our way down there pretty swiftly to get out of the way of the most objective dangers, followed by gentler slopes that lead down to the col between Ishinca and Ranrapalca. Somewhere on the glacier I ran completely out of steam and felt really rough. Every step seemed like so much effort – it was like I had become an immovable rock!
I suspected a general lack of food and water on the ascent might not have helped, but eventually I managed to force a ham roll down in a last-ditch attempt to get myself down the mountain, which fortunately did manage to get me moving again. The path down was a bit of a beast though, a terrible combination of sand and a couple of stones but also appreciably steep. Even Jan slipped up and ended up on her bum a few times. I wouldn’t describe it as a fine stroll down when very tired. It was 3pm when I finally stumbled my way back into our BC feeling utterly shattered.
It seemed like everyone seemed to have lost their appetites and couldn’t face eating any dinner later that evening, not even Simon and Matt! But a bottle of wine was not refused by anyone, and we went to bed at a rather ‘late’ 8.45pm.
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