Chimborazo

Date:

28.08.2010

Chopicalqui

Date:

21.07.2006

Characteristic:

Expedition

© Hannah Vickers Taken from my diary, the last peak of a 4-week trip to the Cordillera Blanca region of the Andes, in Peru. I forgot how much detail I noted! :-) Friday, 21st July 2006: Huaraz to Chopicalqui base camp Breakfast was at about 7am and the weather was looking very fine, stable and clear. We weren’t going to have any mules to carry our kit in to base camp for Chopicalqui so we had to try and minimize what we brought with us down to a single rucksack. Just before we left Olaza's B&B in Huaraz at 9.15am, Richard, Simon, Jan and I all wished Matt a safe journey back to the UK and then bundled into the minibus to head off back into the mountains for our last time. The road was the same leading north-westwards out of Huaraz to Yungay. Yungay is a town previously devastated by an avalanche or rock >>>

Alpamayo

Date:

11.07.2006

Characteristic:

Expedition

© Hannah Vickers A shortened version of my diary from the second part of a 4-week trip to Peru (final week of the trip was spent making an ascent of Chopicalqui ) 11th July 2006: Huaraz to Cashapampa/Llamacoral We left Huaraz along the same road north-westwards that we’d used to get to the Ishinca valley, but this time the journey took us much further to the north-west to reach Cashapampa. It was quite an exciting journey and the road weaved round some ridiculously tight corners, which were situated close to some steep cliffs - but there were no safety barriers to prevent vehicles going over the edge! The countryside was spectacularly green though, lots of lush trees despite being surrounded by dry, steep and rocky gorges as well as the glaciated peaks. We arrived into Cashapampa at about 11am, where it was baking hot >>>

Ishinca

Date:

05.07.2006

Characteristic:

Hike

© Hannah Vickers 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 >>>

Illimani

Date:

10.07.2003

© Hannah Vickers After the tiring summit day on Huayna Potosi, we spent 2 nights in La Paz and used the day before the journey to Illimani to rest and write postcards. It was also Paul's birthday on our rest day, and we went out in the evening to celebrate. Not satisfied with the beers in our first restaurant, the three blokes decided we would head back to a restaurant called Angelo Colonial's and have some beer there till 10pm. Thursday, 10th July 2003 In the morning, we left the hotel at 8am and our jeep trip to Pinaya took us through the rather spectacular Cañon de Palca, a deep vertical gorge of fascinating rock features and then up the mountainside where the roads weaved round on narrow ledges like you wouldn't imagine.....with drops to the side of thousands of feet and no rails to prevent vehicles from >>>

Huayna Potosi

Date:

06.07.2003

Characteristic:

Alpine trip

© Hannah Vickers Sunday 6th July 2003 Huayna Potosi (6088m) was to be the first 'big' mountain of a 3-week trip in Bolivia, and we headed over here after a week of acclimatising in the Condoriri group. It was a mountain we'd viewed from pretty much every peak we'd climbed in the Condoriri and we had been very impressed by it. Once we'd hiked out of the Condoriri base camp, and arrived back in Tuni, we were picked up by jeep and driven straight to our first campsite on the Huayna Potosi near the Zongo dam, situated in a rather bleak and uninspiring mining area. Our first impressions weren't particularly positive, especially after sleeping on a campsite surrounded by beautiful peaks in the Condoriri but inside the refuge where we had a supper of soup, steak and vegetables, we listened to a bit of Sophie Ellis-Bextor >>>