Illimani (10.07.2003)  

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 going over the edge, it was no wonder that a few of us felt a teensy bit anxious when looking out the window! Being a less accessible mountain than Huayna Potosi, I think we all appreciated the beauty and excitement of the jeep drive to a greater extent, travelling up from the valley bottom in Cañon de Palca to Pinaya at 3800m above sea level. Decorated with eucalyptus trees and small farms, the land use was very similar to that of Isla del Sol (island of the sun), where we'd spent the first few days in Bolivia acclimatising and chilling out.

From Pinaya, we had a steady 2-hour trek under strong sunlight, which took us into Illimani base camp at Puente Roto at 4400m. From here we could just discern the next days' route up to the Nido de Condores high camp at 5450m (Condor's nest) and our summit day from there to Pico Sur (south peak) at 6439m. Unfortunately Martin suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea during the afternoon and evening, the second occasion during the trip and it was uncertain whether he would be well enough to make the ascent to high camp in the morning.

Friday 11th July 2003
As things turned out, Martin woke up feeling too weak for a summit attempt, after his nasty stomach upset and at breakfast time he decided to remain at base camp whilst Owen, Paul and myself went on up to Nido de Condores. Mario also joined us to cook our supper in the evening! We experienced a wide variety of ground, from grass to ice-covered rocky streams, narrow sandy ledges and scree slopes before even reaching halfway up to the camp at Nido de Condores. After spending some 45 minutes for lunch at a col, we moved onto the main part of the rock ridge with easy scrambling on slate in places, and up some rock slabs that were coated in fine scree in others - a bit slippery underfoot. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable hike to camp, which we reached at 2.30pm. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting in preparation for the long summit day in the morning. We ate some Wayfarers boil-in-the-bag meals with pasta for dinner - I wasn't sure what to expect of them at first but I after my first experience my verdict was that they were actually quite good. After an early dinner (we're talking pre-5pm dinner here), we snuggled down into the sleeping bags and made an attempt to get some sleep before our final summit day of the trip.

Saturday 12th July 2003
Our summit day began at 4am and I was somewhat reluctant to get out of my nice warm sleeping bag as usual, but both Paul and Owen were as lively and enthusiastic as ever. We left camp as planned by 5am and moved straight onto the glacier beside the camp. The first snow ridge was well equipped with fixed snow stakes, which saved us carrying dozens of them. This was also the same ridge that 6 Chileans had been killed on whilst descending the mountain in 1989. It was a very cold, slow ascent to the snow platform at around 5800m, but we reached here at sunrise and everywhere below us seemed so peaceful. Meanwhile, the ground ahead was increasingly icy, but not too steep. As usual I needed to pause frequently for breathers, which I'm sure were now becoming a bit frustrating for Owen and Paul.

Despite the increasing feeling of tiredness, we managed to dig deep into our energy reserves and found enough determination to keep going and reach the top of Pico Sur (the south peak). As the angle of the slope increased and the snow became harder and icier, it was necessary to front-point on our crampons and ice axe for about 50m. There was a further 20-30m of 50º slope to cross a bergschrund but beyond this was just a long, tiring pull up to the crest of the summit ridge with a couple of crevasses to avoid falling into along the way. We'd been ascending from the west, which had been extremely windy all morning, enough to sting my face unpleasantly - but as soon as we crossed onto the east side it all disappeared and the air was much warmer and calmer which was a very pleasant change. From the false summit there was about a further 100m to walk along an exposed ridge to the true summit and we reached here at midday, exactly 7 hours from the high camp. It was a great feeling, quite tempting to relax but we'd be needing a lot more concentration for the descent. After spending only enough time to take photos and grin all I wanted (from feeling very pleased of course) we left the summit, thin layer of cloud and the biting wind to find a calmer spot to sit down at and have something to drink and eat.

After descending back down to the snow platform at about 5800m, we took off a layer or two of clothing and roped up using a rather ingenious system which Owen had devised for descending the final ridge into camp. We arrived back at Nido de Condores just after 3.30pm. Paul was keen to continue to Puente Roto but by this time I was too shattered to face another 2 hours of descending over terrain that was tricky in places, so Mario, Paul and the two porters we'd hired left with all the kit, except our tent and the cooking equipment, so Owen and I spent another long night at Nido de Condores. We'd finished dinner by 6pm and got back into our much-valued sleeping bags soon after. Fourteen hours and a hot drink later, we packed up and left the camp. The wind was strong and bitterly cold, and the sun wasn't due to reach the ridge until after 9am so we didn't want to hang about much, just get moving and warmed up.

Back at Puente Roto at 10.30am, we were warmly greeted and congratulated by Domingo. Our last day here was spent generally chilling out, just what was needed after a gruelling few days on the mountain. Our jeep turned up about 10 minutes after we'd walked back into Pinaya the following day, a great surprise really because we were not expecting it for at least another 2 hours later! A slight mishap due to a landslide in the road ahead of us meant that we had to turn back and take a different route, however we returned to La Paz at about 3.15pm and ate out with Domingo and Mario in the evening as a thank you gesture. It was also an enjoyable way to reflect on the past 3 weeks of the expedition - all the experiences we'd had, jokes we'd shared (usually relating to each other's awful habits!) and memories of all the amazing mountainous landscape we'd seen.