Doug had been gone maybe less than a half hour when I got the urge to try and set out and catch up with him. I managed to choke down a granola bar and almost lost my teeth on a rock hard power bar, plus I drank some of my water, which was almost frozen although it had been in my sleeping bag. I pulled on my stiff, frozen double boots and my Gore-Tex outer layers and took off after him. It would have been nice to have had my supergaiters for some extra warmth for my feet, but alas the guy with my water filter had them. I had just started to move from camp when my headlight packed it in. Just great! It couldn’t have be batteries since I had just put in new ones. I jiggled it a bit but nothing. I wasn’t going to waste time or frozen fingers trying to see if it was the bulb. At least the moon was still up, and provided some light but it was setting fast. I rushed to the snowfield and managed to get my crampons on just as the moon set and it got awfully dark. My hands got numb when they were out of the mitts for even the shortest amount of time. Actually I had polypro gloves, pile mitts and heavy gore-tex outers. The skies were a surreal riot of stars and alight with meteors. Trouble was I couldn’t see Doug or his headlight beam anywhere. Centarus, clearly visible in the inky black firmament was put there to guide the Argonauts on their mythical journeys, but would it guide me?
Y vi de pronto
el cielo
desgranado
y abierto,
planetas,
plantaciones palpitantes,
la sombra perforada,
acribillada
por flechas, fuego y flores,
la noche arrolladora, el universo.
Y yo, minimo ser,
ebrio del gran vacío
constelado,
a semejanza, a imagen
del misterio,
me sentí parte pura
del abismo,
rodé con las estrellas,
mi corazón se desató en el viento.
– Pablo Neruda
I still felt like a sack of crap but I was moving reasonably well under the circumstances. I didn’t really have a route or a plan other than just head uphill, following the path of least resistance. With only starlight for illumination I picked my way upwards through snowfields and rock bands. All I had was the crunch of crampon points on the ice and my laboured breathing to keep me company in the dark. I was beginning to question the sanity of my actions when I started hearing some noises that could only have been Doug but I still couldn’t see him. Finally there was a flash of light. It was him and he wasn’t too far off. I called out and he heard me. I had almost caught him up but I started feeling worse than ever with another wave of nausea and decided to turn back. I went down about fifty meters. What the hell! I didn’t come all the way here not to climb. These thoughts seemed to give me the surge of energy I needed and renewed desire to get up this thing, so after collecting myself a bit I again headed up.
I soon regained my ground and caught Doug. He was really happy that I had come around and appeared to be able to do the climb with him. The sun would shortly be up, and should take the edge off the biting cold, even if only just a little. The snow conditions up here were terrible. The route ahead of us was nothing but nieves pienettentes; some almost a metre high. It was slow and awkward going made even more difficult by the altitude and the extreme bitterness. We were moving excruciatingly slowly; rest stepping the whole time. We would take a sip of water from time to time but not much to eat except a bite of a power bar now and then.
High on the hill
In time the snow conditions greatly improved. The route now looked straightforward although the summit still appeared to be a long ways off. I ended up in front leading and kicking steps for a long stretch and somehow set a quick pace; we covered a lot of ground in short order, but I think I probably burned out with that effort and used all that I had left. I was running on vapours and Doug took over once again. It was about 1400 when I stopped Doug and we had a bit of a strategy session. We had to set a time that we were going to turn back no matter what; summit or not. The sun would set completely around 1800. After some discussion we agreed upon 1600 as the turnaround time. I weakly argued that this was way too late to leave it to, since that would only give us two hours of light to descend what would have taken us twelve hours to climb, but in the end agreed with the decision.
There were some fumaroles in this little outcropping of rock where we had stopped at for a rest that really caught my attention; I was fascinated by them; it was pretty easy to get kind of spaced out. I could have been content just to sit there and watch them for ever. Everything up there was either spatially or temporally distorted. Features that seemed really big on the mountain turned out to be small. It was only about 1430 when I saw Doug stopped up ahead. He was waving me up and yelling something I couldn’t make out. Once I got to him though, I realised that we are on top!
Summit
6,279 m and change! The view was spectacular. The crater was huge, wider and way deeper than we had anticipated. We were right on its edge which coincides with the border between Chile and Bolivia, and there seemed to be a bit of a cornice so we were pretty cautious about our movements. I know that I keep rabbiting on about the cold, but it was… and windy as well, not to mention getting late, so we only stayed on top for a few minutes and took some pictures. It’s too bad we couldn’t stay longer and savour this but we needed to move, and fast. The snow conditions near the summit had been much better and we made some excellent time descending that portion of the climb until we hit the sun cups again. It turned out to be almost as tiring as the ascent and we stopped to rest often. I felt very nauseous and ended up being sick twice on the way back to the tent. We stumbled into our camp just as the sun had dropped out of sight in the west. It was a good thing too, because finding that little sanctuary in the dark with just one working headlamp would have been like finding a needle at the bottom of the sea and we could have been in for a world of hurt. It took us close to ten hours to make the ascent, and only around four to descend.
I felt wretched. I had zero energy and I couldn’t stomach any food or water and just crawled into my sleeping bag. Doug who was feeling pretty good made some dinner and handed me in a cup. I stared at it for a long time before I felt I could eat; I managed only one spoonful. All night long I fitfully tossed and turned and it’s only because it was so frigid that I didn’t go out to be sick.
After an eternity, morning eventually came but we were both very cold and lethargic and didn’t move until the sun was on the tent, which was well past 0900. At least I started feeling better and was able to eat some food and drink some water. We hadn’t much water left in our bottles so I went to gather some ice while Doug coaxed the sputtering stove into life and began the melting process. It seemed to take forever but eventually we had about two litres. It would have to last us until we got back to the refugio. There would be no chance of finding any water sources on the way down. To make matters worse it tasted like everything we had been cooking in our pot for the last few days yum yum. Finally we got packed and decamped. The trip down was straightforward. We took a slightly different route than on the way up. It was a bit longer, but easier and appeared to be much quicker. Every metre that we dropped in elevation we seemed to feel that much better. Soon we found that we were back where the rangers had dropped us off. For some crazy reason we were worried about the police happening to catch us on the way back. We concocted this story of how we weren’t climbing, no sir, but only doing some backpacking around the peak in training for a future climb of Manaslu in the Himalaya. The ice axes and crampons are only if we had to cross a snowy patch. It sounded pretty lame… but it helped pass the time.
Our fears of getting caught by the police or military were probably well beyond being totally unfounded. Delusions brought on by the altitude, exertion and lack of food most likely. There would be no earthly reason at all for those guys to be patrolling out in that desolation; but who knows?… this is South America. The roads turned out to be a real maze (and puzzling as to why they are even here to begin with, because there is nothing around there to drive to) but we found our way through okay and even took a shortcut to the paved road. Doug had developed a nasty blister which slowed him a bit. At about 1630 we arrived totally knackered and shagged out back at the hut. I scarfed down huge quantities of Gatorade. We met up with our friends who were still there and with Arturo. They had been able to spot us on the mountain and follow our progress through the binoculars. We also made new acquaintances with an Australian couple who were cycling from Arica to La Paz. The time had come to eat. Everybody was cooking up a storm and we were sharing everything and having a communal feast of epic proportions. We had the satisfaction of an amazing climb, good grub, and good people; it was real special.
The time had come to finally head back to Bolivia so the next day we got up early. We woke up Arturo to wish him a happy Canada Day, thank him for his help and hospitality and to say good-bye. I give him my last Canada pin. We were out at dawn at the side of the road waiting to hitch a ride back to Bolivia. The morning’s topic of conversation was the Beatles White album. We were singing most of the songs we could remember. Only twenty minutes went by before the first vehicle of the day arrived from the west; and it stopped for us. It was a big eighteen wheeler with a container and a bunch of barrels of some industrial lubricant on board.
The Hut
Mario drove us all of the way to Patacamaya. It took us three hours to cross through the Chilean and Bolivian borders because of all of the paperwork required for the truck. We had a breakfast of tepid soup made with some mystery bird and potatoes at this truck stop at the Bolivian border zone in Jancoaque and then made a phone call to La Paz to confirm our room. The ride seemed to take forever. The truck was very slow on the uphills and Mario was really cautious on the downhills, but we finally got there. Mario was a nice guy, and I think we gave him twenty dollars each for his trouble. He even waited with us in Patacamaya and made sure we got on the correct bus. I felt sorry for Doug though. He had been obliged to yak with this guy all day long.
Soon enough we were back in La Paz. I had a great seat on the bus, and totally enjoyed the trip back. Doug, well…. he had a wet, crying baby sitting beside him. Tonight though, it was pizza and beer! I was a bit leery at first of eating Bolivian pizza but it turned out to be great, as did the beers.
Next morning we set out to explore the city a bit. We made some phone calls, Doug got post cards and stamps at the post office. Our first breakfast was coffee and cold toast, and a bit underwhelming. The second one was far better; fresh saltenas. Next we made our way to the markets, and did the tourist thing and got stuff for the folks back home. By lunch time the day had turned out to be quite warm. We had a good meal at a vegetarian restaurant. We also looked everywhere for a shoe store, but to no avail. My double boots were starting to get rather tiresome on the old barking dogs.
Che..viva la revolución
We had not enough time left to do any climbing, but we had a few days to kill. We went on what we call an Anorak vacation. No packs, just what we could fit in our jacket pockets. This time we made our dusty and very bumpy way to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. There was a spot where the bus must go across a stretch of water on a barge while we went on a small boat. We get there fairly early in the day and were able to take a boat ride out to the Isla Del Sol, island of the sun. This island is supposed to be central to the creation myth of the Incan civilisation. True or not it was still very beautiful. There were some Incan ruins of sorts and the terraced fields were also of Incan construction. We made some new friends; a Dutch couple and a Turkish girl who has been by herself cycling the length and breadth of South America for the last ten months.
Our residencal in the town was charging us a buck sixty five a night each for the room! Now that’s a smoking deal. It is there we met an English couple who had been riding around the world for the last year on a tandem! The Turkish girl Hulia also knew a German and an English girl who were travelling together. By then we had quite a group. We met in this funky little bar that was so small that it had to be seen to be believed. After a few drinks and some outrageous music we headed to the restaurant that our friend Oscar had recommended. It turned out to be fantastic. Lake Titicaca boasts the largest rainbow trout in the world. I don’t know if that’s really true but they were pretty big; regardless, they were just delicious. The meal came with lots of potatoes and veg and it was washed down by many Pacena’s. We all had a great time. Afterwards we wandered the streets looking for a place that served dessert and failing to find anything we all ended up back in the little bar for a night cap. Doug nipped out to a store and came back with an armful of chocolate bars, enough to satisfy everyone’s cravings for dessert.
Everyone ended up breakfasting at the same place today. It was an interesting retreat owned by a German couple and had nice vegetarian fare including home-made bread. We spent the rest of the morning wandering the streets of the little town taking pictures and shopping. Doug and I couldn’t resist one last trout meal so we ate lunch at the same place that we had dinner the night before. It was another fantastic meal that could not be beat. Then it was on the bus and the long bumpy trek back to La Paz, where we caught flights home the very next day.