Unconquering Misti Mountain

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  Arequipa, Peru
Monday, June 16, 2008

No need to get excited,its only Tony here. Clare is off on her first solo jaunt in a non-English speaking country, bound for the Colca Canyon where she will see condors, the world´s deepest canyon, and natural hotsprings that will no doubt lure her in to bathe - as they did me on my last trip to these parts.

We are currently based in Arequipa, which is our first destination in the Andes Mountains. Our hotel is located in a beautiful valley, surrounded by farms and huge volcanoes. By Peru standards we are in the lowlands still, but at 2400 metres above sea level we are roughly at the same altitude as the summit of Mt Kosciusko. The largest volcano on our doorstep exceeds 6000 metres, is permanently covered in ice, and the snow melt provides the entire water supply to this city of 1.25 million. Our location is 13 degrees south of the equator, which is roughly the same latitude as Weipa, and so the views of ice and snow every time we look out the window is something of a novelty

Clare Climbing Misti

. The other factor in these mountains is the atmosphere - or lack of it - but more on that later. Our hosts in Arequipa are incredibly generous, and are constantly reminding us that ¨this is your house too¨. They demonstrate this by letting us use the hotel kitchen to cook our meals, and the reception desk to use the internet.

On this note I have a message for anyone who may have tried to send me an email in the last week. It seems that all the public internet cafes in Peru have their ¨cookies disabled¨, and as a result I have not been able to access my emails since leaving Ica. I do not expect this to be sorted out until we leave Peru early next month, so please do not attempt to contact me that way. A reply through this blog will however work - but apparently you have to register first.

Our first big adventure in Peru concluded yesterday afternoon, which was an unsuccessful assault on the summit of El Misti, a ¨semi-active¨ volcano that dominates the skyline here in Arequipa. The crater is 5800 metres above sea level, but the trail starts at 3400, leaving us a mere 2400 metres to ascend vertically. One of the common-sense rules when exploring the Andes is to prepare one´s respiratory system for the lack of oxygen at high altitudes, and a condition called altitude sickness is common even in places like Cusco, which sits 3000 metres above sea level

Mt Misti from Arequipa

. Had we given it more thought, one day in Arequipa was not enough to acclimatise for a vertical ascent to 5800 metres, and we would have done much better to have travelled to Lake Titicaca or La Paz first of all. To add insult to injury, this was not a climb supported by local porters, and we had to carry all our own food, clothing, camping gear and water in our backpacks. The top of Misti is also ice-bound, and so there was very much of all these things to lug uphill.

Even at the start of the hike I was having trouble maintaining sufficient oxygen levels in my blood, and as we ascended I had to slow to crawling speed just to keep going. Near the base camp (4500 metres ASL) I was taking one step for every three breaths, and in the cold air this was not enough movement to keep me warm. So I arrived cold, breathless and exhausted at base camp 5 hours after starting our scheduled 4 hour walk. Clare fairly raced ahead of me, but was then stuck down by the headache which is the most common symptom of altitude sickness. At first we tried to drink lots of water, but when our main bottle froze into a solid block of ice after it was left outside of the tent for a few hours, we realised we were in for a cold night - and one which that should preferably not be interrupted by regular toilet outings between sunset and sunrise. So we suffered in silence - and dryness. But the final straw came when our guide announced that we would need to wake at 2.00 am for the final 8-9 hour climb to the summit, 1300 metres above our base camp, and that this would be followed by a further 4 hours of descent in the same afternoon. It was around about then that we decided we were completely mad, and that we should stand before El Misti and humbly concede defeat to its majesty. The mountain remains unconquered - at least by us - at least this time . . .

Clare returns from Colca Canyon tomorrow night, and the next day we head off to Lake Titicaca and La Paz, Bolivia. More to come when we get there. Best wishes to all.

Tony

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Tony Climbing Misti

Valley & Mountains from Hotel in Arequipa

View from Base camp at Misti

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