Ishinca, Huayhuash

Ishinca:  5,530meters, 18,143 feet.

Bernardo from Brazil, following up Ishinca

At the summit-- yum! tastes good!

 My friend Mihnea from the Churup climb gave me wise words of advice.  He told me that I should go on some easier mountains, but be the deciding force in the group.  While I am technically capable of following more experienced friends on difficult mountains, I will gain more valuable experience through being the person to make the calls on a climb.  I took this opportunity on Ishinca, and guided three inexperienced friends up this very easy mountain.  One friend turned around at the base of the glacier, feeling altitude sickness after the steep hike up from camp.  The other two made it up with me, though they struggled with their crampons.  I enjoyed offering advice on different ways to step as the snow changed texture and steepness.  I enjoyed even more when my climbing partners said my advice made a huge difference for them!      They were happy to get up -- one was so happy he gave me a hug that nearly knocked the wind of out of me.  

Huayhuash

The school where we work is on vacation for three weeks, so Angie and I took advantage to go on an "8-12 day trek" that only took us seven days.  Okay, since it was vacation, we took it easy and hired an arriero (donkey driver) who took our gear with his donkeys.  This is the standard way to do things around here.  The trek circles the epic Cordillera Huayhuash, which is the setting of Joe Simpson's heroic account in "Touching the Void," and where all the mountains are hard to climb.  The views were beautiful, though the anecdotal value of our adventure is perhaps pretty low (nothing too crazy happened).  

Perhaps the best story is about the time that our arriero, Monsueto, was telling us a tale about a Spanish guy who spoke "like you guys, more or less decent Spanish."  The Spanish guy spoke Spanish?  What a surprise.

A community in the Huayhuash

Flying over Paso San Antonio