Right then......what a day...today I summited Vallunaraju 5686M...It was actually the hardest thing I have ever done in my life!!! What a couple of days.....

We hiked for 3hours to the Moraine camp yesterday with our pack....we started at 4300M and set up camp at 4900M....super high, the highest we have ever been before....getting out my sleeping bag and putting it in the tent felt quite epic!!!

We had a lovely tea...we were tret like princesses and had our food delivered to us in our tent.,.it was so bloody cold...we had down jackets and about 5layers on, including thermals!! We woke up at 1:15am and had breakfast of coca tea and bread and jam and then at 2:30 set off along the Moraines to the glacier....that took about 40mins! Then in the dark we had our crampons fitted, a brief instruction on how to use an ice axe....we were roped up Alpine style, SO guide, lizzie then me, and then another guide and our new pall Julliet!

we set off up the side of the glacier with our head lamps on, and then started trecking up the big, long and never ending hills....I found this climb so epic and hard, had on my calfs and hard mentally, the only thing that got me through was Bob Marley, and the two lovely conversations i had 2 days ago...so thanks guys (you know who you are) in my head....and the inconvievable reality of failing and coming back down.....but I was very dramatic....stopping heaving for breath, swearing, and towards the end chocking back tears....the only thing stopping me from crying was i said to myself I could cry at the summit.....then I was too embarrassed to cry infront of the guides!....Lizzie was amazing and pepping me up.....But i have never achieved anything so hard in my life!!!!

At the summit at 7:30am, we saw the last of the sunrise. We had some biscuits (we were given a huge sugary packed lunch but I had lost my appetite, due t the altitude, had managed to stave off a headache and took altitude sickness tablets before we set off! I drank 3 litres of water on the way up! didnt pee till we got back to camp at 11pm)

Then we started out descent.....I went first as instructed down a bloody steep snow bank....I got almost all the way down and slipped, it was a narrow ledge with a huge drop on one side....I screamed and was saved by the guide and Lizzie anchoring in with their axes, I also had the end of my ice axe in the snow...I couldnt get a footing, Lizzie instructed me to get on my front, but I was tangled in the rope, so I had to get a footing and get some slack on the rope to turn around, I still couldnt get a footing and had to hammer the axe in and heave myself up on it and then try and get my feet up....I slipped about 3 times in think, and did lots of swearing and shouting.....panicked a little!!!!! Then I managed to get myself up and head for the line we were taking...at which point Lizzie with her newly dislocated and vulnerable shoulder had to follow me....bloody hell! Anyway it was steep and not so smooth sailing from there on...I couldnt believe how much we had ascended in the dark....we had to jump over a cravasse...and then at the end of the glacier we had to be belayed down...the problem with this mountain range is..its in a tropical setting and so as soon as the sun hits the snow it starts to melt making it much trickier to get down as your crampons clog with snow, but that makes you slower knocking the snow out and so a viscious cycle starts.....I took a bloody long time getting up that mountian and so made it worse on the descent...but we did make it up the lower end of the time they alloted!!! We then had to go back down the moraines, got to camp, and had some soup and tea and an apple, then had to pack up our things and then head back down to the road which was down a steep track....it was very hot, we fot to the road at 1, and then back to Huaraz sometime after then, 3-4 I think!!!

Basically dramatic winge over...we are knackered and are getting a bus to Lima tonight and then embarking on a 20hour bus journey to Cusco tomorrow!!!!

So, for the parents, we are safe and well and knackered and stiff...but back at a normal (3091M) altitude and about to buy a Lama wool jumper and have a hot chocolate...the hostal we stayed in were amazing stored our stuff for free, and then let us have a shower when we got back!!! What a day!

Hope you guys are all sleeping well, and having fun...there are pics on Facebook!

Speak soon

Lots of love Kate