Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I was collected at 8am to start my Chachani adventure and met my comrades in arms that would tackle the mountain with me - Marvin (German), and Jenny (USA) and her boyfriend Fernando (Colombia - and who is mad enough to be climbing the mountain for the 2nd time). First we double and triple checked we had the right equipment before heading off in a 4 x 4 for the 3.5 hr journey to the drop off point. To say it was necessary for a 4 x 4 is an understatement as we headed up to 5100m over rocky land that is nowhere near close to qualifying as a dirt track, yet alone a road - it was a bumpy ride!
Chachani is a dorment volcano and somehow they managed to get the car to the edge of the crater where our trekking began. It was a 2 hr hike to base camp, only ascending 200m vertically, but we had to tackle a boulder field on the way carrying all of our equipment including tents etc...
We got to camp with relative ease around 5pm and after a nutritious soup and spaghetti dinner headed to bed at 6pm waiting to see if we would suffer from altitude sickness or not.
Fortunately, altitude sickness did not kick in, but going out the night before had not done my body clock any favours. Our summit attempt would start at 1am in the morning, so i managed a total of 2 hours sleep before it was time to get up again and head up the mountain. We all awoke and drank as much coca tea as we could (its meant to fend off altitude sickness) and fortunately all felt ok, even if we were all sleep deprived. There was another group of 4 Germans who were also climbing the same day, but only 3 of them made it out of bed as one was struck badly by the altitude.
At 2am and kitted out to face the -6C temperatures with 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 t-shirts, 2 fleeces and a coat on I started the climb. The climb itself is meant to take 6-7 hours but having climbed for 2.5hrs we were told that we were keeping a good pace, and fortunately none of us were feeling the effects of the altitude even if we did still have a long way to go. The climb itself involved a lot of zigzagging over volcanic ash and boulder fields and it was certainly challenging. We went as far as we could before we reached the glacier and armed ourselves with crampons to continue the climb.
We were fortunate that the weather conditions were ideal, with no wind, and when the sun finally arose (it seemed to take forever) the temperature was even bearable! We managed to all summit in 5 hours, and after a few quick photos and a victory dance at the top all got out of there as quickly as we could as it was freezing standing still!
The way down was via a different route and involved tackling an extremely steep glacier for a solid 800m descent. It was tough work and very strenuous on the knees. I was also starting to feel the effects of the altitude and every time we stopped to allow our knees to recover a hurrendous headache would kick in. I was also losing my co-ordination, I am usually very sure footed descending but i found myself falling over on the snow every couple of minutes. When we reached the bottom of the glacier we took off our crampons and hiked the rest of the way to camp - in total the descent took about 1hr 30m.
At base camp we had an hour to recover before hiking back to the edge of the crater where we would be collected. This hour was hell for me!
Tired from the lack of sleep, shattered from the climb and with altitude sickness well and truly manifesting i was in a bad way. After a brief lie down i attempted to re-pack my bag for the final descent but couldn´t manage much more than packing 1-2 items every 5 minutes and resorting to crawling to get around. It´s fair to say i did not pull my wait in packing up camp and the tents etc... I wasn´t the only one suffering though as Jenny was also pretty limited in her movements with the threat of vomiting never far away.
I just about pulled myself togethe enough to start trekking back with Marvin ahead of the others and the pain, although still severe was starting to recede as i moved around. Despite getting a little lost in the boulder field we returned to the edge of the crater in around an hour and were both relieved to find the 4 x 4 waiting for us. After an agonising 30 minute wait for the rest of the group we headed back down the volcano for another extremely rough ride. As we descended the pain started to ease though, and once back at 3000m above sea level all remnents of a headache had gone and i was back to my normal self.
Back in Arequipa i showered and made myself human again and repacked my entire bag. After a 2 hr siesta i treated myself to a couple of victory beers that evening in the hostel.
It was an Easter that didn`t feel particularly festive, and i could only stomach one small square of chocolate on the mountain before i thought i would vomit, but it is certainly an Easter to remember!
Next day i woke up early, collected my laundry (which is always an amazing feeling) and enjoyed a bacon and egg sandwich for my efforts the previous day! I tracked down Alex for a bit and got a haircut and some lunch in town before joining a tour of the Santa Catalina Monastery.
The monastery was built in 1579 and is basically a city within a city, but for nuns. Those that joined the monastery were not allowed to leave until the day they died (or until 1965 when the monastery was forced to modernise a bit). Those inside were looked after by slaves allowing as much time as possible to pray to God. I was shown the lattices where they were allowed contact with their families once a month and had it explained to me how they were not allowed to see their own bodies, or that of others for fear of temptation.
It was an extroadinary place that seemed full of secrets. The monastery today is still functioning, and although most is open to the public there are currently 21 practicising nuns kept segregated from the rest of society - and there is room for another 79 people should they chose to join.
The tour finished at 6pm and after in raced back to find Alex to get on a roof terrace to watch a rather specatular sunset. The final leg of the Arequipa journey was to a small cafe wedged between a car park and a bridge where i was assured you could get proper local food...
Alex and I ordered the intestines with beef heart and tucked into a hearty meal (get it!!). Believe it or not the intestines tasted like pork scratchings and it all went down rather well. Just as well as i had to race to the bus station to catch my bus to Nazca, a full 10 hour journey again!
- comments