Vallunaraju 5690 meters Huaraz Peru

August 14th 2011
We had been trying to scale a summit since Cotopaxi in Ecuador which had not happened, I was starting to think we were not going to summit a real peak in the Andes.

But finally we booked it....

Vallunaranju sits just north of the Peruvian town of Huaraz, its summit sits at 5690 meters above sea level or 18,600 feet, a real Andean peak.

The highest we had been so far on the trip was 4750 meters on the Santa Cruz trek the previous week, so this added almost another 1000 meters to the record book!

The trip would begin with another of those long car journeys along bumpy peruvian roads up to the Huascaran National Park.

The taxi dropped us off at the start of the walk to our summit base camp, the road sits at 4200 meters and base camp was 4900 meters so a climb of 700 meters. Again we were weighed down with heavy bags which probably weighed around 12 kg. We had to carry our Ice boots, crampons, ice axes, sleeping bags, harnesses, waterproof trousers, gaiters... the list went on. However, our bags were no-where near the size of the guide and porters bags, whose bags were bigger than both our bags combined!!

The walk ran up through a valley with beautiful views of the mountain range we would be getting up close and personal with very soon.

The walk from the road to our base camp took 2 hours, the base camp sits at 4900 meters, this was higher than we had been to date and sleeping there was going to be hard work, and very cold!!

We setup camp and felt pretty good, with no signs of altitude sickness. The porter/cook cooked us a couple of good meals before the sun started to set and with it the drop in temperature!

'Base camp 4900m' if you can read what it says on my hand.

Our super tent with no holes in!!

After dinner we started to feel the effects of the altitude despite many cups of Coca tea! We took a few paracetamol and tried to get our heads down, as we had to be up at 1 am for the start of the summit expedition!

Several hours later.....

When we opened the zipper on the tent we were greeted by a thin layer of ice and our breath in the air..

After a quick breakfast at 1.30am we got in to our gear and headed off for the glacier.

It was a 20 minute walk to the glacier, but the full moon meant we could walk without torches in the moon light. The rock faces we 'free climbed' (with ski-like boots on) to get to glacier were crazy, I would not normally climb this sort of stuff but it felt ok on this night, normal for some reason...

We got to the glacier for about 2.30 and it was time to all get roped together, get the crampons on, and of cause get our ice axes!!!

It was then time to start our ascent, so we waited for our instruction from the guide on what to do and how to use our equipment.... however unfortunately he just ran up the first very steep part of the glacier and shouted "Vamos" (Lets go in Spanish). The start of the walk was difficult and we struggled a bit with the technique, but there is not really a lot to it and we were ok after 10 or 15 minutes.

The walk to the summit was to take 4-5 hours and we should arrive for sun rise. Walking on the ice and inclines was very hard, and the higher and higher we got, the less and less oxygen there was in the air. Each step began to feel like you had someone on your back. The walk was spectacular with the moon illuminating the glacier for us to follow and the distant lights of little towns. We could not get many pictures on the way up as the camera could not deal with the light conditions. 

The journey up the mountain was like a roller coaster of emotions one minute you felt on top of the world and the grin from ear to ear could not be shaken, then 10 minutes later you felt like you could not breathe and wanted it to stop, in your mind wondering if this was the start of altitude that would stop our ascent...

The last push for the summit saw us have to climb a 10 meter high 45 degree wall of ice, this required full body effort for a non technical beginner. Every step required you to kick in to the ice with your crampon then dig your ice axe in to the wall and repeat the process, at this point we were sitting around 5600 meters so it was an ordeal.

After this climb we were sat on a ridge that we needed to climb, either side of the ridge was a drop that would cause us a serious problem, the guide told us we had to be careful "great!" I thought.

Now, I (James) really don't like heights so this was a real mental challenge. As those who have issues with heights know your legs go to jelly first, so each step I would dig my axe in to the ice two or three times to make sure it gripped properly before I moved my feet. It felt like life or death- ensuring the crampon bit in to the ice. If anyone has seen the movie "Touching the Void" this is all that was going through my mind for 15 minutes!

However, after what seemed like a life time we got to flatter ice and the final push for the summit.

Sarah in the distance

We finally reached the summit at almost precisely 6 am for sun rise, we were the first there out of 5 teams, which was pretty impressive for two beginners.

Frio Sarah???

We only had five or ten minutes at the summit as it was about -10 degrees, the water in our bottles was frozen and so were we. The view across the Cordillera Blanca was amazing and so peaceful and beautiful at this time of the morning.

However now this meant only one thing....we had to tackle the ridge and ice wall again!! Not something I was looking forward to at all.

The wall of death

Coming down the ice wall backwards was hard and I was first followed by Sarah, with some words of encouragement we got down with little problem. It was at this point we started encountering the other teams heading to the summit, and started to see the beautiful glacial formations in the day light.

The ridge

The remainder of the descent was quick apart from photo stops which were regular.

We finally stepped off the glacier and back on to firm ground at 9 am, 6 hours after our adventure began.

Looking back up at our first glimpse of the glacier

The glacier here is retreating by 1 - 5 meters per year. It has a long time left yet, but its sad to think one day people wont be able to enjoy this magical place.

I (James) came off the glacier exhausted and not sure that this extreme form of mountaineering was for me, but since I have looked at our pics and thought a little more about it I think it may be a new sport of choice. Sarah is fully converted too!

I have heard of a mountain in Bolivia that's 6088 meters :-) and suitable for beginners....onwards and upwards I suppose.