2 down, 1 (+1) to Go
Half time break is almost over. Tomorrow morning I head back out to commence the trek in to Alpamayo. Two day trek to base camp, then a further two days to progress to moraine camp then high camp. High camp is positioned at the base of the final 450m high face. A face which starts out at 60 to 70 degrees at the base and finishes at 80 to 85 deg near the top. At least it’s not vertical…..
At 5947m, Alpamayo is not as high as I’ve just been, but a lot more technical. I have purposefully left it to last as I wanted to be best acclimatised for it, so I can hopefully focus on climbing and not just struggling to breath.
The weather forecast for the next week looks almost perfect. Clear skies, light winds and relatively warm. So hopefully we’ll get a good run at it.
And why the (+1) you ask. Well, I was chatting with my guide and we have some spare days set aside for bad weather which we haven’t used, so there’s some spare time in my itinerary. And it just so happens that Alpamayo shares the same high camp as Quitaraju, 6039m. So if everything continues to go to plan, then we’ll spend an extra day at high camp and attempt Quitaraju as well. We’ll see how we go.
Good night. I’ll be back in touch in a bit over a week.
Steve