Peru 2007: Part 4

After two weeks of rotting in Huaraz we pulled it together and gave one more go on Taulliraju. We knew we only had this last chance to do this mountain with our flight home rapidly approaching. We packed a week's worty of food and headed out. The mountain is about 25 miles from the nearest road so it takes a couple days to reach basecamp. The weather was bad. It rained everyday, and it never rains in Peru. Never the less we headed out on a so so day and gave it a go. I took the first block of leads which ended up being the most enjoyable climbing I have ever done in the mountains. The ice was perfect, the setting amazing, and the climbing steep. The above picture is looking up the first pitch which ended up being a 70m WI4.



After the first pitch and a small snow field we reached the main couloir sytem. Take a look at Alpinist 7, this picture is nearly identical. The climbing was incredible.



Here's a view from the belay down the first pitch. Chad is in the foreground and Andy is coming up from behind.



From the second belay.



My block ended after two 70m pitches and one longer ~100m pitch. We were moving slow, it took us around six hours to do those pitches and we were not even halfway up the buttress. After some discussion we decided to rap rather than continue up. It was a decision we all later regretted.

We walked all the way from the climb down to basecamp and crashed. The next morning Andy and I decided to give the mountain one more shot. Chad had had enough and went back to town. Unfortunately we didn't have much food left. We went down to half rations eating a couple packs of oatmeal for breakfast and then a thing of pasta for lunch and dinner. We were quickly running out of food and time. On the last possible day we left for the climb. It had rained every day so far and it rained that day too, absolutely poured. Our down sleeping bags got wet, our tent was wet, and we guessed that at least 6 inches had fallen in a few hours. After all that work we knew it was time to call it. It was a long walk out, but the chocolat bars we had hoarded for the climb had never tasted so good.

P.S. Three people sleeping in a Firstlight tent is a very bad idea.