Higher....

Copa

reilly — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:04:00 GMT

There was really only one reason I wanted to climb Copa and that was because there is a hot spring in Marcara, the access town. Oh yeah, one other reason was because it probably has the most beautiful ski descent in all of the Blanca, especially with a fresh foot of pow for the first 200m!! I was very tempted to stop on my way to BC and soak in the springs but I knew this would potentially kill all my motivation. Instead I decided I´d treat myself if I summitted, kind of a reward. So for the next three days of suffering all I could think about was 110 water.

It was raining and hailing at BC but I wasn´t too concerned because this is pretty unusual in August for the Blanca. I packed up and headed to a high camp at 5200m thinking the weather would chill out, and it did. With the rain at BC came some significant snowfall on the summit and the next day was followed with nothing but blue. Fresh pow is great for skiing but lousy for climbing. The last 150m of climbing took me about two hours....ten steps, rest....ten steps, rest...I thought post-holing in Colorado was bad, try it at 20,000 feet, ouch! This was probably the hardest I´ve been challenged physically in my life, thank God for that hotspring down in Marcara to keep me motivated. Ten steps...hotspring....ten steps...hot spring. I summitted around 10:38, around 10:38, not that I was counting. The ascent took 7:38 but I took an hour break to wait for the sunrise because, I´ll be honest, I was lost. The sun guided me for the last few hundred meters and I skied down to high camp in 52 minutes, I packed it all up, and skied the remaining 150m couloir back to the moraine.

Unfortunately at the bottom of the couloir, there was an awkward class 5 downclimb move. The stance was too awkward...I clicked out of my skis, established a safe stance, and hucked the boards down the moraine. It was a pretty hard thing to do emotionally, but there was no way for me to get my pack off and strap them to it where I was, it was the safest option. I picked up the pieces and parts of my skis scattered around the moraine because of the sentimental value and I didn´t want to litter. I packed up BC and walked the ten miles back to Marcara, shared some Caldo de Gallina with my Arierro and caught some sleep.

The next morning the hot springs in Marcara seemed just a little hotter than they had the three previous times I had visited. Hope all is well wherever you are.

The photo previews show up upside down but when you click on them they should be right side up, don´t ask me why.

Gallery: Copa

reilly — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:48:00 GMT

Chimborazo

reilly — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:03:00 GMT

Chimborazo was great. It was pretty chilly but everything went well. I probably would have been better off with a blindfold on, atleast my face would have been warmer. I had to clear my goggles about every ten steps but it was a blast. My brain started turning on me at the top and I experienced a few hallucination...whoa! Great success. I shared the mountain with a few guided teams and that was interesting. I did the routefinding for the first 3000 feet. I backed off a crevass crossing to go around, warning an Ecuadorian guide of the hazard ahead and I said ¨this way is no good.¨ He replied with ¨maybe not for you!¨ His karma caught up with him and he proceeded to drop straight in, haha. He was okay but I picked his pride up for him and returned it as I passed him.

Cotopaxi

reilly — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:40:00 GMT

What a fun climb. The views were great and everything went well. The skiing was a bit rough but I made it down safely...enjoy the photos. Click on the Cotopaxi button under galleries for more photos.

Gallery: Cotopaxi

reilly — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:21:00 GMT

Monkey see, monkey do...

reilly — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:16:00 GMT

Yanapaccha in 23 Hours!

reilly — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:56:00 GMT

We had 2 Brazilian girls join us on this one while thier boyfriends tried another climb. All went well but slow to the summit. The return ticket was a different story. Luke skied the peak while I "guided" the girls down. They had only been on snow a couple of times. I made a minor error on the first rappel that got the ropes stuck preventing the girls and I from continuing down. At this point, Luke was at the bottom and I radioed him for assistance. He reclimbed the peak to the stuck ropes and we all got back to camp after 23 hours of climbing.

Gallery: Yanapaccha

reilly — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:40:00 GMT

Ranrapalca

reilly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:12:00 GMT

Um, yeah. High hopes. Its good to set your goals high, but Ranrapalca became a very far fetched dream after a few days in the Ishinca. 6000 M is a little out of the question right now for this climbing team, but give it a few weeks, and we´ll keep you posted...its a beautiful climb though. The face on Ran keeps us awake at night, along with the roosters, pigs and cows that live across the street from the apartment.

Ishinca

reilly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:05:00 GMT

Two days of crying at BC because of my repeated failed attempt on Tocllaraju, we headed to climb Ishinca. This being another extremely dificult "high altitude" mountain, we left early and took the slow and heavy approach as opposed to light an fast. We again made it to the glacier where Nick had another episode of Acute Mountain Sickness, not an episode as he exclaims, but on edge. Making the safe bet, he waited on the moraine as I soloed yet another mountain. As I returned to Nick back at the moraine after another record time, I saw a wonderful piece of artwork in the snow. Nick had almost perfectly written his signature in the snow...Laurie had taught him well, it was in a nice font as well, great. Wally would have given him an "atta boy," this is a common occurence at the filthy chicken ranch. I once saw Wally write the entire surgeon general warning in the snow after a thirty rack of PBR...Anyway, everything was well and back down to BC for yet more good grub.

Tocllaraju

reilly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:57:00 GMT

I should have known not to climb with people that I don´t know, who are from a country that has nothing but a moderate incline with a peak elevation of 200m. Since Nick needed a couple days of acclimitization at BC, I hitched up with a couple of Brits to see if they would be interested in letting a little American climb Toc with them. They immediately questioned my climbing abilities... it was I who should have questioned their climbing abilities, never seeing cascade ice in their lives. We made a high camp around five thousand meters and left the next "morning" at one right as a storm had cleared out leaving six fresh inches of snow. We were cruising over the glacier and everything seemed peachy until we reached the one pitch of AI 2+ to gain the ridge. After I led to the summit ridge, only 200m below the top, the Brits were unable to second my lead after two hours of bickering. I even fixed a line for them to prusik but they still couldn´t figure out a concept nick and I like to call the French Free Technique (Jeff Davies Inspired). This was the exact same spot I had to turn back on last year and Toc and I are becoming pretty good friends at this point, maybe in a few more weeks we´ll have another date. The Brits left the next day and gave me all their snow stakes, I´m not sure if it was because they were leaving or because they knew they would never climb anything that needed them!

Urus Este

reilly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:46:00 GMT

Urus is a mountain that I climbed last year and didn´t know it, but would become more and more familiar with the route over the two weeks we spent in the Ishinca valley. Round one on Urus was a failed attempt as Nick was not properly acclimitized and ready for the Andes. Right before the glacier, something wasn´t right...what nick kept calling "Acute Mountain Sickness" I just kept hearing excuses but we played it safe and headed back down to camp for a couple more days of acclimitizing along with bacon, eggs and pancakes, of course! After a week we again attempted Urus and this time had a load of success, although the pace was slow, we summitted and Nick got his first "high altitude" peak, and a new world record for both of us, four days, sixteen hours, twelve minutes, and four seconds....just kidding but it wasn´t exactly lighting speed but it didn´t matter, the view was worth it all. Just a side note: three days later, Luke did camp to camp in two hours and fifty five minutes and seven seconds just for fun. I wasn´t counting or anything but it was worth the exhausting effort to see the look on all those "French Alpinistas" faces at BC as they brewed up their cafe au laits at seven.

Gallery: Ishinca

reilly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:29:00 GMT

seventeen to nineteen (well almost nineteen)...

reilly — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:51:00 GMT

Nasty nasty chicken. Montezuma´s revenge, Delhi Belly, or the Andean Ache...after about five days of feeling a little rough my stomach came around and I headed to climb Pisco. It is a beautiful montain just outside of Yungay. Everything went really well and I summitted just as the sun came up and caught some nice photos of the surrounding peaks. There were three guided teams below me and I got a few looks as I came screaming past on the old Line twin tips. It was unusually cold and windy this morning and the zipper on my down jacket blew up right on the summit, really nice timing, really. Looks like I need to go to town and have some work done on it tomorrow, should only set me back a couple soles. Anyway, Pisco was great...lots of little stories that happened in the last three days but I won´t bore you, hope you enjoy the pics.

Gallery: Pisco

reilly — Fri, 4 Jul 2008 10:06:00 GMT

zero to seventeen...

reilly — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:15:00 GMT

the climb was excellent, the ski was asi asi and the views were spectacular. back in huaraz again licking my wounds but i´m planning on heading for pisco on friday. so much for acclimitizing but everything went well and managed to summit maparaju...felt a little dizzy at the top which isn´t a great place to feel dizzy but i re-learned how to use my camera and snapped a few quick photos. hope all is well.

Gallery: Maparaju

reilly — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:08:00 GMT

Zero to Seventeen

reilly — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:21:00 GMT

i arrived in lima on wednesday night and took a taxi to my hotel for the night where i played some pool and foosball until about two am with the owner. the next day was another rainy day in lima and i wasn´t exactly excited to walk around in the smog so i booked my night bus to huaraz and left thursday night at ten. unable to sleep, i layed in my seat and waited for the white cakes to show up and eventually they did around three or four am. i could see them perfectly since the full moon was only a day before. there were some peaks that i had never seen or heard of before, FA potential? i don´t know. anyway, i met my old friend salvador in huaraz fri morning and he put me up in my usual room at hotel tamia. that afternoon i checked the weather report only to find that it was supposed to rain within three days. i got my ass in gear, bought all the food and supplies i needed and headed for Maparaju in Quebrada Quilcahuanca. long story short, i was planning on resting sunday, climbing monday and returning today. i woke up interestingly at one thirty on sunday morning (when i had planned to start climbing the following day) randomly and my intuition told me to go for it. it was the perfect night for an ascent so i fired up the coffee and put my skis on my back. i left camp at three am and climbed for four hours to the summit of Maparaju. the snow conditions were perfect for climbing, but a little rough for skiing, i went for it anyhow. it took me two hours and and fifteen minutes from the glacier to the summit and twelve minutes for the ski descent. all and all, i went from sea level to seventeen in four days which isn´t a great idea but my body handled it and i can´t wait for the next climb. the photos don´t justify...no ski photos as it was dificult enough to keep my nerves down on the descent let alone take a picture of myself while doing it...

Gallery: Maparaju

reilly — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:11:00 GMT