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Nov. 11: On the list of mountains we planned to
investigate was Huarancante. About 18,000' high
it wasn't one of the highest, but it had the
advantage of not being too far distant from a
road and a good mountain to go to with a streamed
line team and equipment. Unlike Our Pichu Pichu
expedition last month (see
National Geographic's website) , we had no
generators this trip: We only had a 12 Volt
marine battery and three solar panels for power
for the satellite phone and computer, plus
charging of the radios.  I had
led a trip to this peak six years ago and we had
found a gold statue and other artifacts,
including a bronze clubhead. A storm and frozen
ground stopped our progress, and I'd always hoped
to finish the work we'd begun. Above all, could
the clubhead have been used in a human sacrifice?
Sacrifices on Ampato, Pichu Pichu and Sara Sara
had demonstrated clearly that many such
sacrifices had been performed by a blow to the
head and maybe we had found the actual instrument
used for this...but without a victim.
This time we were a small group, Jose Antonio
Chavez, Orlando Jaen, Jimmy Bouroncle, Arcadio
Mamani and his brother Ignacio and myself, but we
were all veterans of many climbs, including the
one we had just completed on Pichu Pichu. This
trip was a more modest affair. For once we all
fit into a van with our gear. We left Arequipa a
couple of hours later than we'd planned...in
short we were keeping our record for late starts
intact.
Leaving the heat of the city, we were
surprised by the bitter cold wind when we were
dropped off at 3:00 at 16,160'. I knew it would
take about three hours to reach base camp, and it
was 4:00 before we had the gear sorted (leaving a
pile with Orlando to watch over that night). Thus
it would likely be dark before we could make the
area I wanted for our camp. Nonetheless, a nearly
full moon helped us and I knew the way. Still, we
were lucky to find water close by...the area was
more barren than when we arrived in a snowstorm
in 1991 and it was fast freezing.
 Our
first conceren was that Arcadio didn't show. He'd
carried a load of nearly 100 lbs and fallen
behind--literally in one case. But after a short
search and he too struggled into our camp at
16,600.' Although there was not much altitude
gain, we'd had to go up and down and then do a
steep traverse, all the while with heavy packs. A
small stove heated up the prepared food, and we
were ready for a night's sleep.
Nov. 12: The next day meant another carry
from the place we'd left gear with Oralndo. While
the others returned for this, Jose and I climbed
to the summit. Much to my relief it did not
appear badly disturbed from when we'd left it
years before. But the thousand foot climb up was
over steep scree and ice, which made it a
slippery and exhausting hell while it lasted.
We laid out the same grid that I had placed
in 1991 and searched around the summit area. It
was a perfect day and Ampato in particular was
tempting as much of the heavy snowfall of a
couple months ago had vanished.
The same blast of cold wind we'd encountered
yesterday swept over the summit, and we were glad
to head down when we saw the others reaching camp
below in the afternoon. Now the question was:
Would all this be worth it? Only the excavations
would tell and they would begin tomorrow.
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