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Nov. 22: The
good weather decided it for us: We were on our
way to Ampato. At 20,700' it is rare for the
summit ridge to be free of snow and this was an
opportunity not to be missed. In 1995 we
had found the Inca ice maiden, which had fallen
(along with a section of the summit ridge) about
200' into the crater below. Had there been
any snow cover at that time we would
never have found her. But we had never done
a systematic search of the
area down which she had fallen. We ran out
of time during our second
expedition in October 1995 and last year we were
hit with a blizzard that
lasted for days and meant any objects strewn
about the slope would be
impossible to locate. Snow blanketed the
summit and we were lucky to find
a few objects at the lower site at 19,200.' This
conceivably could be the last chance we had to
examine the summit ridge free of snow.
Sabancaya has stopped erupting (its ashes had
helped remove the snow) and normally the summit
would be completely covered in snow throughout
the year. We did not expect to find another
mummy, but we hoped to add to our knowledge of
what the ice maiden's burial had consisted of,
while at the same time doing excavations in the
grass summit site (ca. 20,400') where the Incas
had camped before going on to the summit.
This could help in interpreting the entire
ceremony, and we had not touched the site.
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Ampato
as seen from Base Camp
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The importance of good weather was vividly
brought home when we were
dropped off at 16,400' on the east side of the
mountain. It had been a six
hour drive from Arequipa and the weather had
gotten so bad we were worried
our drivers woudn't be able to locate the
vehicles' track in the arid land
we passed through. We had not even seen the
mountain the entire way!
Without a four wheel drive vehicle and having
along someone who knew the
way in, we'd never had made it as high as we
did. We were the same team
that had been on Huarancante, plus Carlos Zarate,
who had been with us on
Pichu Pichu in October, i.e. a total of
seven. We put up the tents in the
snowfall (one of any mountaineer's least favorite
activity), while the
vehicles returned to Arequipe.
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Setting
up tents in snowstorm at Ampato Base Camp
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We couldn't help but wonder if this
might end up being one of the shorter
trips we'd done. A couple days of snow
would have killed our chances of
seaching the summit area. And we had our
sights on one main goal: Camping
several days at ca. 20,500' (higher than Mt.
McKinley) to do our work. The
19,200' site was on the opposite side of the
mountain and would require a
major effort to reach from where we would be
camped. Indeed it would
require moving our summit camp down the mountain
and then climbing to the
summit again with all our gear. No, our
goal was the summit or nothing.
The next morning suggested threatening weather
and sure enough it was
snowing and thundering by 10 AM while we were
ferrying supllies to a higher
dump at ca. 17,700. ' Fortunately, by noon
it started to clear, and most
of the team was able to make yet another
carry. Although we'd met a llama
herder during the drive yesterday who said he'd
come to help us, the bad
weather must have scared him off.
Nov. 24: A glorious day and we felt we
could be in for a good spell of
weather. Most of the snow had melted off,
and we made our move to our
Advanced Base Camp at ca. 18,800'. It
was a perfect camping place, but
for a lack of water. It was a long round
trip to get some melted glacier
water and ice, and, being mixed with sulpher from
the mountain slope, we
had to filter it. In no time we had clogged
filters to deal with.
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Ampato
Base Camp Two Days after the storm
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Nov. 25: Which brings me to today.
We still had a lot of supplies to
carry up from our dump at 17,700'. The
entire team descended over the
moraine to the dump and by the afternoon and a
couple of carries, we had
all the essentials at our Advanced Base
Camp. Now the really hard part
would begin, for we have too much gear to carry
to the summit in a single
effort. Some would have the unpleasant task
of carrying equipment to the
summit and having to return to the Advanced Camp
only to have to return
with the remaining gear the next day. We
began sorting out the essential
from the non-essential items, and will leave some
gear and food here. At
worst it can be collected later. We would
like to think of an entire week
on the summit, but weather could put a quick end
to that. Fortunately, and
thanks to Bell Sygma International, we've some
excellent gear, not to
mention a metal detector which we hope will help
in searching the scree
covered slope and a satellite phone should any
emergency arise. But even
the most fit among us dread the carry tomorrow,
as it not only is up steep,
crumbly volcanic rock, but will require us to cut
our way through ice
pinnacles to get to the summit.
Previous updates:
NOV.11th
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