During several attempts to climb Ishinca
& Toclaraju Dave used
www.trekclimbperu.com and
www.enriqueexpeditiontours.com - as well as a number of guides who for the most part spoke
mainly Spanish with a few words of English. Spanish however was the
language used when climbing.
Francisco and Julio both have been guiding
in the mountains for quite some time and are both very well experienced
in mountain climbing. Julio has summitted Huascaran (the tallest
mountain in Peru) a number of times and been on top of most of the other nearby
jagged Andean peaks. When they are not climbing many of the guides farm
during the non climbing season.
Richard Marquez runs Trek Climb Peru
as mentioned above and is a very strong climber, excellent guide and
very professional.
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Warning:
be careful about what you leave of value in your backpacks
if you have porters / agrieros carry them. We've personally
had sunglasses removed and had friends who also lost items
of value from their backpack when we walked ahead on the
trail and left our packs to be carried by the mules. |
Introduction
The best time for climbing is in the drier "summer" season, usually June through
August. May tends to have very unpredictable weather, it can be wet one
minute and snowing and then clear the next. The snow tends to be deep at
the high elevations and can be more unpredictable climbing in these
conditions over snow covered glacial crevasse terrain. However, if you
do climb in May you will definitely *not* have the climbing crowds in
the mountains that you will have later in the climbing season.
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Parts of the
Peruvian Andes are massive mountains very similar in appearance to the Himalayas.
Their
foothills are huge incredible mounds of earth towering many thousands of
feet above deep river canyons. Huaraz lies in one such canyon at 10,200 feet and many
agricultural products
are grown here including apples,
peaches and pears.
Huge jagged snowcapped peaks tower into the sky, some
of which rise above 6000 meters in height including
Toclaraju. Ishinca is pictured to the left.
It takes about 90 minutes to travel from Huaraz to the
trailhead. Once you leave the main paved road about 25 minutes from Huaraz
you climb up into the Andes on a terrible rutted road. If this
road is wet it presents additional problems and on our multiple
trips we've always had to exit the vehicle in certain spots to
help lighten the load. |
The dirt road will lead past mud and brick
homes, poor villages and will end in the small village of
Pashpa where
you will meet your mules and aggriero's (mule runners).
Pashpa is simply
a meeting or leaving point - there are several mud brick homes here -
some of the aggriero's live here.
The plan for the trek into the Ishinca Valley was to summit either
Toclaraju or an easier lower climb of Ishinca. We started hiking in the
mid morning from Pashpa and later in the day the plan was to establish
Base camp at an elevation of around 14,400 feet. For the most part the
initial trail was well maintained - there were several areas where it
was good to have guides with us as the trail would stop and then you
would have to pick it up again on a different side of the river or other
geographic intrusion. It wound upwards through the high Andean open
foothills, past colorfully dressed women herding sheep. These women were
dressed from head to toe in bright reds, purples and yellows. They were
very reticent about having their photo taken - even from afar when you
raised a camera they would spot you and quickly dart behind a rock
outcropping.
Eventually the trail enters small forests just below 13,000 feet. It is
here that you normally have to pay 62 soles to enter the National Park
(good for 30 days) - but
if you are climbing typically before early June the park entrance may be closed
and you can skip this fee. Its about 4-5 hours hiking from
Pashpa to
Base Camp. Base Camp is located near a glacial milky very cold river. Across
from camp in the distance is a rock hut (Refugio) one of several Italian
built and maintained Refugio's scattered around
this part of the Andes. These are open to the public during the climbing
season offering a number of beds and several meals each day as well as radio communication for emergencies.
Good rock climbing is located behind Base Camp. This is a good activity in case of a 'down day' due to
bad weather higher up or in case someone has Soroche (altitude
sickness), or if you have an extra day. Good rappelling is available on a
100 foot+ rock face.
Base camp is in the middle of grazing land and you may see cows crossing
the trail. If you do see cows you have to guard the food as they are
quite aggressive and will try to chew threw tents in order to get a
snack.
Ishinca Climb
While lying incapacitated in my tent (first trip due to altitude
sickness) some guy opens the tent flap and
says the cows are eating our food from the mess tent. Being in such bad
shape, this didn't register and I fell back down. After minutes or hours
I get up and crawl outside and see herd of cows tearing into food tent.
I then weakly crawl over and hiss feebly making a pathetic guttural
sound. They sense weakness and come back for more. I try to yell but
this comes out as an utter croak. I remove a shoe and toss it towards
them - they back away very slowly. I throw a rock. I crawl over towards
the food and lie down. They come near me but do not get the food. I
slump over a piece of wood until passerby's see me. One of them
grabs an ice ax and stabs one of the cows in the mouth as hard as he can
- blood spurts everywhere. I drift back to my tent and fall asleep.
Our guides no speak English only Spanish. Our team was attempting
Toclaraju an incredible pyramidal shaped mountain that resembled to
some degree the Matter horn in Switzerland. This mountain stands over
6000 meters, nearly 20,000 feet. Because we were attempting the climb in
mid April we knew the odds were against as because of the sketchy
weather this time of year. Sure enough on day two a big storm came in
dumping lots of snow on the high peaks and raining on us most of the
day. We were forced to hunker down at Base camp. April weather can change
in a minute - one minute its pouring or snowing and the next it is
bright blue sunshine. After this day we changed our plans and decided to
attempt Ishinca, just over 18,500 feet.
The next day several of the team and one guide begin the climb up to
Ishinca leaving at 4 in the morning. This is about the latest you want
to leave from Base camp for Ishinca - especially this early in the climbing
season when their tends to be a lot of snow over the glacial
terrain - which later in the morning or day becomes very very
soft and is absolute agony trying to ascend or descend in
conditions such as that. A better start time would be a true
alpine departure of between 12am and 2am. I sleep in and feel
much better when I awake compared to the previous few days at
Base camp. This is how altitude sickness sometimes works - you
finally do acclimatize and start to feel better.
The guide and I leave on the trail to Ishinca at 8am - at this
departure hour we weren't serious about summiting but we were
going to hike as far as I felt like. As we hike the more and
more weak I become - finally we reach snow line and we |
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rope up after donning the harness and grabbing
the ice ax. Once on the snow I seem to gain energy and
inspiration and we quickly climb higher and higher. About 3pm we
are at about 17,000 feet which is about 1500 vertical feet from
summit. We see the 3
climbers high above and over to the right near the cumbre (summit)
trying for the top. We are surprised that at this hour they are still
climbing higher. The scenery from this elevation is absolutely
stunning, reminiscent of the high Himalayas - mountain scenery that is
rarely duplicated on planet earth.
We are in deep snow, 1 step sinks you in 2 feet - terrible climbing
conditions. Our guide says lets go down and I say no problem as by this
time its getting quite tiring climbing in these deep snow conditions
without snow shoes. We are back in camp by 4:30 only 90 minutes
walking/jogging down!
We sit in camp and wait and wait and wait some more. Soon its 8pm. then
its 9pm. Our guide runs over to the stone Refugio building maintained by
Italians. He calls Huaraz as back up and we organize a Search & Rescue -
I am thinking very clearly at this point. We take all the necessary
cooking supplies food and warm clothing and prepare to sleep out if need
be. We move up trail at a fast pace, leaving Base camp at 10pm at end of a
brilliantly powerful rainstorm. The long hill that earlier took me 3
hours to climb now takes merely an hour. At 11:30pm we see a single
light weakly waving in the distance - throwing a speck of white into the
great darkness - it is quickly swallowed up as we
reach one of the switchbacks in the trail. After 10 minutes we come upon
one of the team members walking by himself. He is utterly exhausted to
the point of almost collapse. He is out of water, weak and quite wet. We
sit him down and change some of his clothing into dry ones and feed him
warm soup from the thermos. He speaks and tells us the other team
members are behind him but are moving extremely slowly as one of the
members has absolutely no energy. While we are sitting on the trail the
other 2 members creep down the trail and join us - everyone is now
accounted for, although not everyone is well. It is another 2 hours
before the last of us straggle into the camp. By this time its after 2am
and it has been well over 20 hours since the group originally left Base
camp. Upon arriving everyone falls into their tents utterly and completely
exhausted.
Toclaraju Climb
Toclaraju is a very scenic mountain that is easily seen on a clear day
from Base Camp in the Ishinca Valley. Look towards the ice covered
massive of mountains that tower above the valley and look to the left.
It is the pyramidal mountain that towers above 6000 meters. Toclaraju in
Quechua language means something akin to "trap" - or trap mountain.
Perhaps its unique shape looked like a Quechua trap to the local
peoples.
A typical climb of Toclaraju (assuming you are previously acclimatized
to the elevation) takes between 4 to 5 days. We recommend 5 days.
Day 1 - hike from the end of the road to Base Camp (average
hiking time 4 hours)
Day 2 - Hang out at Base Camp or take short day hikes or climb
Ishinca (to summit and return to base camp, average time is 8 to 9
hours)
Day 3 - Hike to Camp 1 at about 16,900 feet - (one camp is in the
rocks - another camp is 40 minutes further on the snow) - total hiking
time today between 4 and 5 hours
Day 4 - at 1:30am or 2am climb to summit of Toclaraju - return to
Camp 1 and then collect gear and hike down to Base Camp (round trip to
summit from Camp 1 about 7-8 hours - then another 90 minutes down to
Base Camp)
Day 5 - leave in the morning for pickup at end of dirt road -
hiking time today about 2 hours
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Base camp is in the Ishinca Valley. The Italian maintained Refugio is
also here and contains 46 beds and serves 2 meals a day. During the
climbing season from early June until early September there will
often be several vendors selling drinks and other snacks under
small thatched roofs in this valley. You cannot see Ishinca from
this valley but if you look towards the massive snow covered
mountains, Toclaraju will be the pyramid shaped mountain on your
left.
The hike from Base Camp to Camp 1 on Toclaraju leads to the left
of the valley past the Italian Refugio building leading up the
slopes on the left side of the valley until the trail takes a
very sharp left and basically zig zags all the way up the
incredibly steep and rocky slope.
Camp 1 on Toclaraju is commonly set among a rock outcropping at
about 16,300 feet. A better camp because it is less crowded as
well as being located closer to the summit is on the edge of the
glacier up another 40 minutes (see thumbnail above of tents in
the snow). There are fantastic views here especially at sunset
and sunrise.
It is recommended to get up around 1am and be hiking by 2am to
the summit. At this point you need to be roped up and have
crampons on and ice ax in hand. It can be brutally cold above
Camp 1 especially if its windy. One of the hardest things about
climbing (and there are of course many) is determining how many
clothes to wear. Will you start sweating if you start walking -
if you stop will you be warm enough - or will your sweat cause
you to start shivering. |
We get cold
very easily - and had 6 pants on including the gortex shell, each layer
becoming increasingly thicker. On summit day we hiked up with our large
850 fill goose down jacket of which we had 6 more layers underneath
(fleece and synthetic). This is probably overkill for most people, but
it is cold and be sure to dress appropriately using the layer system.
The normal route slowly winds its way up steep ice and snow slopes until
you are below the towering higher part of the mountain near the massive
bergshrund at which point you will wind to the left up to the summit
ridge. Once you reach the summit ridge you will follow this all the way
up to just below the "mushroom" which forms the actual summit. There is
a bit of technical climbing including several short ice walls before you
reach the true "cumbre" or summit. Views from high on the mountain are
excellent including looking down in the distance on the Uros peaks as
well as the Cordillera Negra. Ishinca looks quite small from high up on
Toclaraju. At night when its clear you can see the sparkling lights of
Huaraz which from airline miles are relatively close. You will start to
get a good cell phone signal when you start hiking above Camp I. There
isn't much of a cell phone signal anywhere below Camp I.
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For photographs of Ishinca,
Toclaraju and the general area please
click here: |
Summary
Be sure you are well acclimatized for climbs of either Ishinca, the
slightly lower Uros peaks and or Toclaraju. Prices for the same trip
really vary in Huaraz so do shop around. If you have all or most of your
own gear you won't have to pay rental fees.
You can make these climbs yourself without guides if you are very
experienced in the mountains (ice climbing, ropes, crampons, glacier
experience etc). It also greatly helps if you can speak Spanish.
During the summer climbing season clouds tend
to roll in on the higher mountains in the mid morning and may or
may not stick around all day. Late evenings and early mornings
tend to be clear, but the weather can change fast regardless of
the time of year. One year in early June while camped in the
Ishinca valley we received 2 inches of snow.
As of mid to late 2009 the lowest price we've found for climbing
Toclaraju (not including rental gear) was about $250 per person for
guides and food service (group size minimum of 3 paying clients - 5
days). We've also seen prices up to $1000 per person for the
same trip, same amount of days. Typically you will receive a better price per person with more
people in your group. Peru has a very stable inflation rate and prices
do not tend to rise quickly. |
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About
Dave's Pick