Arequipa is a gorgeous city, this is where we are now. The centre of town is gorgeous and has that colonial spanish feel about it with a huge cathedral. It is also the town where you base yourself for some serious mountain climbing....
Rodreigo had been doing some research before we left NZ, and on his list of ´things to do´ he really wanted to climb Misti mountain, which is 5800m high. So we went to the tour companies to ask around..... and the lady from Colca Trek told us that Mt Chuchani was possibly easier (not as steep), but at a higher altitude of 6075m could be harder, depending on how altitude affects you.... of course she hadn't climbed it, and the way she was talking, it sounded like something we could do. And I figured, with a pack full of chocolate and energy drinks it would probably be rather enjoyable...!!! So we decided to do it, and Friday 13th, which also happened to be a full moon we committed to doing possibly one of the craziest things I have ever done......
Sooooo to set the scene...
Climbing Mt Chuchani - 6075m summit.
Thursday 12th March
Full Moon
Pick up from agency - 11pm
Drive to base, arrive at 2am
Start walking on Friday 13th March at 2.15am....
Walk will be approx 9km each way, if we make it all the way.
We were wrapped up super warm in our jackets, ski pants, real hiking boots and had lots of lovely accessories, such as our two walking sticks, crampons (thing spiky things you strap to your shoes to give you more grip) and ice axes strapped to our packs. What we didnt know is that we werent just doing another hike or tramp, we were doing proper serious real MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. Like Everest styles, just not as high or obviously as serious.
There was no snow for the first part, and yes the height at 5000 plus had us gasping for breath right from the start. We were zig zagging up the first peak which took us a couple of hours and then the hard parts started. To cut a really long story short, the hard parts where were there was snow, and we were walking along narrow ledges with scary drop offs having to use our ice axes to ensure we didnt fall down the mountain to support ourselves!! Daile really did not like this part, and there were two of these sections, which lasted a good couple of hours each.
At 5900m, after about 9 hours of climbing (all uphill) we wondered about turning back. Now neither of us give up easily, but we still had a mammoth walk back, and we wanted to do it safely as we were getting quite tired. Our guide, Angel, had a wee pep talk with us and told us that we should do it. He thought we were fit enough and weren`t too tired. As long as our legs weren´t too sore he wanted us to do it. SO WE DID!!!!!!!! We made it to the summit!!!!! It was super seriously hard, but the problem was, we had to go ALL the way back again!
It took us 10 hours to get there and 5 hours back, and we didnt like going back one bit. We were exhausted beyond exhaustion, and definitely pushed our limits further than I ever have before. We are now mountain climbers, although we have decided that is our first and last mountain we will climb...
A word of warning though to anyone who is considering climbing a mountain this high..... don´t!!! LOL! Ok do but get in lots of mountain climbing practise first, on smaller mountains....
We slept like babies that night, and both got a solid 12 hours sleep.
We did it, we conquered OUR Everest!!!!!!
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