Chachani

My climbing expedition comprised of 3 blokes from Dresden who seemed to have bought out the whole contents of the latest North Face catalogue and whose last holiday comprised flying to the Caucasus and climbing Mount Elbrus (the highest mountain in Europe). The other chap was from Glasgow and he had spent the best part of the last 4 months trekking around South America and climbing every mountain he could find.

I was worried.

Still the guides maintained that it was one of the easiest 6000m peaks in the world to climb. I later realised that this was like saying the leopard is one of the least ferocious of the big cat family or that the London marathon is one of the easiest marathons in the world...

We drove up towards the mountain, which is visible from all over Arequipa. Got out of the 4x4, put our Rucksacks on and climbed 4 hours to base camp @ 5400m (which incidentally is higher than Everest base camp... So there). Put up some tents, cooked some food and it was beddie byes at 6pm. I am still travelling with my FBK (Full Body Kleenex) Sleeping bag, so I was wearing practically every garment in my possession. Even 2 pairs of socks and a pair of gloves on my feet.

Our Peruvian wake up call was just after 12 (AM not PM), chocolate soup with dried peaches for brekkie, we donned our crampons and ice axes and it was up and at ´em. I will spare you the gory details but we spent hours traversing ice fields, scampering up rocks and generally battling with the fact that above 5000m oxygen is generally quite hard to find. I could manage about 4 steps before having to stop for a second or two to regain my breath. At 6am, just around sunrise we ascended the last steep saddle and saw the cross on the summit. We all collapsed around it and gasped for breath.

Quite proud to be honest. Probably the most physically exerting thing I have ever done.