Finally, Sunday afternoon, after the communal breakfast, and the loading of the jeep, and the long conversation about gas, and paying for the rooms, in case we did not return, watching the parade, we talked them into sending us up in the first jeep, el blanco, piled high with our gear. On the way up it just stopped, as the abuelo driver ground the gears and smoke began coming into the cab. We all got out to let it rest, then, miraculously, it started running again, it truly sounded like it was not going anywhere. After driving further, it went up a hill, but then the transmission gave way, and it started to head back down, for some reason the brakes were not working, and we were heading backwards down the mountain with no brakes, wondering if we should jump out and get run over, or stay in and get crushed when the car rolled. But finally he was able to turn it so it stopped, we all go out again, but this time we decided to walk the rest of the way to the hut at 13, 980 feet. We packed up everything we might need for the night, and walked up the beautiful mountain, to the hut. I camped not far away on a soft bed of grasses.
The next morning everyone set off up the mountain, the rest of the group was carrying supplies up higher, Spence and Don and I were going to make a high camp. After a few hours, the others went down, we worked our way through what is called the labyrinth, really not a problem, there were many ways to get to the top of the ridge, and decided to camp under two crosses in the snow. It was a beautiful spot at about 16,100 feet. I was worried that we were going too fast to properly acclimitize, but there was nothing to be done, we had to climb the peak tomorrow and get down to meet el blanco jeep.
No comments:
Post a Comment