Page 12 - 2006 AMA Summer

Avoiding the
By Boris Blackband
188 kilometres trekked, 11 thousand 3 hundred and 10 metres climbed, and 101 hours and 15 minutes of mountaineering, and by God did we feel it!
I refer to Exercise Peruvian Eagle (Tiger), an Army Air Corps / AMA sponsored expedition to the Peruvian Andes undertaken in June 2005, the aim of which was to climb 2-High Altitude peaks in the impressive Cordillera Blanca Mountain Range.
Why Peru? Well for starters Peru offers the best equatorial climbing in the world, with 25 peaks over 6000 metres, and another 35 above 5700
metres. Above 5000 metres practically the whole range is glaciated and the weather is warm and reliable, imagine the European Alps being raised 1500 metres and cable car; and overcrowding banish overnight, couple this witl affordable park fees, loyy cost living and centuries of history and culture, and you have the perfect Alpine climbing destination.
Peruvian Eagle was the culmination of 2 years planning, with training expeditions to Wales and Austria, covering Summer Rock and Mountaineering Proficiencies, and in Austria; Alpine Mountaineering Proficiency and Ice Climbing.
from Zero to Hero in 6000 metres
On the slopes of Alpamayo.
Enjoying success.
Richard Scott on Ishinca.
Darby Allen on Ishnica Glacier.
10 ARMY MOUNTAINEER
training, not to mention all expedition members completing Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Proficiencies courtesy of JSMTW Ballachulish,
It was not the easiest of tasks in today’s far-flung-world of Army Aviation; non-the-less, it was achieved and our 4 Division expedition clearance was granted with relative ease.
Our arrival at Lima airport was a relatively painless one, due to the professional service provided by the trekking/guiding company that we had whole heartediy placed our trust in; 'Peruvian Andes Adventures'. (www.peruvianandes.com) Hiring a trekking company to assist with all logistics and administration is a 'must-do' in developing countries, and believe me Peru and in particular Huaraz; our forward operating base was definitely that!
Our first task was to acclimatise, and with Huaraz tucked in between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra at 3000 metres we were already feeling the strain in the scorching equatorial sun.
After much research and professional advice we had opted to use Acetazolamide
bx) to assist in our
acclimatisation training, taking the minimum dose as advised in the Surgeon Generals policy letter, we had also designed a gradual trekking programme that saw us spend 10 days slowly acclimatizing in the local valleys before struggling up our first peak; Ishinca at 5550 metres, a lung busting, chest straining Alpine PD of a route to a rather splendid summit cone, and a personal high for the majority of the team, and with the short technical back climb required to descend the reverse slope, just enough technical difficulty to make the team grateful for the previous days ice climbing training and the time spent hacking up frozen Austrian waterfalls and Scottish gullies.
The teams next objective was to be an attempt on Alpamayo 5947 metres and a sweat inducing Alpine grade AD+, an impressive peak often described as the most beautiful mountain in the world, hardly deserving of its translated
name of 'Muddy River’. Unfortunately our expedition 2)C and base
camp manager would not be joining us on our.next objective, having1inverted his ankle on the descent from the Ishinca valley, he was subsequently x-rayed and plastered and before we could pillage his rations, flown out on the next flight to blighty. A sad loss to the expedition.
Our attempt was not going to be easy, the usual route up Alpamayo 'The Ferrari’ was blocked by a massive ice mushroom shaped cornice that hung dangerously over the top of the whole South West face and had thus far prevented any team from gaining its lofty summit, We decided that we would still trek into the Santa Cruz valley and take a look at the face and hope that the cornice would collapse and reveal a chink in its seemingly impregnable summit ridge.
The route into Alpamayo base camp is part of the Santa Cruz trail, and is possibly the most popular trek in the whole of the Blanca, beautiful scenery, fantastic back drops and hardly a tent pitch left un-trodden.
We spent,Relays trekking into Alpamayo base camp and a further day conducting technical training, which including scaring all of the team members with an introduction to the Hyper Baric bab, an important tool in the treatment of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS).
The usual attempt on
Alpamayo is facilitated by a sleepless night at an intermediate camp between
the grassy base camp and the summit ridge col, this camp breaks up the long approach of 3-4 hours of punishing ‘1st gear' scree scrambling, and a