Page 15 - 2002 AMA Winter

ticularly unhappy at this stage. Another arriero controlled the mules although he spent most of his time chasing them as they kept wandering off. We did learn ‘though that a good tip to make a mule move faster is to continually stone it!! The ascent was gradual along well-defined tracks with the biggest difficulties being the avoidance of the presents that the mules kept leaving us in response to carrying our heavy loads.
It soon became apparent that we had entered a “spoon vortex” at base camp. Every time a spoon was put down it disap­ peared only to mysteriously re-appear hours later with everyone denying having used it or seen it. Paranoia set in with meal times becoming a period of tension and suspicion. With 4 officers in one place we should have foreseen this!
The next day (Day Two) saw us make a leisurely start leaving a local “watch man” in place. Although this was quite an expensive service it gave peace of mind and also ensured that the SAT phone would not disappear whilst we were on the mountain. The plan for the day was to do a load carry alongside the porters to Camp One at 5250 metres, drop off the equipment and then descend all the way back to base camp to spend the night. The route was over fairly steep glaciated slabs marked with cairns. We passed the Refuge Don Bosco Huascaran, a new hut built at 4670 metres, and then started a gradual ascent of the Raimondi Glacier towards Camp One. It seemed never- ending with heavy loads but we eventually reached our destination, put up a tent and stowed all the equipment. We made a rapid descent back to base camp which we reached in two hours. We then spent the last hour of daylight brewing up to re­ hydrate and cooking before settling in for an early night. Having descended we now suffered less with the altitude and conse­ quently all had a good night's sleep.
Day Three arrived with base camp signifi­ cantly quieter than when we had arrived. A guided party of ten Germans on a commer­ cial expedition from Munich had departed and they had removed their huge collection of cook tents, toilet tents and admin tents and had allowed their large team of locals to descend with them in order to continue carrying out any menial task that became too much for them to personally carry out at altitude. The Germans seemed genuinely bemused to see the team of four random "PIY" Brits in the tents next door. We again had a relaxed start as the plan for Day Three was to re-ascend the glaciated slabs and spend the night in the relative luxury of the Refuge Don Bosco Huascaran and involved no snow work. It was also the next stage in the load carrying process and we would not return to base camp until the end of the expedition. The refuge has only been open for two months and is in pristine condition although it is quite expensive. We arrived in time for lunch and the afternoon was spent relaxing and re- hydrating in preparation for the following
day when we would continue load carrying up to Camp One.
Day Four saw another day of good weather with a pleasant walk up to the edge of the Raimondi Glacier where we put on crampons and re-ascended to our previ­ ously set-up tent. We erected the second tent and re-hydrated. This had its own dif­ ficulties as we reached the Camp at midday and it was baking with no shade. We could also see the start of the next day's route which involved difficult glaciated terrain with huge crevasses, lots of dead-ends, some steep faces and com­ plicated serac bands.
We set off on Day Five in daylight and although this meant that the snow had received some sun, the terrain was too complex to negotiate in darkness. At the top of one particularly steep face John Kerner made the decision to turn back. He was having ankle problems and an Italian pair were heading down at the same time. John was able to rope up with the Italians ensuring a safe descent back to Camp One
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