The first 2005 AAI High Altitude Peru Expedition came to a close last week with a perfect record on three major peaks. Our team, consisting of Sarah Moles, Julia Tock, and myself summitted Urus (17,783'), Ishinca (18,143') and Chopicalqui (20,735') during a two week Peruvian send-a-thon.

After two days of acclimating around Churup and Vallunaraju, our three-person team departed for the Ishinca Valley. It was not easy leaving the excellent restaurants and nightlife of Huaraz, but somehow we managed. A four-hour hike brought us to the 14,400-foot base camp that would be our home for the next nine days.

On July 7 at 4am, we launched our first summit attempt on Urus. The peak was demanding, as it was a straight-up climb right out of base camp. The route followed a steep moraine to a small but challenging glacier, and finally 500 feet of rock to the summit. The team persevered, and six hours later we were successfully on top. The view was spectacular, and we vowed to get a few more like it.

Two days later, we began our second summit attempt, this time on Ishinca. After our previous success and our newfound acclimitization, we felt strong and ready. Ishinca is about 400 feet higher than Urus, but the ascent is much more gradual. We made it to the top and back to base camp in eleven hours, and were very happy with the effort!

Over the next few days, we decided to put in a camp below Ishinca's glacier and focus on skills. We reviewed prussiking, steep ice technique, anchor building, and lead swapping. It was a fun time, and Sarah and Julia both masterfully demonstrated all of the skills I showed them.

Like all good things do, our time in the Ishinca Valley came to an end. Soon it was time to carry on. Our next destination: Chopicalqui. This was the end of Julia's scheduled trip, so we bid her farewell and Sarah and I moved on as a team of two.

Chopicalqui rises tall out of the Cordillera Blanca range and is connected to Huascaran, the tallest mountain in Peru. While most teams spend four or five days climbing this Peruvian giant that Chopi is, Sarah and I ended up climbing it in three days. This was partly because we had the advantage of being acclimated from our two earlier climbs and partly because we were a bit lazy and decided that putting in a high camp might not be worth the effort! We decided to embark on our summit bid from the lower Moraine Camp. This was a daring tactic, but one that would spare us the effects of sleeping at extreme altitude.

At 2:30 am on July 15, Sarah and I began climbing. The conditions started off good but grew steadily worse throughout the day. We came very close to turning around just 1000 feet from the summit due to the low temperatures and high winds that were steadily pelting snow at us. Instead of turning around, we hunkered down, pounded down a few Powershots, donned our arsenal of goose down, and continued upwards. Our steps lightened as we reached the summit at around 11am. We snapped some victory photos, ate a quick snack, and were ready very soon to head down, as it was bitingly cold. We soon began the descent back to camp, visions of Huaraz restaurants dancing in our heads the whole way.

It was a successful and highly fun two weeks in Peru's stunning and challenging Cordillera Blanca. It was wonderful to summit all three of the objectives that we had set out to do. Both Sarah and Julia were strong climbers, and I look forward to climbing with them again. On a last note, many thanks are in order to the best cook in Peru, Emilio Alvarado, for providing the team with delicious nutrition throughout the journey.