Thursday, November 01, 2007
El Misti - Chachani - Soroche
El Misti is the Volcano that overlooks the town of Arequipa, it´s 5800 and some meters. I had my reservation to do it with a local agency. I went for my briefing but there was a problem. The other people in the group had pulled out and there was only me ie there was no trip.
Chachani is another mountain that over looks the town. Not quite so impressive from the town as it is further away. The agency suggested that I should do that instead as there was a group for that the next day. So I coughed up another $15.
Soroche is what they call altitude sickness here. Chachani is one of the most accessable peaks at over 6000m well 6075m. So it would be a real achivement for the book, but with a real possibility of soroche. I´ve already been up to 4200m on the camino inca, but 5000 or 6000 was an unknown. After 3 hours of drit roads in a Toyota land cruiser we arrived at the end of the road. From there we had a 2 hour walk to base camp. I was ok at first but then the head aches started, and the dissyness. After dinner I promptly pucked it up. It was getting windy and very cold. With all my clothes on and in my pit (sleeping bag) I was shivering. A combination of cold, pucking, and headaches kept me awake all night well until the guide came to wake us up. He saw the frozen piles of puck outside my carpa and asked if I was ok. I said I still wanted to do it. After breakfast we were ready for the off. Well I talked to the guide to say I was not feeling too good. He said try for the first col and to see how I felt. Walking across the flat gound of the base camp was a challenge, I was so dissy I couldn´t walk in a strainght line. When it got rocky, I was gulping for air. It wasn´t going to happen, back to the carpa to CHILL.
Chachani is another mountain that over looks the town. Not quite so impressive from the town as it is further away. The agency suggested that I should do that instead as there was a group for that the next day. So I coughed up another $15.
Soroche is what they call altitude sickness here. Chachani is one of the most accessable peaks at over 6000m well 6075m. So it would be a real achivement for the book, but with a real possibility of soroche. I´ve already been up to 4200m on the camino inca, but 5000 or 6000 was an unknown. After 3 hours of drit roads in a Toyota land cruiser we arrived at the end of the road. From there we had a 2 hour walk to base camp. I was ok at first but then the head aches started, and the dissyness. After dinner I promptly pucked it up. It was getting windy and very cold. With all my clothes on and in my pit (sleeping bag) I was shivering. A combination of cold, pucking, and headaches kept me awake all night well until the guide came to wake us up. He saw the frozen piles of puck outside my carpa and asked if I was ok. I said I still wanted to do it. After breakfast we were ready for the off. Well I talked to the guide to say I was not feeling too good. He said try for the first col and to see how I felt. Walking across the flat gound of the base camp was a challenge, I was so dissy I couldn´t walk in a strainght line. When it got rocky, I was gulping for air. It wasn´t going to happen, back to the carpa to CHILL.
