Climbing Cerro Marmolejo (Chile) Jan 2009

Having lost my main baggage on the Johannesburg-Sao Paulo flight, I had to wait another 2 days in Santiago before my bag arrived. By then I had already decided it would be more prudent to wait for Darrell to arrive on the Sunday morning and leave together, as I would only be able to get max 2 days extra time in the mountains which would not be nearly enough to start acclimatizing. Darrell arrived at about 1am on Sunday 14 Dec, he got a few hours sleep and at 7am we caught a taxi to Plaza Italia. At 07:30 we left with Turismontana – a minibus transport that would take us all the way to Puente Colina. We drove without incident, picking up a few people along the way, and stopped for 15 minutes in San Jose. In San Gabriel I had to notify the local police of our plans by handing in a form I filled out. In return they gave me a slip of paper I had to return to them when we came off the mountain. Going off onto a dirt road we finally started seeing some snow covered peaks, with Volcan San Jose being most prominent at the end of the valley. We reached Banos Morales where a few people got dropped off and then drove up to Refugio Lo Valdes where a German was dropped off. We quickly went in to ask about muleteers in the area and Andy (owner) confirmed that we should chat to Ivan at Puente Colina. The Refugio looked very nice and we both agreed that if we came off the mountain earlier we should spend at least a night here. Then we were back in the minibus and we drove up the last 5km to Puente Colina where we got dropped off across the bridge at about 2200m. It was bright and sunny; we kept our glasses on and slapped on some sun cream. Then I went to find Ivan who we then tried to negotiate with to take our packs up. Weighing each close to 30kg, it would’ve been almost impossible to carry everything ourselves. Not speaking Spanish, it was pretty much impossible to negotiate and we ended up paying about R1200 for the service. I thought it was a bit of a rip-off but it was almost impossible to just shrug and walk off with 30kg backpacks.

Day 1 (14 Dec): Ivan loaded our packs both onto a single horse, then one of his family (assumed) got on another horse and they started walking up the road, with the two of us trailing behind. Almost immediately we left the road onto a track leading uphill and we made our way through countless cattle paths cris-crossing this particular hill called El Morro. About 30 minutes later we started up the La Engorda valley, a beautifully green and flat valley leading directly to the start of the paths going up to Volcan San Jose and also accessing the Marmolejo valley to the north. At the end of the valley we had to cross the Marmolejo stream coming off the glaciers higher in the valley. It wasn’t very wide, maybe about 5m, but was flowing very fast. Luckily we didn’t have our packs with us, otherwise it could’ve been interesting. We didn’t have any other shoes with us either, so we just walked straight into the water. It was shockingly cold and the water threatened to topple us immediately. But with a few carefully placed steps, we were soon through and sat down to wring out our socks and boots. Then we carried on up and entered the main Marmolejo stream valley rising towards the north. We were now in a true glacial moraine and as the patches of snow increased, so did the vegetation decrease. We climbed steadily with the horses way out in front, me in the middle and Darrell coming slowly up the rear – he was feeling a bit jet-lagged, had little sleep and didn’t have much of a breakfast. Most of this walk turned out to be a bit of a blur as we didn’t completely trust the muleteer and wanted to keep our bags in sight. Consequently I just walked as fast as I could to keep up with him. But this was pretty much impossible and for long times we didn’t see the horses at all. Then finally, at about 2.30pm, I came around a bend and saw the two horses and that the muleteer has already started to unload our packs – it was obvious we were going to stop here. We thanked him and paid and before he left we both got a chance to sit on one of the horses to take a picture. Then he was off down the mountain again. We scouted the area. It looked pretty miserable. It was a very rocky sloping part of the valley with a 20m hill blocking the view from the higher valley. Two streams came from either side of the hill and converged about 100m lower down. The patch in the middle looked to have a few possible campsites so we hitched the heavy packs and slowly scampered across an old snow patch that covered most of the right-hand stream. We pitched the tent and I switched on the GPS which showed we sat at around 3250m. We climbed just over 1000m from Puente Colina and a whopping 2.7km from Santiago. That partly explained why Darrell was feeling lousy and he soon vomited. Having made really good progress in my opinion we declared the next day a rest day and proceeded to just rest and drink lots of water in the tent. With the sun still high, it was very hot inside the tent and only at about 6.30pm, when the sun finally hid behind a high peak in the west, did it start to cool down. But it did so rapidly and long before the sun set properly (only after 9pm), we were inside our sleeping bags (during the night at basecamp, temperatures fell to about 2 degrees C).

Day 2 (15 Dec): We slept late but as soon as the sun hit the tent at around 9am, it started getting hot inside. It was quite pleasant outside but the sun was so potent (we both burned some on the previous day) that you had to cover up and use so much cream outside that it was not all that pleasant anymore. But we decided to have some tea and coffee and I started assembling the stove. But when I opened the valve I was dismayed to discover that it was leaking badly. I cursed and then emptied the benzene back into its original container and started opening up the whole assembly to see if I could fix it. There was nothing wrong with the O-rings and everything else was fine – then I noticed small cracks in the plastic part of the pump which caused the valve to not fit snug enough to maintain the seal. We then tried to wrap plastic around the thread before screwing it back in but this didn’t work. Then we decided to try and weld the cracks closed by melting the plastic with a lighter. We seemed to have managed this but then when we screwed in the valve really tight, we managed to break of a large chip of the plastic. We tried to weld this in place again and later had to resort to heating a needle in the flame and using this to smooth over our work. After struggling with it for over 2 hours, it still didn’t work and we had to give up. Our trip was obviously in jeopardy, mainly because we depended on the stove to melt snow for drinking water higher up on the mountain. Luckily, none of our food required cooking; we had biscuits, fresh and dried fruit, cheese, salami and Jungle bars. We then read through our route descriptions and it seemed like we may be able to find running water in the afternoons up at Camp 1 (4300m). We then decided we must at least get to Camp 1 and then assess the situation from there. We spent the rest of the day trying to stay out of the sun and when that finally set, packed our bags for the next day. We couldn’t carry the huge load so planned only to ferry stuff to Camp 2 and then return to sleep at Base again, before breaking camp the day after. After sitting in the tent the whole day to escape the burning sun, we were due to start this ferrying the next day.

Day 3 (16 Dec): We got up at 6am, packed and by 7am we were ready to go. However, just as we were about to start, Darrell indicated he didn’t feel very well. He looked a little pale and I made him get back in the tent in the sleeping bag where he started shivering. We decided we had more than enough time to get up to the top and that another rest day would not harm our trip. So we snoozed while it was still cold and then when the sun popped up from behind the mountains and it got hot again, we tried getting as much air movement in the tent as possible by opening the door wide. Our food consisted of cornflakes and muesli for Darrell’s breakfast, lots of biscuits, Jungle bars, a jar of peanut butter for Darrell, some raisins, fresh apples and oranges, two rolls of salami, two packets of cheese and a number of packets of powdered cold drink called Zuko, similar to Tang. Darrell also had pre-mixed coffee and I had some soup and tea, but now these could not be used at all. We sat out the whole day, reading or snoozing to pass the time.

Day 4: (17 Dec): We slept a little later until 07:00 and as our bags were already packed and we didn’t need to pack up the tent or sleeping stuff, we just had a few bites to eat and then were on our way. As it looked far easier, we chose to ascend the snow and scree to our left, looking up the valley. We set a slow but steady pace and soon reached the upper part of what turned out to be a bit of a spur. This necessitated that we climb down again into the bottom of the valley through some loose and steep scree. This was rather unpleasant and the subsequent loss of height was also unfortunate. We decided not to take this route again. Once in the valley we made our way steadily on the true right hand side, staying away from the strongly flowing stream. We crossed snow fields interspersed with short sections of boulders and scree. Upon entering the valley we immediately saw the ridge we were supposed to climb. It looked steep and loose and really not pleasant at all. But we plodded on and eventually noticed that the river split higher in the valley and that we’ll have to cross it sooner rather than later. Walking along we found a nice thick snow bridge across. First steps across were tentative but when we realized it was solid we walked over easily. Then we approached the ridge in the distance first in the valley bottom, and then steadily started venturing onto the scree slopes on the true left side of the valley. In place this became quite difficult with unyielding terrain and large boulders. A small stream tumbling down from the Marmolejo glacier also cause us to walk up and down looking for an easy place to cross but we eventually found a spot. We actually gained so much height along the slopes that we missed the bottom of the ridge completely and eventually stood on a small spur facing the ridge at around 3750m. There was a steepish snow slope in front of us that looked slippery, so we decided to boot up and put crampons on. In this manner we finally got onto the ridge. It was everything I feared it to be – steep, loose and ugly. Despite the sun now burning down fiercely, ambient temperature was quite chilly and a cold wind was gusting from the top. After scrambling up another 50m or so up the ridge, we sat down for lunch. Then we carried on higher up the ridge. Originally our target was to reach Camp 2 and stash our stuff there. But it started to become evident that we were both growing very tired. We decided that we’ve managed to gain quite a bit of altitude and we can dump the stuff on the ridge. At 2pm we reached a spot that looked quite safe and proceeded to pack all our extra food and gear into my survival bag and hid it away behind some rocks. We were at 3944m. The way down the ridge went much quicker and on the snow slopes we quickly discovered that we can glissade quite a long way down the slope without putting too much effort in it. Soon we were down in the valley again, this time descending on the snow slope immediately next to the ridge all the way to its bottom. Walking in the valley itself was much easier than on the slopes we climbed up and we were sure that would be the best way to follow again when we returned. We made good time across but started feeling very exhausted as we approached the end of the valley. We rested often but the wind was now really cold and we wanted to get back to the tent. We crossed our snow bridge and then stuck close to the river all the way as it turned left and approached a gap between the valley side and the spur that we climbed that morning. This way was choked with a lot of snow and boulders, but it turned out to be pretty easy going despite a few slightly dangerous steps that, if you slipped on the snow, would’ve sent you straight into the icy water below. But at least there was no climbing up again. At 16:30 we walked into camp and gratefully collapsed in the tent. We slept our last night at Base camp, full of anticipation for what lay ahead.

Day 5 (18 Dec): We got up early, had breakfast, then packed up everything and got ready to go. I was pleased that we managed to carry more than half the weight of our packs up the ridge so when we started this morning, our packs were considerably lighter. Retracing our steps of the previous afternoon, we were soon in the upper valley and made very good progress towards the ridge, which by now I’ve named El Diablo (The Devil). It was much easier to walk in the valley bottom than on the slopes like we did the previous day when we approached ridge so we got to the bottom in good time. As we didn’t know yet if there will be water at Camp 1, we decided to carry about 6 litres of water up the ridge so we can at least spend 1 night at Camp 1, even if there isn’t any water. Unfortunately, the stream we saw the previous day was now frozen solid so early in the morning and we ended up filling the Drom bag with silty glacial water; at least we had some. The lip of the ridge turned out to be pretty nasty – steep and very loose. We zig-zagged up the slope until we reached a rocky section which seemed a lot easier to climb than the loose scree. Although the rocks were a little more solid underfoot, it was very brittle, even worse than Drakensberg basalt and I was glad when we finally reached the top. We made steady way up the ridge and reached our stash shortly after noon where we sat down for lunch. After lunch we packed some stuff from the stash, mostly food and warm gear; but left quite a lot of our technical equipment and more food behind. Then we tackled the last bit. Surprisingly, the ridge got steeper the higher we went, even though from the bottom it looked a little easier past the middle section. But since we had the rest of the afternoon, we took it nice and slow, resting often. Darrell was suffering quite a bit, complaining that his pack was very heavy – he was carrying most of the water. Finally we reached the top of the ridge. It was spectacular. I didn’t expect the sudden top that we reached, or the sheer drop down the other side – I was thinking there would be more of a plateau. But the scenery opened up to show large stretches of Andean peaks to the north and north east, glaciers stretching away and lots of snow fields. It was cold and a nasty breeze was blowing in our faces. We rested a little here before carrying on up the path. There was another nasty loose section before we scrambled up some slaty scree and then finally reached Camp 2, about 300m from the top of the ridge. It was truly an awesome sight – there were some very nicely cleaned and flat campsites, surrounded by rock walls and we picked the best one – no-one else were around. Darrell was not feeling great – I had to go fetch his bag about 50m from the camp site. I was also very tired and definitely we now started to feel the altitude – we were sitting at 4325m. After catching our breaths for a while, we slowly pitched the tent and then collapsed inside. Darrell was feeling particularly bad, complaining of a nasty headache and being nauseous. Apart from exhaustion, I was feeling quite perky and still walked around outside looking for the water I could hear running. Back in the tent we rested for the rest of the afternoon. Darrell took some acetazolamide and aspirin. I made Zuko to drink and we shared half of one of the salami sausages I had. This perked Darrell up and by sunset he was feeling much better. We still had some stuff in the stash about 400m down the ridge, but we both decided that we needed a rest day to acclimatize to the altitude.

Day 6 (19 Dec): Knowing that we didn’t need to go anywhere, we snoozed until the sun touched the tent at about 8am. I woke with a slight headache. As the morning slowly got hotter, the headache got worse, to the extent that I took some acetazolamide and later aspirin as well. I holed up in the tent while Darrell, feeling much better than the previous afternoon, went strolling about outside. He dug a nice hole next to the penitentes field close to our tent and found a decent trickle of water which meant we might be able to make a summit bid. The day in the tent was once again tedious and hot and with the headache I was nursing it was not particularly pleasant. I tried to drink as much water as possible and just rested, and by the afternoon, this seemed to start paying off as the headache finally eased up a little. By about 8pm I was feeling much better. A German guide with two Austrian clients showed up as the sun started to set. They obviously made their summit bid that morning and were returning from Camp 3. They set up camp close to our tent and soon were fast asleep. We didn’t last much longer.

Day 7 (20 Dec): We were going to fetch the rest of our stash today. But since it was not far to go at all and we had nothing else to do for the day, we waited in the tent until the other group had packed up and left. Then we slowly got out of the tent and made our way slowly back down the ridge, trying very hard to take as long as possible. It was certainly much faster down the ridge than up and we reached the stash by 10:30. We sat for a long time here, ate some fresh oranges and then packed up all the other things we would need from the stash, leaving behind some food and other things we thought were unnecessary. Going back up was hard work, but our packs were not as heavy as on Day 5 and by now we have acclimatized quite a bit. Even so, we took it very slowly so that we didn’t get to camp too early. We made it back at 2pm. We have decided over the past 2 days that tomorrow, Day 8, we will break camp and pack essentials only, walk up to Camp 3 very slowly and see how we feel. If we don't get sick, we’ll spend the night and if by the morning of Day 9 we’re still feeling OK, we’ll make a summit bid and come back down. So the rest of the afternoon was spent thinking about this plan and getting ready by drinking lots of water and making sure we have enough to carry up to Camp 2 as we were pretty sure there wasn’t going to be any water that high. We were now seriously missing the stove – soup and tea would have made a huge difference not only to our hydration state but also to our morale. Clouds have been building all afternoon and a cold breeze was blowing. By 19:30 it started sleeting very very lightly but it was soon over and we were treated to a cold but very pretty sunset.

Day 8 (21 Dec): We woke reasonably early but did not hurry as we had breakfast before packing up. We packed only essentials: tent, sleeping pads and bags, technical gear, warm gear, food and water. We climbed slowly to where tracks ran through a penitentes field. This was our first experience of walking through these strangely shaped snow blades, some of them more than a meter deep. It was tough going. In the third field we realized the tracks were thinning and soon we found ourselves in a penitentes field without any tracks. We spotted some cairns on the bare rocky slope to the right and made our way towards that. On the rocky slope the going became much easier but with the altitude now approaching 4500m, the going was very slow. Despite taking some acetazolamide in the morning before we started (both of us took, as prophylaxis), I started developing a slight headache and felt a little light headed. We had to stop often for a break and at one point I felt particularly bad and we sat down for a longer time. But I kept pushing as I didn’t feel nauseous yet. We eventually reached a steep snow field and slowly plodded up this, resting every 10m or so. This carried on until we suddenly reached a lip of flat ground where the snow had melted on the spur itself and where 2 small campsites were hacked out. The one in particular looked very inviting. However, we were only at 4878m, not the 5000m that indicated the further Camp 3 in the middle of the glacier which is what we really wanted to reach. But I did not feel great. I asked Darrell to have a look a little higher if there were any other options but he returned with a negative and we decided to stay where we were. The tent went up very slowly, and I felt bad enough to leave most of the work up to Darrell and collapsed in the tent resting. I drank some water, Zuko and took some aspirin. The wind gusted the tent throughout the afternoon and we really noticed we were camping very high in the Andes. Towards evening I started feeling better and we started planning seriously for the next day’s summit.

Day 9 (22 Dec): Darrell’s alarm went off at 05:30 but I didn’t hear it – when Darrell stirred and started getting ready, I got up as well. We ate a quick and dismal breakfast, tried to swallow some ice and water from our bottles. Outside it was freezing. The air was reasonably still but ambient temperature was -9 degrees C – it was bitterly cold and we felt it. I dressed in my fleece pants, shell pants, thermal top, down jacket, shell jacket, beany, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks and snow gaiters. I filled our 6 500ml water bottles from the Drom bag which was still mostly water since we kept it in the tent between our sleeping bags. But by the time I packed them in the backpack, all of them were frozen. I then took one out and put it in my down jacket’s inner pocket. By 06:15 we had our crampons on, I had the pack on my back and we started moving. I didn’t feel any ill effects from the previous day’s symptoms and although the going was slow, we were going well. At about 5000m we were walking on a large snowfield towards a patch of open ground that was obviously the alternative Camp 3. We later realized we were already walking on the glacier at this point. Walking over the snow and ice with crampons so early in the morning was straight forward, but a breeze was still blowing and although the sun has painted the peak summits at our backs, it was still a long way from warming us; it was very cold. We reached the open ground at 5100m and had a rest. There were a couple of campsites here and the ground was brilliant for a tent – if we were able to reach this far and had a stove to melt some snow! Darrell took over the backpack that I had been carrying up to this point. We headed for the snow slope ahead of us that we now knew for a fact was the glacier. Although it looked nothing like what we had expected, we still took it nice and slow. Admittedly, we didn’t put on harnesses or ropes as it really did look like just a snow slope and we bargained on the knowledge from mountaineers we met earlier in our trip, saying that the glacier was clean. I took the lead and made my way slowly across the snow and ice. There were the easy hard-packed ice/snow bits, and then the hard loose snow with a thin crust of hard ice on top, that you broke through when you stepped on it and sometimes stepped to halfway up our calves through it. And then there were the cracks. Every now and again I could hear a crack and my heart would skip a beat. This carried on for a long time and it started to seem we were not making much progress. At 5274m Darrell stopped me and complained about his feet getting frostbite. Although I was reasonably sure it wasn’t, I could obviously not tell how cold his feet were. I was terribly exhausted at this point and wanted to turn around rather than stand still. We vacillated some more and then decided we should get through the glacier first and go and rest on the rocky slope beyond. At this point we’ve already decided that we should get through the glacier as soon as possible and instead of gaining height, we moved laterally towards a rocky spur that was devoid of snow and ice. I led the way to the rocky spur, reaching it (5350m) sometime later. Waiting for Darrell I took my crampons off and had a good rest. The sun has now risen properly but I must admit, its heat was rather slim and the wind speed has increased. When Darrell arrived he sat for a while as well and eventually declared that his feet was thawing and we could carry on. I took the pack over from him and with him in the lead on the rocky slope, we made our way up. We now got to a point where we could only walk 15-20 steps at a time, then caught our breaths for 2 minutes, repeated the whole step. We decided to take a sitting break after every 50m altitude gained and we made good progress eventually reaching 5750m. We were slightly behind our agreed schedule as we indicated we will turn around at 14:00 no matter what. But I was comfortable that we could push it to 16:00 as it only got dark around 9pm and was absolutely sure that the descent could not take us more than 3 hours. At 5750m I was tired and passed the pack back to Darrell. By now we had picked up on a zig-zag track but lost it again when we started walking through some snow drifts. Volcan San Jose had appeared majestically to the south and we were now higher than its summit. In fact, despite not being at the top yet, I was quite sure there was nowhere else on earth south of where we stood, that was higher than where we were. For the first time I now really believed that we could make it. I started thinking about what I would say when I got to the top – would there be any prophetic or profound words? I don’t know – but I was thinking about it. Then, in front of me, I saw Darrell taking an ‘unscheduled’ stop and sitting down. When I reached him, he asked me how I felt. I told him I’m tired but am OK to go. Then he said that he’s incredibly cold and was shivering uncontrollably. The wind at this time was really blowing very hard from the south and ambient temperature I later guessed to be about -25 degrees C. I told Darrell to sit down and I huddled around him, holding him, trying to warm him a little and shield him from the wind. We sat like this for about 5 minutes when Darrell said that he cannot make it to the summit and he wants to go down. I turned around and looked at the summit, less than 200m above me. So close, so far. We got up. I took a GPS bearing while Darrell started down. Then I took a short video clip of the summit, turned around and started making my way down as well. As I thought we would, we made excellent time downhill and we flew down the scree, then the glacier and took our first break on the descent on the open patch of ground for the alternative Camp 3. Then we took the last section back to Camp 3 with me in the lead. Approaching the camp I started feeling extremely exhausted and actually had to sit down in the snow to take a short break. I reached the camp at 14:30 – it took us 1.5 hours to get down. We planned to break Camp 3 and head down to Camp 2 immediately when we got off the summit but we were so tired that we decided to spend another night here and move down past Camp 2 all the way to Base Camp the next day. So we spent the afternoon resting, drinking and more resting before dozing off at about 10pm.

Day 10 (23 Dec): The night was calm but cold, dropping to almost -12. By 7am we were packing already and by 8am, we were making our way down. Our packs were light and going downhill was a supreme pleasure, but my feet were suffering a little in the mountain boots. Without event we reached Camp 2 and I was happy to exchange my mountain boots for my hiking boots. We were surprised to discover that the survival bag I packed everything in, has been ripped full of holes. Initially we thought it might be rodents but later changed our opinion to the possibility that birds attacked the red bag. None of our food or anything else inside were damaged in any way, but the survival bag was now worthless. We loaded all the equipment and with our packs now a fair amount heavier, started towards the ridge to descend down into the Marmolejo valley. Going down the ridge with heavy packs was hard but it wasn’t long before we made it to our stash where we left unnecessary food and gear 3 days ago. With our packs now very heavy, we descended from the stash to the snow field on the left of the spur where we were able to glissade a bit, making good time. However, it was noticeable that even this method of descent was very tiring and we took a decent break when we finally reached the bottom. It was now past lunch already but we didn’t want to reach Base Camp to early so we took our time. We were now back in nice and easy terrain and enjoyed the walk, sitting down for a break often. Eventually we reached the snow bridge we crossed 3 times before across the Marmolejo stream and noticed that the bridge has thinned almost alarmingly in the 5 days since we’ve last been there. But it still held firm as we walked across and finished the last little bit to Base Camp, arriving at 4pm. We pitched tent in a new, much flatter spot, and went to fetch the last remaining gear of ours on the mountain. I was rather shocked to discover that the broken stove we left here, was stolen. I entertained murderous thoughts for a while but eventually gave up on it. We rested for the rest of the day and luckily it was not very long before the sun dipped behind the high peaks above us and we had relief from the hot sun before settling in for the night.

Day 11 (24 Dec): Christmas eve. Knowing we had very little distance to cover to La Engorda valley, we slept late and took our time having breakfast and getting up. We dried the tent reasonably well when the sun peeked out and eventually left Base Camp for the last time around 9am. I remember how dismal the place looked when we first arrived 10 days ago but now it seemed like home, and as we started walking away, I turned around and took one last long look at Base Camp before turning my back. We stuck to the path going down and made very good time, despite taking it easy. We descended the main head of the valley and noticed the green of La Engorda in the distance. We were slightly concerned about crossing the Marmolejo stream again, especially that now we had heavy packs to carry across, which we didn’t have on Day 1. But when we reached a sturdy looking snow bridge still fairly high up in the valley, it seemed like we may be able to stick to the left side of the stream and skirt it all the way down the valley. This way would have been a bit longer in distance and we would get off the path, but neither of us fancied crossing the glacial torrent that came from above. We crossed the bridge and immediately the terrain got a little more difficult without a path. But it was still quite passable and we had lots of time so we took it easy. We reached the exit of the valley and sat at a clear stream murmuring into the Marmolejo stream. Our packs were very heavy and although it was still early, we were starting to tire rapidly. The Marmolejo stream flowed right up to the left hand side of the valley and just before it opened up into La Engorda, we had to scramble across some rocks on the valley wall to get past the stream. But then we were in La Engorda and we saw the head of El Morro in the distance. Having spotted a cluster of boulders in the middle of the valley earlier that morning, we headed straight for this. La Engorda is covered in greenery but since most of this consists of a very thorny bush, it was rather uncomfortable walking through. Just after 1pm we reached the boulders and walked right up to a rock shelter that looked so inviting we decided to stay there for the night. A nasty breeze has been blowing most of the day and here in the rock shelter we got some protection from it. We spread out all over the place, resting, drank Zuko, had a late lunch and enjoyed the scenery for what would be our last night. As the afternoon wore on, the wind eventually tamed and then stopped altogether and we had a very peaceful evening. At around 19:00 we were walking around camp, when a thought struck me. We could make a fire! We started scouring the area for dead pieces of wood from the thorny shrubs and soon found more than enough to sustain a small fire. We found an area that was previously used for a fire, tucked behind some of the boulders on a nice sandy bit. We surrounded the area with rocks and started our fire. Very soon we had some decent flames going and I put the pot on with some water. We were looking forward to our first hot meal in 12 days! It wasn’t long before it boiled and we made our first cup of soup. Then we had another. Then I felt like having some tea and we washed the cups, boiled more water and had a cup of tea. And another! Finally satisfied that we were completely rehydrated, we killed the fire, took some beautiful pictures of the Volcan San Jose, red in the setting sun, then crawled into bed. We lay awake for a long time watching the stars and chatting about the past 11 days before we dozed off late in the night.

Day 12 (25 Dec): Our last day! We woke early, ate, packed and were on the way well before 8am. Our packs were very heavy but we still walked pretty fast – we were eager to get to a shower and a decent meal. We made our way over La Engorda’s countless horse and goat paths and found the bridge crossing one of the streams easily as all the paths converged to this point. Then we were on the paths that led into the rocky El Morro and before long we approached the dwelling of Ivan where we rented horses on Day 1. We happened on an elderly woman and what looked like her grandson, and when she approached us to ask something, I recognized her as the lady that drove along with us in the Turismontana minibus almost 2 weeks previously. She recognized us as well and switched to English. We chatted very briefly before making our way to the road and then started walking the 5km down to Lo Valdes. The road was hard and the packs so heavy that we had to rest twice on the way down as my hip started to suffer badly and my feet also started packing up. Even so, it was nice walking this road as we could revel in the spectacular mountains all around us that flitted past when we drove up the first time. Finally, at about 11am, we walked past a few scattered huts, the open quarry and then we got to the Lo Valdes sign. My hips were killing me so we sat for 5 minutes at the entrance gate before walking the 500m uphill to the hut. Having arrived, we gratefully dumped our bags and checked in. We were a little dismayed to hear that they didn’t have place for us for the 26th of December so we asked around if there was a way to get back to Santiago the next day. A local who was standing behind us kindly offered us a lift back the next day. We accepted and then headed off to our room for a long, hot shower and afterwards, a fillet steak with black beans and chips. And lots of coke!

The next day we took our time getting up and ate breakfast leisurely. We didn’t know what time the other people were going to leave so we sat outside reading until shortly after lunch when the guy came up to us and announced that they were going to leave now. On our trip back to Santiago we learned that the guy’s wife is Russian (we later learned he’s Russian as well) and that he’s a wannabe Formula 1 driver as he careened around blind corners crazily and almost caused a very nasty head-on collision. But we arrived safely in Santiago and they invited us for lunch which we happily accepted. Lunch with the two Russians was interesting and very nice and afterwards they took us back to Hostal Amazonas.

It was an experience I will remember till my death. It was very disappointing not to get to the top of Marmolejo and I will probably still regret it for some time to come. However, we gained snow, ice and glacier experience like nowhere before and did so at altitude as well. We had some tough obstacles on our way, most notably the broken stove, but we still managed to survive 12 days in the Andes without it and still made it to almost 6000m. My acclimatization strategy seems to have paid off. Although I was deathly exhausted when we turned around, I was still quite capable of moving and feel I could have comfortably made the top. Not once did I suffer anything worse than a headache and some slight light-headedness. We had a fantastic, unforgettable experience and will talk about this one for a long time to come.