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As an Alpine Climbing Guide for the last 21 years, I’ve been fortunate to travel the world in the quest for the perfect climb and the best location to enjoy the mountain culture and scenery. I’m often asked the question by keen mountain and rock climbers where I’d recommend they invest their time, money, and energy to tour the high mountains of the world, and each time the answer is easy: Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca of Peru.
Why? No other place in the world offers such a range of stunning and climbable ice covered peaks, virgin rock faces and established big-wall classics, and bouldering that matches the best on the planet.
Combined with ease of access that allows for multiple adventures in a short time period, and a mountain culture that is among the most hospitable, Peru is easily my favorite destination and if not already, it may soon become yours.
To arrive in Huaraz, often called the Chamonix of South America, is to walk into a landscape that offers much more than just mountain adventures. It is time spent with the locals here: guides, porters, cooks, arriero’s, restaurant and shop keepers, and the very genial populace that gives Huaraz it’s charm and gives us gringos a reason to return year after year to visit with our friends who truly define the word ‘amigo’.
We want to return to this magical place time and time again, and it is our ability in managing the rewards of climbing versus the risks that are essential to continuing this quest. For if we die a premature death due to a lapse of judgment brought on by overwhelming desire, the mountains rarely grant second chances to learn from these mistakes. The requirement is upon us to make the best decisions possible in these potentially very dangerous mountains.
It was the author Ernest Hemingway who wrote, “There are only three true sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting, and auto racing, everything else is a game”. It is the nature of this most dangerous sport; mountain climbing, that keeps us coming back again and again, to wrestle with the risks of climbing while staying on the side of the line that separates the living from the deceased.
As a professional risk manager in my work as a guide, it is the dynamic nature of these glaciated peaks that bring a few very important points to mind, and that is what I would like to share with the reader in this essay.
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Safety is Success
The glaciers and icefalls that flank these steep sided mountains are constantly changing and therefore a route that was decided upon while in the comfort of one’s hometown, or even in the close proximity of Huaraz could very well turn out to be a bad idea based on high avalanche danger from fresh snow slabs or active seracs in icefalls.
When teaching avalanche education courses around the world, one of the more important methods we instructor’s emphasize is to go into each mountain environment with multiple plans: A, B, C, D, and so on with the idea of each plan offering a less risky or more appropriate option.
It is human nature that when we have only one plan (A), that we will continue upward despite overwhelming odds or extreme danger. Giving ourselves secondary options is key to survival as it allows us the flexibility to change ideas when our original one is truly bad.
These types of dynamic avalanche, ice, and even rockfall dangers can change overnight, and so the mountain climber must be highly aware of the probability and consequences that each step forward presents, and ultimately flexible in our plans.
Simply putting one’s head down and hoping for the best is not an approach that serves the interests of the climber who hopes to have a long career (and life) and it is our ability to adapt and potentially turn back in the face of serious hazards that defines our skills in this all too dangerous sport.
Some might claim, "Summit or die, either way I win." It is these climbers that usually get both results in quick order.
An example of the safer approach comes from the Himalayaand the original 1978 American attempt on the 2,600 meter long North Ridge of Latok I. It was one of the strongest climbing efforts in the history of alpinism, and all four climbers returned home.
Jeff Lowe, George Lowe, Michael Kennedy and Jim Donini climbed more than 100 pitches of this imposing ridge in Pakistan before Jeff's altitude sickness forced them to retreat just 120m below the 7150m summit. They had been on the ridge at that point for 26 days, after already completing 2500 meters of hard climbing. Yet today, none of the four has any regrets about backing off because they understand that safety is success: Their decision saved Jeff's life and all four are still active climbers.
Many of the best alpinists in the world have turned back from their objectives when all of the stars were not aligned and their best made plans turned sour. Thinking of Steve House’s attempt on the foreboding North Face of Mt. Robson in Canada is a prime example. After completing dozens of difficult pitches and completing one of the hardest WI-7 leads of his career, Steve dropped a stove part in camp which kept his team from being able to produce the water and needed nourishment they needed to safely complete their new route up this magnificent mountain. They made a difficult retreat from high on the wall, only to return a year later to complete this cutting-edge ascent. The mountains will be there waiting if at first you don’t succeed- or is it that living is the ultimate success in climbing?
Compare these two stories with the results of going for it against all odds, Touching the Voidstyle, and the intelligent alpinist should realize that retreat at the right moment is an enabler as it allows us to do more and greater things at a later date. It seems unlikely that any mountain climber in that moment of realizing they have made a big mistake has not regretted their course of action, especially when their decision results in serious injures or the demise of their partners or selves.........
Taking care of the Mountains is Good Karma
No matter what the climber’s religion or spiritual beliefs might be, most can agree that ‘what comes around, goes around’ and that we owe it to ourselves, each other, and especially the Pachamama (Mother Earth) to treat the mountain environment with the ultimate respect. .jpg)
The Cordillera Blanca is too quickly becoming ruined due to thoughtless actions by too many supposed mountain lovers who too easily overlook the impact that they have on the once pristine environments of these sacred peaks and valleys.
This essay is primarily about being intelligent in the high peaks so that we may continue to greet each other for many years to come. And as such, it is a smart decision to approach this art of mountain climbing with a respect and admiration that approaches ‘worship’ or whatever you want to call it when one does everything in their power to respect and take care of the creatures, meadows, streams, forest, cliffs, glaciers, and all of that which we have travelled so far to visit.
Opening our minds to the effects of our actions (or non-actions) and finding ways to give back to the Pachamama is part of our own self-preservation; for we are all equally affected by these environments and their health and so it upon us to find the balance of purposeful play combined with responsible action.
Sounds good? What can we do? On a practical level: Pick up all of our trash and that of others we find. Work with the local population to find ways to decrease our impact through the creation of communal bathrooms and similar projects. Use minimum impact camping techniques including no fires when possible. And although it is nice to eat fresh trout each day, the population is quickly becoming decimated in many areas and so restrictions on fishing should be proposed, as should grazing animals in pristine alpine settings which as part of a National Park system should be protected and preserved.
Climbers can pick-up their wands, fixed ropes, feces, and all that they haul into the peaks and dispose of these items properly rather than thinking that ‘we are not at home, so we can do as we please’. Freedom is a two-way street, and what goes around, will surely come around.
