Thadsboner Posted February 18, 2006 Posted February 18, 2006 Climb: Ranrapalca-N.spurr Date of Climb: 8/01/2005 Trip Report: Yea, i know it is kind of a late one but I have been bored lately so here goes. At the end of the trip last year we had about a week till the flight home and there were a few mountains i still wanted to climb. I actually wanted to head over to the coast for a week of surfing before heading back to the states, but 2 guys from sweden i met climbing down there wanted to hit up a hard route as well. Martin Errikson and Erik Martinson (yea, i wish, that would be cool) actually there real names were Martin Errikson and Erik Rodesjo (with 2 dots over the O) were down for the north facee of ranrapalca, sweet, we were out of town the next day. After a whilel you get used to truly CRAZY drivers down there but we had the most SUICIDAL taxi driver EVER on that trip to the mountain. this guy would drive in the wrong lane on corners and play chicken with tour buses, all the time with this crazy laughter and nutty look in his eyes. After surviving that trip we knew that climbing would be the easy part. we camped out for the night in the ishinka basecamp and took our time up to the col right before the north face where we had an open bivvy right on the glacier at 17,000 feet. it was looking like it was going to be a butt ass cold night and Erik, who lives 100 miles north of the artic circle in sweeden commented "AHHH i cant wait to get back to sweden where it is nice and cold" What? your nuts. anyways we were scoping out the routes and they were all heavily melted out. i was up in this valley about 5 weeks before and the difference were huge. what was once a full snow climb was now a mixed rock and snow route. furthermore it was one huge rockfall. we were planning on the north face proper, the scandanavian route but it was a funnel of rockfall from above so we decided on the north spur. a harder route with more rock climbing but less exposure except at the bottom, when sure enough, a serac/rockfall ripped down the lower gully, the access to the upper face. I commented that we should go really fast through there. So we went to sleep and hoped for the best. our alarms went of and we were on the slopes at midnight. we planned to lead it in blocks i would take the first "pitch" through the funnel rockband, under the serack and to the second rockband. it went fine through the rock section pounding pins and climbing in crampons till the serac. we were on Very thin ice with water running under and the HUGE cliff right under us. We just barley made it through when there was some ice fall behind us and we didnt realy want to go back down the route. Erik took the next pitch of steep rock. i fell asleep in the early morning darkness and when i woke up he was back down with the rope coming from his highpoint about 70 feet above. he couldnt link the last 50 or so feet and was lowered down by his belayer Martin. Martin said that he isnt as good at rock as erik and didnt want the pitch. I took the pitch and barley scratched some progress throught the bomber granite and about colapsed when i got back to the ice and snow. Rock climbing is really really tough at 19,000 feet and i was wasted. Higher up on the face we ran into over head penetentes, the hardest thing i have ever moved through. you had to wack them down with your tools and crawl your ass over them. we got to the top and there was a summit rock band (before the huge plateau) that martin lead. it was one of the best positions i have ever been it. truly stunning. steep easy rock 20,000 feet, and a major summit. We got to the top and thats when all the fun started. it took us 12 hours to go up and we headed over the North East side. it took us 14 hours down because of the snow bieng extremely out of shape, steep loose rock 15+ rappels to get to the glacier over over hanging cliffs onetime bieng to the very end of the rope on a loose boulder. when we got the the small glacier below we were then really lost with many dead ends and cliff when we barley found a way into a crevass and ice climbed our way out then we couldnt see anything because it got dark. we were still at about 19,000 feet when the darkness came and we stumbled our ass down for more rappels, next to waterfalls and all sorts of fun obsticals till we finally reached the ishinka glacier where it wasent over yet. we got crevassed out and and had to head up hill to ishinka almost up to the top, just to get around the crevass that was blocking us and onto the main cattle trail of the mountain. We finnally crawled back to camp through the boulderfields and back to camp where our alarm clocks went off from the night before to tell us to get going. 24 hours on the go. heading down Erik told me that he was so tired at the end going through the boulder fields that he would fall asleep at the many rest stops and would think "they cant tell i am sleeping, i have my sunglasses on" we hiked down and 2 days later i was back in the states in the same old rut working 40 hours a day till this day. The route up was just to the right of the large gully in the middle of the face, route down was on the left in the sun, and camp was a the pass in the lower right. Approach Notes: taxi, burrows, Quote
curtveld Posted February 18, 2006 Posted February 18, 2006 Yea, i know it is kind of a late one.. It's NEVER the wrong time to tell the tale of a cool climb in a far-off place (Peru?) with such gorgeous photos. Quote
skyclimb Posted February 19, 2006 Posted February 19, 2006 Val Kilmer tearing it up down south...... two thumbs up fer shizzy Quote
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