Peru 2007

The Lares Trek.		John on the Lares Trek.
Nearing the pass on the Lares Trek.		The other side of the pass.

Teachers who were on strike closed most of the roads in the Cusco area by covering them with rocks

Heading into the Cordillera Vilcanota

Alpaca

Vicuña.  While Alpaca are domesticated animals actively herded, the vicuña is wild (and endangered).

John at Campa pass.		John climbing Nevado Campa.

Bird life around camp.

Icebergs calving off into a small lake near camp.		The aftermath of one of the three snow storms we had.

Camp on the far side of Campa Pass.		The triangular peak on the left is Pachanta.  Next over is Ccapana (5725m).

First attempt on Ccapana (5725m).

		We headed up to the base of Ccapana with the intent of dropping a load of climbing gear and then heading to the top the next day.  When we got there at about noon, the route look sufficiently easy and short that we figured we could climb it that day.  This was a mistake!  At 4:00pm we turned around 30-40m from the top and with less than two hours of daylight remaining.

Two days later, Adriano and Bill went back to Ccapana and reclimbed the whole thing in order to finish off the last 30-40m to the top.  From then on, both the event and the peak were referred to as "Guillermo's Folly".

Back over the pass, to be "greeted" by more storms.

Pachanta (5727m) on the right, along with two subsidiary high points.  We attempted the left most of these shown in the picture.  The route traversed the bench near the bottom of the picture, climbed the steep slopes to a col, and then proceeded up the ridgeline towards the summit.		Brad and Adriano scouting the lower part of the route.

Heading up the the col and then beyond.  We had anticipated that the summit ridge would present relatively straightforward climbing, but this was not to be and we turned about about half way from the col to the top.

At approximately 5,375m on the Pachanta ridgeline, this could be the highest elevation known natural arch.  In the picture at the upper left, the arrow points to a small white dot in the black rock fin that may or not be visible.  The dot is just above the snow line.  The picture at the upper right is a blowup in which the "dot" is more visible.  It appears white because of the cloudy sky.  At the bottom right is a picture looking through the arch, which is about 5m-6m high.

Heading back to town.		John helping out the local economy.