The Story.

Our story begins when we arrive in Lima, Peru, and hop on a bus to the mountain village of Huaraz. Huaraz is nestled in the Peruvian Andes at about 10,000 feet above see level and is also the staging ground for climbing and trekking in the surrounding Cordillera Blanca range. The largest mountain in Peru, Huascaran is visible looming over the village and taunted us day and night saying "climb me, climb me, you don't need to acclimate. We resisted and found a few things to do to occupy our time, hiring the transportation and mule drivers in to base camp and also a day of bouldering just outside of town.

After 2 days of acclimatizing in Huaraz we traveled to the trail head of the Santa Cruz languash in Cashampampa. We met with our previously hired Arrieos (burro driver), Loaded up, and started our two day trek to base camp. The first day of hiking was un eventful yet showed us glimpses of the mountains and views to come. That night we camped at a popular camping spot named LLamacorall although we didn't see an llamas there there was definitely no shortage of live stock. Burros, cows and horses...even the occasional chicken pursued around the camp site. Llamacorral is at about 11,300 so we had been steadily gaining altitude for the whole day. Everyone was feeling good with the exception of Joe who was starting to have the early signs of altitude sickness. Headache, nausea, and just a general feeling of blah... the next day we hiked to 14,000 feet where to base camp that serves as the launch pad to Alpamayo and it's neighboring summit Quitaraju.

Reaching base camp was not as easy as the previous days hike. The elevation gain was quite substantial. We had climbed from 11,300 to 14,000 feet with the second half of the day being a series of switch backs following a river bed to the edge of the glacial moraine, at which point we parted ways with our mule driver and now it was our turn to be the mules. At the end of the day Joe was feeling worse and it was decided that if his condition didn't improve by morning he would stay in base camp and follow us up to the moraine or col camp in a few days, if he started to feel better.

The next morning the sky was cloudy which we took as a good omen. The long day of climbing through the moraine would have been miserable with the sun beating down on us. Joe still felt bad, but decided to go up to moraine camp with a light load and see how he felt while moving. So we put on our big packs and started the the long slug up to 15,500 feet. The climbing didn't require ropes or safety gear, a fall might not have been fatal, but it really wouldn't have been fun either. So we climbed casually up the terrain was loose gravely and tricky to negotiate especially carrying our large packs...It was a long uphill slug no other way to put it. It took us about 6 hours to get to the top, although TJ and Joe made it up much quicker. Joe was moving pretty quick for a sick guy and TJ...well he practically flew up the mountain. Keith and I took the tortoise pace and stopped a lot drinking water and enjoying the view. The higher you got on the moraine the more you could see the surrounding mountains and the valleys below. Artesonrajo revealed itself to us and provided a photo opportunity that we just couldn't resist. We also started seeing other groups of climbers coming off of Alpamayo...they looked like ants as they repelled of the col far above us.

We set up camp on the edge of the moraine where the glacier meets the rock. The weather was still cloudy but with the new moon, we hoped for clear skies in the days to come. We then said "adios" to Joe who was still feeling blah, as he made his way back to base camp and TJ Keith and I squeezed into TJ's two man tent. We decided to stay at this camp for two days to do some extra acclimatizing and also to see if Joe's situation would improve. Keith had brought his two way radio and we where able to stay in contact with Joe and stay updated on his status. He was better the next day but still felt as though climbing would be a risk so he stayed in base camp and wished us good luck. Joe being in base camp and having radio contact with us ended up being a very important factor in the next days events as you will see.

Keith, TJ, an I prepared for the next days climb. Our destination was col camp situated at 18,000 feet. To get to the col camp you have to ascend a two pitch technical section of snow and ice that goes up over a saddle from the north to the south side of Alpamayo and then you drop down on the other side of the saddle into a the col camp. We got all of our gear ready and went to bed early because for the next days climb we got out of bed at 4:OO. the night went by quickly and the morning showed us clear skies and a brisk temperature. Perfect weather! We knew our patience had paid off.

As we started climbing I realized, I was higher on any mountain that I had ever been in my life. I felt great and with each step up I saw more and more magnificent scenery. Reaching the base of the col took about 4 hours of glacier travel the sun was coming up and the summit of alpamayo was becoming more visible as we climbed up each section of the glacier. The crevasse where few and the snow conditions where excellent. The only tricky spot was a steep section that had a rather large gapping crevasse directly below it. I moved over it quickly and realizes that I was almost to the bottom of the col. I arrived at the col first with TJ just behind me. Keith was a little ways back and TJ and I sat down on our packs to take in the view and wait for Keith as we needed to rope up for the technical section of climbing above us.

We had been sitting down for only a few minutes when something very bizarre happened. TJ who had been feeling great, and showing know signs of any altitude sickness, had a seizure. I am not medically trained but I tried to keep a cool head. I have never been with a person when they are having a full on seizure, so I was quite confused as what to do. The most immediate concern was to make sure that he didn't start an uncontrolled slide down the mountain. Thankfully the ground below the col is relatively flat and he didn't slide very much so I just held onto him, made sure he wasn't going anywhere and waited for the convulsions to stop. All of these things where running through my head. Should I stick something in his mouth, No that is not the right thing to do anymore, but it really didn't matter I was mainly concerned with keeping him from sliding, I was also waiting for Keith to come up because, he is a paramedic and and I wanted him here NOW.

A few minutes later and Keith was within shouting distance so I yelled down for him to drop his pack and get his butt up here "TJ is having a seizure" the first thing that came to my mind was that he had high Altitude Cerebral Edema. Otherwise known as HACE. If a climber gets HACE it is imperative to get them down to lower elevations immediately. I'm not medically trained, but I do know that HACE means that your brain is swelling and the you will die if you don't get down, and A seizure is an advanced state of HACE, which didn't seem consistent with how well TJ and done until this point. Questions where racing through my head but the one thing I knew for sure was that the rest of this day was going to be about going down the mountain as fast as we could

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Now Keith was here and he was taking TJ's pulse helping me get him into a safer position. Keith and his paramedic experience and insight was welcome, as we waited for the seizure to subside and for our friend to regain consciousness. The confusion he was experiencing as he started to wake up seemed dangerous so we decided to wait about 1/2 hour before moving down the mountain. We took as much heavy stuff out of his pack as we could and he finally came back to full consciousness and was eventually able to walk. We roped up, Keith in the back TJ in the middle and me in the front. If anything happened this way we felt that we could arrest a fall. We started down, but soon reached the steeper section of climbing that we had come up with the large crevasse below it. It was necessary to belayed each other down. We went in the same order, me then TJ who was seeming better with each step down, and then Keith. Keith was 1/2 way down the climb when TJ had a second seizure. This time, we where on a steeper slope of snow and he began to slide a little. I grabbed TJ with one hand and tried to keep Keith on belay. I had to make a choice. Let go of the belay, the safety line that was going to Keith, and trust that he would be safe. Or let go of TJ and hope the anchor we had set would hold and he wouldn't slide anymore. I yelled up to Keith and he seemed fine, he was climbing strong and knew the situation....I told him he was on his own. I felt bad for letting Keith in a dangerous situation, but felt as if a had no other option.

Keith's experience and cool head got him down quick and safe and helped, with TJ. We noticed that TJ had both seizures while at a resting point. This time we decided to keep him moving at all costs. We didn't wait for TJ to come back to complete consciousness this time, so we knew we where going to have to have him slide down the glacier while we had him roped closely to one of us. We had no choice but to leave his pack behind. Again I was in the lead and this time I was close to TJ only about 15 to 20 feet of rope between us. Keith was farther back with two ropes attached to TJ and as we came down the mountain, he acted as an sort of an active belay always ready to stop a fall if one happened. We moved slowly down the mountain, first with TJ in a sitting position and the as he came back alert, he started to walk under his own power, and again slowly started to show signs of improvement.

Earlier we had made radio contact to Joe down at base camp and told him of the situation He was on his way to the moraine where he would meet us and help with the rest of the down climb. I am not sure of the amount of time it took us to get from the col back down to the moraine camp but I'm sure it was somewhere in the vicinity of 2 to 3 hours. By the time we met Joe at the moraine it must have been at least noon. TJ had improved and was fully conscious once again. Joe met us at the moraine and it was decided that he would down climb the moraine with TJ and Keith and I would stay up at moraine camp and go back to get TJ's pack. We didn't discuss this much as we knew the urgency of keeping TJ moving down.

Keith and I started to take inventory and relax at the moraine while Joe and TJ continued down. Almost all of the food that we had in our group was still in TJ's pack, along with the iodine tablets that we used to purify the water that we retrieved from a nearby pond. We decided to set up camp, boil some water and eat what food we had. Both of us where extremely exhausted at this point, both mentally and physically and where in need of some rest before going back for the back pack. It took Joe and TJ about 2 - 3 hours to get down the moraine. They where moving slow but going down and that was the important thing. I think we all felt secure that TJ was going to be fine now, he was off the glacier and almost back to base camp, there are small trees at base camp, running water. The high point that we had made it to was 17,500 and base camp was back at 14,000.

TJ and Joe had made it down to base camp and TJ had a 3rd and final problem. Joe had realized that once that stopped moving TJ was getting confused and couldn't answer some simple questions. Joe ran over to a neighboring camp and asked if anyone in the group was a doctor or if anyone had a drug called Dex. Dex will reduce swelling in a person who is experiencing HACE or HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema). No one had any, so Joe decided that TJ needed to go down further and fast. He called me and Keith on the radio and gave us the news. Joe didn't take the time to break camp or pack any gear he just grabbed TJ and started moving him down the trail. TJ was again, out of it and unable to move so Joe, was actually trying to carry him down. He didn't get very far and a fellow climber came to help. His name was John and he really saved the day. He had hired a mule driver to stay at the base camp with him and his group while they attempted the mountain. His mule driver had one horse in the group and he was offered the horse and driver to carry TJ farther down the mountain. Joe gladly excepted and once again...had TJ on his way down. It only took a few hundred feet of elevation drop for Joe and to notice TJ's improvement. He got better quick and didn't have any more problems for the trip. Joe and TJ continued down from base camp. the destination was a small camp below the switch backs where the Santa Cruze trail intersects with the trail leading to Alpamayo and Quitaraju trail.

Meanwhile Keith and I had packed up camp and lugged our gear down from the moraine to the base camp. By the time we got to base camp we where both exhausted. The gear that was left at moraine camp consisted of Keith gear, My gear, whatever Keith and I had pulled out of TJ's pack, and a small amount of Joe's gear from his first ascent to the moraine. So between the two of us we fairly loaded down. When we got to base camp TJ and Joe had been down at the crossings camp for over an hour. On the radio again and we realized that TJ and Joe had no gear and the sun was going down. I loaded up again and stuffed a pack full of gear and was on my way down the trail thinking of my two buddies shivering as the sun was going down over the south ridge of the Cordilleras. Joe and TJ where able to get a fire going with the help from two Arrios Drivers and kept warm until I arrived, we set up camp and finally where able to rest after the longest day of our lives.

TJ slept well through the night and we kept close watch over him up and woke him up every hour asking him questions and making sure he was ok, When morning rolled around we woke up and he seemed fine. From that point on he recovered and didn't have any more problems. Keith packed up the base camp and used the same mule driver to help us that had helped TJ and Joe the day before to bring our gear down to the crossing camp.

After TJ recovered I had the opportunity to think about the previous days event and I was and still am, impressed with our groups ability to do the right thing and do it quickly. Keith, Joe, and myself where responsible for a large part of TJ's safety, but TJ himself had to do much of the actual descending on his own power while in a very foggy state of mind. If he had not regained consciousness and been strong enough to rescue himself we would have had a very tricky and involved rescue process from our high point, to the nearest Mountain town of Cashampampa. the fact that he was able to assist in his rescue is a testament to his inner strength and drive.

Now we where faced with another dilemma. We where originally prepared to make the two day hike back to the trail head but in our present situation it seemed like a better idea to get out quicker. If we could find a group of Arreos drivers, and hire them to help with our loads we might just get out in one day. That was our new goal. TJ seemed fine, aside from being very sore, but we started to notice he had small memory gaps about things that where happening that day and on our way up the trail. Another problem was that since we had jettisoned TJ's large expedition pack, and taken out quite a bit of the gear, we where carrying very heavy loads. The goal was to get down to the Llammacoral camp and try to hire an Arrios, so after basking in the sun and eating what food we had we where on our way.

A few hours of slow moving and we found what we where looking for, a group of porters and a mule and we hired them to help us carry our load. At this point we had achieved our goal from the last two days. We realized that there was a good chance of making it back to the trail head and finding a transport back to Huaraz. All we could think about was getting into town and enjoying a nice cold tall beer. This was the high point of the trip for me. My friends where all safe, we had all pulled together, remained calm and everything was ok. We pulled out our summit banner and had a photo taken, this had become our summit .

With the help of the Burro and Porters where where back to Cashampampa by 6:00, and hired a van full of happy locals to drive us back to Huaraz.
Because of our shortened trip in the mountains we had more time to spend in Huaraz and experience the culture of the area. The people where very hospitable we made a few friends, ate good food, drank good beer, and even went to a Peruvian birthday party.
The trip was a great adventure, one I will never forget.

Thanks again to everyone who supported our trip and showed interest in seeing a few local guys attempt to climb the worlds most beautiful mountain.

Tim Barrons