Our goal for the day
We knew that the farthest and highest part of the day’s travel would also be the most difficult. Mark and I agreed that we would see what it looked like when we got to the beginning of the moraine. At least, that’s what I thought we had agreed to, but Mark told me later that he had decided at the outset that he was going to go all the way. I was worried that at my advanced age, it might be too much for me, and there’s no way I would have agreed to such an inflexible goal. In fact, Charlie was going to lead a group from the lower end of the moraine around to a place with a great view of the Horns, and I suppose I would not have felt so bad to go with those folks. But here’s what happened:
At around 1:15PM, so almost five hours after we had set
out from the Hostería, we emerged from the forest onto
the moraine that we had been told so much about. It looked very
daunting. In the far left picture (big image;
small), Bill and Olga in the
foreground, and Len and Sue just beyond them, rest a bit and
take stock of the terrain. In the center left (big image;
small), we’re looking up
the slope at the task ahead. The rocks vary from one foot in diameter
to five feet. In the center right picture (big image;
small), Janice and Mark rest and have
a little snack, while Carola, who showed boundless and limitless energy,
stands watching over us. The far right (big image;
small) shows one of the many glacial rills
that we saw flowing down the opposite slope.
And then we started the climb from rock to rock, or sometimes just between the rocks. Len and Sue had gone on before us, and maybe Bill and Olga too; Carola had started out guiding a whole bunch of us, and her group gradually shrank. Sometimes people went on ahead, since let’s face it, Mark and I were much slower than most people. Sometimes people gave up the fight along the way: we passed Sue sitting on a rock, waiting till Len should return, and at some point Janice decided not to go on, and turned back, to pick up a bunch of the others who had rushed on up ahead and were coming back already. So the outcome was that Carola was shepherding just Mark and me. This was wonderful for us: she was endlessly patient and understanding, giving us pointers on which way to go, how to negotiate this or that tricky passage, and in general being very supportive.
Three quarters of an hour later, around two o’clock, Carola suggested
that maybe we’d like to rest and
have another bite to eat. She was still lively and animated, but if you look at
Mark in the two pictures, you see he has exactly the same exhausted
expression on his face. That’s not sweat you see, by the way:
when the sun came out for a while, I pointed out that we’d better
protect ourselves with some sun screen. Left picture (big image;
small), right (big image;
small). By this time, I was hot and
sweating, and took off my shirt, to walk and climb just in a t-shirt.
But as we got higher, the air did get cooler, and rain seemed imminent.
In another forty-five minutes, by 2:45PM, we were up,
we had made it. A gentle rain had started, and
the Horns were wreathed in cloud. It was up to our imaginations to picture
what the glacial pond below us would look like in sunlight, with its
gray-green water. A few dozen people gathered to rest, eat, enjoy the
view, and steel themselves for the descent.
Far left picture (big image,
small); center left (big image,
small); center right (big image,
small); far right (big image,
small).
I was dreading the descent, back down through the moraine: in most cases, going down is far trickier than climbing up. But with walking sticks, which hardly help you at all when you’re climbing up boulders, the descent was not so bad and not as dangerous as I feared. Not that there was no risk at all: twice I heard a scrabbling sound behind me and turned to see Mark’s feet slipping forward and going out from under him, causing him to land on his rump. The second tumble was particularly bad, so that after several days, he had a notable bruise down there, which I’m afraid I have no picture of, even though of course I would never show it here. Anyway, when Carola saw how concerned I was at Mark’s falls, she said, “You two are buddies?” With a smile, I allowed as how we were that.
The rain fell lightly and steadily for most of the rest of our day. I was glad when we finally got out of the moraine and back into the forest. But there was still a hell of a long walk ahead of us. We were exhausted long before we got back to the Hostería, but it was just a matter of trudging till we made it. I think it was about 6:30 when we got in. Or was it 7:30? It felt like 8:30, but according to Mark’s diary, it was actually 6:30. Much later than any of the others, at any rate. But get back we did, and after a welcome Pisco Sour we enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner with the whole group.
Thank you, Carola!
Previous day’s pictures: first half;
second half.
First half of this day’s pictures.
Next day’s pictures.
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