Climbing Chachani, 6075m

Over the last two days, I (Michael) climbed a local 6075m (almost but not quite 20,000 feet) volcano called Chachani.

We set off at 7.30am by 4x4 and drove for three hours into the wilderness and got dropped at 4900m. We saw a family of Guanaco on the drive in (rare relative to llama).

We had a couple of hours hike to the base camp at 5100m. Our group was a lovely Frenchman called Sebastian and our guide Edmundo. We kept seeing Andean Foxes around the camp. We tried to go to sleep at 6pm with limited results as the alarm was set for 1.30am

The next morning we set out at 2am after a simple bread and cheese breakfast. Whilst I suffered no altitude sickness, the thin air was a huge factor. There is less than half the oxygen here that you have at sea level. Simple tasks like tying your shoelace or getting dressed leave you out of breath.

It was a slow plod all the way as you simply couldn’t go faster (see video). It was cold too with -15C temperature. We had to work hard to keep hands and feet from going numb. I wasn’t entirely successful and have frost nip in my right hand but trust it will recover in a few days.

I think this is the hardest thing I have ever done. Plodding in the dark to cover 1000m ascent in 5 hours. To put that in perspective I could do it in 2 hours in Scotland. But here I was always out of breath and my heart was beating like a train because of the altitude.

I was far from certain I would make it. Our group of two (plus guide) overtook a group of 10 on the first part of the climb. We both made it but only two from the other group summited. So 4/12 made it on the day. I did consider giving up about half way.

After reaching the summit and taking some photos we made a fairly quick descent (2 hours). I was completely exhausted by the end of the walk out.Read more