Volcan Chancani: Arequipa, PE

-Originally composed April 22-

When Art and I started planning our trip to South America we had a number of activities we wanted to scratch off the list. Art’s number one priority was to learn the culture, improve on his Spanish, and if we had the chance, surf. When I started looking at maps I knew that I wanted to be in the Andes as much as possible, and if doable, climb a peak over 6000m. It worked perfectly that we graduated from the UMN in December and the NOLS course ran from Jan-Feb. This allowed us to travel down there with plenty of time to camp and meet locals, then come out of the course with lots of experience with harsh weather and mountaineering. 

Coming to the end of our trip, we accomplished most of what we planned. The last chunks would be a 6000m peak, a jungle tour and more surfing. 

We originally wanted to climb a big badass peak in the Cordillera Blanca in northern Peru, but after doing our research we accepted this would be out of our experience and hiring a guide was out of our travel budget. A good compromise was a peak we could climb ourselves and that wasn’t too technically demanding. All we would have to do is acclimatize. 

After spending a few days contemplating, we finally decided to try Volcano Chacani. Chachani stands at 6,087m (19,965ft), and is not technically demanding. It’s one of the easier 6000m peaks and doesn’t have any permanent snowpack or glacier. 

Arriving in Arequipa early after a night bus on the 19th of April, we had plenty of time to plan. We took our time in the morning, then paraded guide shops in the afternoon, searching for one that would rent us gear without nagging us to take a guide. 

After trying a couple shops, we landed in the office of Peru Adventure Tours. They were super helpful and said they could rent us gear and get us 4×4 transportation to and from the base. We made a snap decision that we would go up the same day. This would allow us an extra night of sleep up high to acclimatize. 

We scrambled around town to plan our food and water (we had to carry all water since there isn’t a water source), fit our crampons, ice axes, cached extra gear, packed our packs, then jumped in the 4×4 at 4:30pm. It gets dark around 6:00 here, so the plan was to get to the base and setup camp at night. 

We set off and started up the hills. Along the way we had a huge red sunset and Volcan Misti (5850m) was looking pretty under the clouds. It took 2.5 hours to get to a point where our driver (Armando – the man) said he couldn’t go any further. Unexpected snow had fallen and the road was fairly subject to tipping a car if we slid. This was around 15,600ft – not bad anyway. Armando dropped us off and we arranged a pickup time of 1:00pm on Thursday, giving us two days to try the peak. So we jumped out and started hiking to where the road was supposed to end at 16,500ft. Around 8:00pm we setup our unexpected snow camp, ate our cold empanadas and passed out. 

I happened to wake up at the sunrise and finally saw where we were camped – also not bad. After the fact we slept in till 10, made our morning oats and coffee and started breaking camp. 

Chef Art, making oatmeal per normal

Denis the Canadian and Jugo. We found thet sugary juice is the best way to get hydrated.

We were definitely feeling the altitude with headaches and rough stomachs. Luckily we had some Diamox to help with the symptoms as we adjusted to the lack of O2. 

After breaking camp we started hiking from the base to the base camp. The strategy was to move slow so we wouldn’t get sick. It was a short move but we spent the better part of an hour scrambling through a huge boulder field along the way. After the scramble it was a quick hike with a small section of elevation gain. Eventually we landed at base camp (17,100ft) and hungout and rested throughout the afternoon. Our plan was to wake up in the middle of the night to try for the summit. 

Basecamp

As soon as the sun went down it got cold. A lot colder than the night before and our water bottles started freezing. All three of us stuffed into my two-man tent to try and keep warm. We made some pasta for dinner (which took 40 minutes to cook because of the altitude), made extra boiling water for a thermos, packed our bags and went to sleep around 8:00.

The alarms went off at 12:00am and we got up and left base camp at 12:30. Even wearing 3 pairs of long underwear, pants, 3 thermal upper layers, a puffy jacket and raincoat, hat and wool Buff, gloves, it was cold. We kept a slow pace uphill and made stops every 30-40 minutes to catch our breath. 

Around 17,750ft we stopped and threw on crampons. The terrain so far had been volcanic sand and rock but we decided to take a route that was hard-packed snow. 

Denis the Canadian, sporting ice gear and misery.

Throughout the night we kept our slow pace and only took breaks long enough to catch our breath. Finally around 5:15 we could see light in the east. We got a view of the summit ridge too. Moving slower than we had before, we walked up the corniced ridge through some unexpected deep powder. After another hour we got to the crater rim and could see the cross on the summit. We finally waddled up to the top to enjoy the fresh sunlight we’d been deprived of. 

So we made the summit (6087m, 19,950ft) at 6:30am, got warmed up, ate what we could force down, and had a maté.

 

We took a few more pictures, and what do you know, some familiar faces from Torres Del Paine and Machu Picchu. Funny coincidence. 

Knowing we don’t wanna stay up high for very long to avoid altitude sickness, we started the long descent. 

After the snow section ended, we found a cool sand slope we could heel ski down. The descent went quick and we made it back to our basecamp around 9:30am. We quickly packed up and started walking towards the base to meet Armando. 

We got to the base at 12:00 noon and were surprised to see Armando was early, just hanging out waiting for us. After a bumpy car ride back to Arequipa, Art and I split with Denis the Canadian. Art and I had to catch an 18 hour bus to Lima, and Denis wanted to stay in Arequipa to do the Colca Cannon trek. 

After arriving in Lima, Art and I booked cheap plane tickets to the town of Iquitos, the capital of the Peruvian Amazon. The next day we left all of our cold weather gear at the hostel in Lima and jumped on a plane to see what the jungle was all about.