yanapaccha
in my head I have quit 99 times
Mountain: Yanapaccha
Altitude: 17,913 ft | 5,460 m
Location: Cordillera Blanca, Peru 9.0264° S, 77.5769° WI possess a picture from the summit of mt.Yanapaccha along with memories of stunning range of Cordillera Blanca. However, in my head, I have turned down a million times way before reaching the summit. But only in my head.
-“ I am very tired. Why am I climbing, when I can come back to the comfy sleeping bag? “
-“Come on, you already have gotten out of the sleeping bag — that was the hardest part. Keep going.“
-“But isn’t vacation supposed to be about indulgence and laziness?! This glacier is far away from the definition of laziness. And I think my toes are cold.”
-“If you jam for another 30 minutes, you might warm up. And this is what you have been dreaming for... ”
-“But…”
This is a snippet of a dialogue that has been going on in my head at 4 o’clock in the morning while climbing on the glassier of mt.Yanapaccha. On the wast and hilly white plains scarred with seracs, I was split into two parts: a lazy, terrified sluggard and a determined adventurer. I am not deluding myself in thinking that split-personality syndrome is original — in fact I am sure that the syndrome is experienced daily by everyone making a lunch choice between a salad or a hamburger. However, the bickering of these sides becomes more hefty in a more serious undertaking. The argument of my two companions almost cost me a summit.
Located in the Peruvian Andes, Yanapaccha is 5,460 meters high, with a perfect location in the epicenter of Cordillera Blanca, endowed with stunning views of surrounding giants like mt. Chopicalqui and mt.Huascaran . The approach to Camp Morena is a relatively easy two-hour hike from the road (given that your backpack is under 50lbs), rewarding the traveler with a camp at the clandestine lake. Once you pitch your tent on the lakeshore you open your entrance flap to a million-dollar view of aggressive mt.Chalcaraju — a bright post-it note for the purpose of the existence of your campsite. From the camp the summit is within a whisker, separated only by the 40-degree wall and steeply arched side. The approachability attracts relatively high traffic of mountaineers, making Morena Camp almost an alpine version of Grand Central — every morning a couple of teams will leave and during early afternoon a couple more will arrive.
From my experience, mountaineers come in all sorts of physical flavors — short, tall, slim, full-figured, with or without beards, and even female — in short far from the stereotypical portrait of young Edmund Hillary. However, despite different physical appearances and characters, they have one thing in common — the ability to control their mind. Long, and often silent climbs, mold mountaineers into generalissimos of of their internal doubts and hesitations. Without this ability, there will be no summits. And so they go on.
Yanapaccha became my personal battlefield to confront my internal milksop. I was truly amazed at how creative my mind got about coming up with excuses to turn back on every step of the summit day. The thoughts were like a bee hive. The excuses varied from commonplace “I am tired” to more elaborate “My boots are not feeling comfortable; maybe they are leaking; if they are leaking I should immediately get back to the camp to prevent frostbites”. I can only hope that my mind can apply an equal amount of creativity to other endeavors of my life, as the one it had applied to come up with those intricate “mental excuses”.
The battle was over around 8 am in the morning when we reached the summit. And even though it was just halfway, I knew that the internal struggle was over. Later that night I would snuggle in my sleeping bag and eat an alfajor, exhausted less by the physical demands of the ascend, but rather by the mental combat. However, that battle had a happy ending.
