AMONG ANDEAN PEAKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 10 February 1933, Page 11

AMONG ANDEAN PEAKS

GERMAN CLIMBS IN PERU. The German Andean Expedition, which left Bremen last April to explore the Cordillera Blanca, of White Range, and scale some of the highest mountains of Peru, has established a fine record and details of its achievement have been given in Lima by Dr. Borchers, leader of the expendition. Tko Peruvian section of the expedition (says the Lima correspondent of the London Times) was organised by the German and Austrian Alpine Associations, and included among its members Herr Hein, who took part in the 1928 Cordillera Ileal (Bolivia) expedition; Herr Hoerlin, of Stuttgart University, a specialist in cosmic rays, who took part in the 1930 Himalaya expedition; Dr. Kinzl, geographer; Dr. Schneider, who was a member of the Pamirs expedition of 1928 and the Himalaya expedition of 19301 Herr Lukas, cartographer; and Dr. Bernard, physician to the expedition. Hoerlin. and Schneider were the first to climb the Jonsong Peak in the Himalaya.

The Andean peaks conquered by these redoubtable climbers in order of height are Huascaran, 22,500 ft.: Chopicolqui, 22,000 ft.; Huandoy, 21,300 ft.; Hualcan 21,000 ft.; and Artison Raju, 20,300 ft., peaks which are exceeded in height in South America only by Mount Aconcagua, on the Chile-Ar-gentine frontier. They we scaled between July and September and are all without the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian department of Ancash. The expedition discovered important Inca rums and irrigation channels of preConquisator times in the unexplored Quitarasca Valley. VALLEYS AND CANYONS. In describing the climbs Dr. Borchers stated that the total equipment weighed 5 tons, this being unloaded at Casma and transported inland via Huaraz to Yungay. By mid-May we were able to begin work and left for a general reconnaissance of the northern part of the White Cordillera. On penetrating into the Quitarasca Valley we saw in one striking panorama the immense slopes of the mountain range. This valley joins the Santa Valley through an impenetrable canyon. To pass from one valley to the other it is necessary to climb nearly 7000 ft over the shoulder of a mountain and descend the other side. Such valleys and canyons opening towards the west are typical of all the Cordillera Blanca, and there are a great many of them. The exits from the valleys are always so tortuous and narrow that at first one hardly knows where to turn to penetrate into the mountain range. Rocky cliffs, nearly perpendicular, limit the lower parts of the valleys. They are the work of the glaciers that have cut into the rock during the glacial epoch. To-day these glaciers have gone back to the heads of the valleys. In July the snow was safer for climbing and the expedition decided to attack Huascaran, the higher of whose twin peaks had previously proved invincible. Dr. Borchers described the climb in a lecture at Lima : This mountain, he said, is known to the Indians as “Matara ltaju,” or ice twins. The southern peak of Huascaran is 22,550 ft, and- is approximately 350tt higher than the’ northern peak. The summit between the two peaks is known as the “garganta,” which is Spanish for throat, or saddle as the English mountaineer would name it, and it lies at an elevation of a little over 20,000 ft. We decided on an ascent from the west. On July 16 we left Yungay by mule train, and the same day reached an elevation of 12,670 ft. The following day with nine carriers we climbed up through a thorny “matorral,” dense until iittle by little the vegetation disappeared, and we finally found ourselves on a stony slope. At an elevation of 15,670 ft we erected our three tents on the line of perpetual ice, two smaller tents for the German members of the party and a large one for the carriers. On the third day we began our march across the . glaciers. The ice here has a peculiarity in its formation, consisting of great waves some 140 ft wide and some 70ft high, but still very abrupt in ascent. During this third day there was no very difficult climbing and we reached an elevation of 18,300 ft where a camp was established on a platform of ice. Above us hung the threatening balconies of the ice of the “garganta.” A CHAOS. OF ICE. The following day the climbers experienced great difficulty in forcing their way through the ice formation and were able to advance 1300 ft only. The ice, said Dr. Borchers, was a chaos of walls and bridges separated by deep abysses. Hein and Schneider, he continued, were forced to cut an almost continuous stairway with their icepicks, so that the carriers could ascend with security. Finally all obstacles were overcome, and in the twilight, at an altitude of some 19,670 ft we made our last camp. During the night and the following day there was a storm of such severity that the wind carried away various heavy articles. On July 20 the five German members of the expedition launched the final attack on the summit, while the carriers passed the day resting at the last camp. In the last 300 ft "of the ascent to the “garganta” we'found various fissures in the ice that we were able to cross only with difficulty. The “garganta” is a snow-covered plateau of considerable extension from whichthe ice wall rises up abruptly to the south peak of Huascaran. As the carriers were not with us it was not necessary to cut an ice stairway, as, equipped with alpine-climbing irons, we were able to ascend with relative ease. The snow was hard and secure and we passed rapidly over this section. However, the last 1400 ft of the ascent proved sufficiently difficult. Compact snow with a thinly frozen surface covered the slope to the summit. When treading on this surface one was not aware of the slight resistance it offered until up to his knees in the softer ,snow beneath. If this state of things was disagreeable for the leader it was more so far those who followed, these latter often finding themselves nearly buried. Finally, at 4.30 p.m., we arrived at the summit, being received with dense clouds, icy currents of air, and a temperature of 11 degrees below zero. As rapidly as possible observations were carried out, photographs and cinematograph films taken, and the flag of Peru was raised on a staff which we had carried with us. The flag waved from the summit for four weeks and could later be observed from Yungay. Dr. Borchers, Herr Hein and Dr. Schneider sailed from Lima towards the end of October for Chile in an attempt to scale the Aconcagua (23,380 ft), the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, previously unsealed. Dispatches from Puente del Inca state that the expedition was successful, In-: struments were found at 16,670 ft left by the Lp, Motto expedition, and to 17,000 ft equipment left by Captain Marden, the British climber, who disappeared in an attempt to scale the mountain in 1931. This equipment included preserved foods which the Ger-man-Austrian expedition tried.