The Tongue and Meat Andean Expedition

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THE "TONGUE AND MEAT" ANDEAN EXPEDITION MAC RIDING Mention is made elsewhere in this publication of occasional meal) over 700 miles of really rough road the Expedition to the Andes by members of this which included several passes of 15,000 feet or more. club. It is fortunate to be able to include first-hand On arrival in Cuzco we stored the gear in a wareinformation about the adventures of this party and house, then collapsed into the sack to recuperate! it seems fitting for them to have been thoughtful "Thirty-six hours later we were away again on enough to wait until this year before making so many another truck down the Vilcanota River to ascents Chanllay first in this region. In a recent "Post" article where the Vilcabamba Valley has its confluence. We David Hewitt refers to "first reports which have arrived at night and after storing the boxes in an old recently been received by fast llama from Peru". adobe museum provided by the police, we looked for These reports are the ones printed here and were the others. This proved to be no mean task but sent in June by the Rt. Honorable, Keeper of the eventually, under police escort, we found Paul and Light, Mac Riding, Esq. Peter sleeping in a spare room of a building, near The members of the Expedition are Paul Green, a truck yard. They had returned that day from the Malcolm Riding, Allen Higgins, Ken McNatty, Peter reconnaisance. Goodwin, Bob McKerrow, Dick Cowan (H.V.T.C.) "The others returned next day and we began openand John Lawrence. They left Wellington railway ing our tea chests and dividing everything up into station earlier this year, March in fact, and this mule loads. A base camp site had been found and report was brought out of the area by John Lawrence, a good mule track into it- after a week of living off who came out early. Ken McNatty is the leader of the land and a night during which Paul and Peter the Expedition and two of his articles feature elsebivied out in shorts, shirts and parkas, at between where in this publication. It is hoped that they will 12,000 and 13,000 feet. A great effort. be back with us by the time the Club is 21. "On the 25th May, twenty-six mules left the road end for the one and a the Vilca- The Climb half-day of "Torayoc" bamba Valley to Huancacallo, where trip he gear was Although Mac Riding's main objective is to write dumped on the verandah of an old school house. about the climb of "Torayoc", and although he Here we had to wait several days until we found assures us that his writing may need considerable another muleteer who was prepared to take us to editing, he includes a great deal of information about base. Eventually the villainous looking Senor Alvarez the progress of the expedition and it seems approagreed to take the gear in two trips. priate to publish it as he wrote it. It is, of course, "The first load left on the 31st of May and the very suitable for publication. mules were pushed hard to try to make the distance "It took two weeks of interminable wrangling, four in one day. However, we missed out by an hour. It customs agents and dozens of rubber stamps and took some bribing and cajoling next day to get the signatures to clear the two tons of expedition gear muleteer to carry on (he didn't like the look of an and food through customs in Lima a very depressold grassed moraine wall), but a suitable sum clinched ing time. Ken and I had stayed in Lima for this the deal and a local farmer led the way. purpose while the others had gone on to the Vilca- "Base camp was a small grassy flat, the only one, bamba region to look for 'our' valley, the headwaters amongst a wilderness of granite moraine boulders of which are mapped, but nobody knew where it large and small, at about 14,500 feet. Soon the mules drained into the Vilcabamba River our approach departed and the flat was a shambles of gear, food route. and tents. A day's work straightened it out only for "After a final two days of completing Lima it to be disrupted again on the 3rd of June when the arrangements, like changing our money into thoulast load arrived. All the tents were thrown up, gear sands of sole notes (1 sole equals 21 cents U.S.), Ken and food stored under flys, and a stone-walled and I boarded a truck, with the gear, for the journey kitchen constructed with a fly over it. All around to Cuzco. This proved to be a mammoth trip, 60 the peaks towered above, particularly impressive hours non-stop driving (except for punctures and the was Mellizos with its sheer face covered in ruffled ice-flutings. We celebrated the setting up of camp and Paul were starring while Peter, very capably, with a huge feed which dragged everyone to a standacted as director. still. "Again we were jangled into life by the alarm the "We split into two groups on the 5th, and plodded next morning (the 16th), and Peter soon had breakaway under huge loads for a series of training climbs. fast ready. Weetbix and hot milk, followed by a Nobody had been seriously affected by the altitude, brew. The weather had improved and we plodded off apart from shortness of breath, but we wanted a at 6 a.m. The peak looked beautiful in the first rays spell to acclimatise thoroughly. Three days later we of the sun as we reached the first shelf. A short stop were all driven back to base by a period of bad for a photograph, then on round the shelf and up the weather; however, not before doing two first ascents steep slope to the ridge. This proved to be quite and one third. [Says it nonchalantly, doesn't he? narrow and caution was necessary, making us move Editor.] It snowed for four days, an unexpected turn one at a time for a while. of events, as previously the weather had been settled "We traversed out along the second shelf to avoid in what we had been told was the Andean pattern, a rock bluff in the ridge, then up the slope across for five days, with cloud and perhaps a shower for some well-bridged crevasses back to the ridge. Higher a short while in the afternoon. Temperatures, accordup here we found that one side of the ridge was hard ing to the thermometer hanging on the radio aerial, packed snow and the other loose powder where the range from 14°F. at night to 52° F. during the day. sun rarely touched it. We moved carefully but soon "When the bad weather cleared up and we had found another danger some crevasses which were dried out we decided again to split into two groups: poorly bridged straddling the ridge. This decided our Ken, Paul, Peter and I to try Torayoc (height course of action: we dropped off the ridge on to the between 18,000 and 18,500 feet is our guess) and film top shelf below the flutings. the ascent; Allen, Dick, Bob and John to try the "Paul led off across the bridged schrund on to the north face of Mellizos (18,800 feet our estimate). main fluting going up the rib. It was hard packed John had joined us for four weeks on the 8th after snow and the use of front points was necessary. Half flying down from the States. up he drove in one of our big angle-iron pitons, "On the 12th the four of us went for a 'recce' up and Ken led through to the top of the fluting as through the bluffs directly above base camp, while Peter and I followed in their steps. the others swagged off to their base camp below "From the top of the fluting the route was up a Mellizos col. After picking our way through the corner between the rock and a large ice block which bluffs via gullies and snow patches, we found an had no visible means of support. From the top of acceptable route for packing on to the north ridge this block Paul did a fine lead up 80 feet of vertical and the glacier beyond. We descended back 2,000 feet granite. It was either pure friction or out-of-balance to base for the night. climbing. This pitch was top roped to save time. "The next two days were hard work, swagging up "This brought us back on to the ridge, which was loads to the high camp site, which we dug out for composed of rotten rock, as the daily mist enveloped and pitched on a shoulder in the glacier. Two fixed us. One rope length (150 feet) saw us to the end of ropes were used in a gully as a safeguard and an this and where the final snow ridge to the summit aid to balance. An added difficulty was the filming began. We strapped on our crampons again, having which involved spending prolonged periods in dantaken them off for the rock. gerous places. "I filmed Ken and Paul as they moved the final "We were up early to the tune of the alarm clock two rope lengths to the top. They looked to be on the 15th for our attempt to reach the summit of suspended in space owing to the 'white out'. When Torayoc. The weather looked threatening in the they returned, Peter and I moved up to the top and moonlight with banks of dark cloud rolling up from back. It was midday. The summit was very narrow the Amazon basin. We cramponed away up the crisp with steep drops on all sides giving us a very airy snow slopes at 5 a.m., going through the first few sensation, especially as we couldn't see anything but minutes "hell of erratic" breathing caused by the mist. altitude. The first 500 feet was straightforward travel- "We had one of our few stops then for a bite of ling up moderate slopes as the angry dawn lit up chocolate and scroggin before moving back down to behind us. the top of the rock bluff. A falling rock knocked "We paused for a breather at the first shelf in the Paul's ice axe from his hand here and it went bowling glacier and as we stared at our first good view of the away over the edge. Luckily it caught on the edge of moutain's upper slopes, mist began swirling round a snow shelf below the bluff and Paul was able to and light flurries of snow fell. We decided to turn traverse out to retrieve it. For speed and safety we back in case the weather deteriorated further and abseiled down the bluff and the ice block, and to half filming in mist is no good anyway. We returned to way down the fluting. From here we climbed down camp for the day and when the weather improved to the top shelf where a couple of biscuits for smoko' later on we filmed the lower slopes of the peak. Ken were called for.

"We varied the descent from this shelf to avoid itself on the first attempt. Radio silence has had to the ridge skirting under an ice bluff and traversing be maintained since then. No radio! to the second shelf. Caution again was necessary on the steeper slopes as the sun had made the snow