Day 7 - Glacier travel

Today was an interesting day. We woke at 6:30 for breakfast as 7. Ian and I spent a little time organizing our gear before breakfast and even got a little water filtered. We sat down to baked bread and were served warm pancakes, again with a compliment jams, dulce de leche, and honey.

Unfortunately Matthew wasn't able to keep any food down again. After breakfast we geared up and loaded our day packs for a day on the glacier learning and practicing skills. Matthew still wasn't feeling well and elected to stay in camp and rest for the day. The rest of us headed out of camp for a trip to the glacier. We arrived at 16500 feet and left our packs for the morning as we journeyed onto the ice to begin crampon work.

Front pointing, duck walk, and French technique were the three we learned. We practiced going up and down and across all types of terrain. Next up was the use of the ice axe.  And then we combined that for team travel.  The cook brought up a delicious lunch of stuffed local peppers and a roasted dried corn.

After lunch we headed back onto the ice and higher up into a nice snow bowl where we could practice self arrest. Feet first head first and face first, we went down hill any way possible and then stopped ourselves with our ice axes.

Next up was the team self arrest, where a rope team of two would climb up and the without warning the lower person on the rope would begin running backwards to simulate a fall. This was a tough one. We finished our lessons with using ice screws and rappelling. Then it was a short trip back to camp and a little rest before dinner. Dinner started again with a spicy soup that warned me from the inside out. The main dish was grilled Peruvian trout with rice potatoes and style of slaw. We finished with a Peruvian desert of warm spiced fruit in a sauce. Mucho gusto! Then a cup of tea and of to bed to recover.