Nevado Pastoruri, Nevado Mateo
Taking a break from the lakes of Ancash, I set my eyes on the snow and ice. I first made my way to Nevado Pastoruri. After a long ride in a shuttle I got to the beginning of the trail, which was pretty high to begin with and so the ascent wasn’t a challenge. In fact, pretty much none of it was. The road was mostly paved, didn’t go at a steep angle, and there was even an option to ride horses.
I decided to walk, taking a look around me at the beautiful scenery. It took probably less than an hour to get to the official viewpoint, and then a couple more minutes in order to get as close as possible to the glacier. There was no option to climb on it, but just looking at it felt quite special. While it wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, it was the first time I’ve seen a glacier.
While Nevado Pastoruri was a nice experience, there wasn’t much to it, and I wanted more. Around 3:15am I was in another shuttle, this time heading to Nevado Mateo. The ride over there was a bit shorter and passed without any issues, I even managed to doze off a little bit.
However, when the shuttle stopped and the door was opened, there was a problem. It was very, very, cold. While taking off my own shoes and putting on the shoes I was given by the tour agency, I struggled to use my fingers and tie the laces. Immediately after I put on the gloves, but I already felt the fingers in both my hands and my feet going numb. While I was okay with the altitude, I wondered if the cold would stop me from reaching the top. Still, I was there and I already paid, so at the very least I needed to give it a go.
After putting on the shoes, I was given crampons and an ice axe to put in my bag to be used later, and then one of the guides helped me put on a harness and a helmet. When everyone in the group finished getting ready, it was time to start.
The trail started by going down a dirt road a little bit, before it quickly leveled. After a couple of minutes it went up and was quickly replaced by rocks. That was the proper start of the ascent to the peak of Nevado Mateo.
Very quickly I fell behind the rest of the group, along with a Belgian couple. Thankfully the group had three guides, so there was almost always someone watching. There were also other groups around, ascending at first, and later on descending. I was more worried about my core temperature and paying attention to my body rather than caring about some people I never met who were in better shape than me.
Somehow, about halfway through the rocky section, I found myself isolated. Too far from the group ahead as well as the couple behind me, I was without a guide, and had to try and navigate the terrain by myself. This was where I slipped for the first time along the trail, when I placed my foot on a very thin layer of ice, which led to a very slippery rock.
Eventually I caught up with some people who sat to rest, at the point where the rocks were covered by snow and the glacier climbing part was about to begin. I had no idea who those people were, and how many (if any) came in the same shuttle as me. I chatted with one of them in English while I took the time to rest, drink some water, and eat a snack while waiting for the Belgian couple and the guide who was with them.
After a little while they showed up, took their own break, and then it was time to gear up. One by one the guide helped us put the crampons, and then tied us all together with a rope, telling us that it should not be loose. Then it turned out I didn’t pay much attention in the beginning, and as a result didn’t have sunglasses, which apparently were needed at the top, but it’s not like I could go back and get a pair. I still had a bit of a tingling sensation in my fingers, and while it wasn’t bad as it was in the start, I didn’t dismiss the option I might need to turn around.
With one more look at the view below, and then a look up to see what’s waiting for us, it was time to start going up the glacier. The guide was at the heading, and I was between the two Belgians. I liked that position, since there was no pressure on me, and if anything were to happen there was someone that would have noticed it immediately.
Keeping the rope to the left, I had the ice axe in my right hand. The steepness of this section made it more difficult than it already was, as I struggled to place the axe and my feet in the right position a lot of the time. I lost count of how many times I slipped and fell on the snow. On the bright side, I wasn’t the only one.
There was no real place to stop for a break, but every now and then I had to stop where I was holding on to the axe and trying to catch my breath. When either member of the group asked for my well-being (that happened several times), I replied that I’m okay, just cold.
As we got closer to the top there were groups coming down, and they gave me a much needed encouragement. Not only they said I’m almost there, they gave me tips on how to climb better, especially after I nearly fell on my face into the snow. They cleared us, and the small group of three adventurers and a guide continued going up.
The people we met were right, there wasn’t much left to go. It might have been less than ten minutes before I stood on relatively flat ground, but it wasn’t quite the top. After a few moments, we kept going up for a few more minutes, using the crampons and ice axes one final time, and then we got there.
The view from the peak of Nevado Mateo was incredible, with lots of white all around. While there were trees, they didn’t feel needed in that place. The mountain peaks all around were a sight to behold and were absolutely worth the difficult climb. I felt proud of myself for making it all the way to the top, and that view was well earned. While I didn’t feel like the sun was a problem, the guide wasn’t happy about my lack of sunglasses (and he presumably knows better than me), and after only a few minutes at the top he told us to start going down. Since it was pretty cold up there, I was happy to do so.
The problem I did have, shortly after getting to the peak of Nevado Mateo, was a sharp pain in my toe, which quickly got more painful. Unsure if it is a reason for concern or not, I informed the couple I was with, and we didn’t waste any time going down.
That being said, it wasn’t easy, nor fast. We descended in reverse order to our ascent, so this time the guide was at the very back. More people were climbing up, and we had to stop often, in uncomfortable positions, to let them go up. Our guide, too, told us to stop quite a few times, and it took me a while to realize this was for our own safety, and that he was taking care of the rope that was holding us all together. And just like on the way up, along that steep section I slipped quite a few times.
Eventually I could see the path starting to shift back into a more gradual angle, and even though it took some time to get there, it was a comforting sight. I was cold, my shoes were filled with snow, but the pain I felt at the top was pretty much gone at that point. As the small group was on a more steady ground, the pace got a bit faster, and when we got to the point where the snow shifted back into rocks we sat down to rest as the guide helped us remove the crampons and put the rope back in his bag.
We were no longer tied together, but we still had a long way to go down, longer than I thought it was on the way up. I found myself struggling behind, trying to be more careful about where I place my feet. At some point when I didn’t look, one of the other two travelers went ahead, and I didn’t see him again until I got back to the shuttle. For the rest of the descent, it was me, the other travelers, and the guide, who kept looking back to make sure I’m not falling too far behind.
I also got to chat with other travelers from a different group as they caught up with us, and that made the rest of the journey easier to handle. Eventually we cleared the rocks and were back on the dirt trail. Within a few minutes I was in the shuttle, about five hours after I started to make my way up Nevado Mateo.