Thankfully, the next day brought better weather, and we got up at midnight, departing a little before 1:00am. The day before, a couple of British folks had arrived, and we decided to go for the summit at the same time (if our paces matched, which they did). We had all cached our climbing gear at the base of the glacier, so we quickly hiked to there and geared up. Climbing up, we had the pleasure of a clear sky and a full moon, which was one of the most beautiful things I can remember. In the far distance we could see the lights of Huaraz. We were moving quite efficiently and soon got to the bergschrund, after passing a couple of teams. I would highly recommend the light and fast style, skipping high camps whenever possible. It makes for longer days, but otherwise you are humping big loads on your back. The terrain after the bergschrund was not very difficult and we were simulclimbing altogether (the 4 of us). After some slogging up steep snow, we got to the notch before the final 50 meters to the summit. At this point, John hadn't eaten anything all morning, and despite drinking lots of fluids, he looked really bagged. The rest of us were getting tired too. We knew we already had a complicated descent to get off the steep parts, and didn't want to risk getting more tired as the risk of a slip would have increased. So we hung around for a few minutes, and decided to forego the true summit (as did all the other groups that day). We downclimbed to a fixed station, and from there 2 rappels took us to the easier terrain. In the meantime, it is worth mentioning how cold it was - while downclimbing the top section, I nearly lost feeling in my hands, and then got the worst screaming barfies I have ever had (even ice climbing in Canada)... ouch!

The descent went by really quickly, and after crossing a few really dodgy snowbridges on the lower glacier, we were back in moraine camp. We all packed up and descended all the way back to base camp... a long day! Maximo waited for us with snacks and a dinner of chicken curry (made of our pet chicken that was walking around camp until that morning).

	Chacraraju as seen from base camp	Huascaran	Chacraraju from inside my tent

	My tent in base camp, with Chacraraju in the background	Our chicken, Effel	Huascaran

	Tom slogging up to moraine camp, with the valley below	Our cook, Maximo	The broken Chopicalqui glacier

		Me and my tent in moraine camp

	John looking at the worsening weather	and then the weather went really bad	Tom chilling the next afternoon, waiting out weather

	The Chopi glacier	Me attempting a timer shot	me posing

	The roads in Peru are steep!	Crossing the bergshrund	John, Tom, and the 2 British dudes

	Nevados Huandoy	Huascaran Sur/Norte with the shadow of Chopicalqui	morning views

	morning views		Tom

	John	Huascaran	me being really cold

	everyone bundling up	Tom, Tom & John	Huascaran with descending climbers

	downclimbing	rappelling the bergshrund	rappelling the bergshrund

	descending	some Germans in a sketchy high camp	crossing a snowbridge on descent

	descending the glacier	descending the Chopicalqui glacier	Chopicalqui

			Me with the North Face of Chopicalqui