alex chiang: web 6.0

Mountaineering sounds a lot more fun than it actually is.

Don’t get me wrong — there’s a lot to be said for getting to the summit of a big mound of rock, snow, and ice (even if it’s cloudy as all hell, and you can see only 15 ft. in any direction), but unless you are either:

• a) famous enough to warrant an entire support team dedicated to you
• b) lame enough to have to hire a guide (and porters and cooks) to drag your sorry ass up the mountain

you’ll have your work cut out for you.

Sadly, I am not in category (a), and luckily, I’m not quite in category (b).

So it came to pass that I had to carry all my own gear and food for four days up an annoyingly steep trail for a lot longer than I wanted to have to hike, avoiding burro poop (both fresh and dried) all the while.

On summit day, the sky at 3:30 AM (when I started) was quite clear. Due to my poor acclimatization, I moved slower than frozen snot, and by the time I made it to the summit at 11 AM, it was enveloped in a gigantic murky cloud. Rather anticlimatic, methinks.

But I made it, eh? So — Alex’s first mountain turned out to be somewhat of a success.

Pisco — 5752m (18,981 ft)