Summits4Kids - It´s my turn now!

Working at K2 for over 10 years means one deals a lot with team riders and all sorts of bums like you who are out there doing what they like best – skiing, travelling and having fun. And trust me, sometimes it is not easy reading all the trip requests and travel reports or update the website with news posts from all over the world when you know you are stuck in the office because of some tradeshow is coming up and it is dumping outside...

There are actually a couple of guys that ask if one would like to join, whether it’s because they became friends over the years or they just want someone with a company credit card on the trip (fair enough, but WRONG thought!). Dealing with all sorts of promotions I got to know Klaus Kranebitter, founder of SAAC, an institution that offers free snow and avalanche awareness camps for skiers and snowboarders where K2 will be a partner of starting coming season. Klaus is also a mountain guide and a photographer which qualifies him about 3 times for being on our product support list. This summer he was joining a project as a photographer initiated by freeskier Laura Bohleber that immediately caught my attention – going to Peru climbing and skiing some challenging mountains BUT also with a cause: operating under the name of Summits4Kids 3 freeskiers are raising money for each peak and will be donating this to social projects for children in Peru.

Now it was my turn to beg to come along. I like adventures, mountaineering, travelling, skiing and the combination of it, I needed to get out of the office and didn’t have a summer vacation plan anyway. The founder of Summits4Kids - Laura Bohleber - and the others of the group, fellow freeriders Marja Persson and Giulia Monego agreed that another porter and basecamp slave would be nice to have. So I signed up, booked a flight straight away and told my boss then I will be gone for more vacation days than I had in the past ten years together.

For a detailed story of the trip, more pics and detailed info on the project visit the Summits4Kids website and the blog, but here´s a short overview what happened over the past 4 weeks.

After one day in Lima due to a national strike we finally made it to Huaraz where we met up with the rest of the crew. After some acclimatisation time we hiked into the Ishinca valley to get ready for our first mission - climbing and skiing down 2 peaks for the Summits4Kids project. After setting up basecamp and organizing all our gear we were dining on Peru´s famous "tucha" (trout)  - one of the beauties if you have a cook with you - under an incredible sunset.

The next day we hiked up to moraine camp at 4900m to make the approach to the snow shorter, and after short night we got up at 3am and started to hike up Ishinca, after 1 hour of rock scramble we put on our crampons and bootpacked all the way to the top reaching it at 7.30am.

After some summit pics we skied down, passing some surprised looking mountaineers. Once back at the camp we packed our gear and kept on going down to basecamp. Unfortunately the weather was too bad to summit our 2nd peak, Tocllaraju, so we returned back to Huaraz.

Looking at other possibilities of skiable mountains for our remaining time window we decided to skip the initial plan as the face of Artensoraju was not in the best conditions to ski and instead we decided to head into the Llanganuco valley (that´s right behind Huascaran) to attempt 2 different peaks there. First Yanapacha (5460m) and then Pisco (5752m), both peaks within the incredible surroundings of Huascaran, Chopicalcqui, the 4 Hundoy´s and Artesonraju in the far distance. The walk to Yanapacha moraine camp is fairly easy, which was good as we didn´t have "burros" this time, and we had to carry most of our gear ourselves. The hike itself is very stunning, incredible mountains everywhere.

Me in front of the Hunadoy range, the peak to the right is Pisco which we skied a couple of days later.

And Huascaran to the other side, with one of our porters coming up.

Unfortunately we had a pretty bad weather day on our summit attempt. Although we left with a sky full of stars the weather turned around and we ended up summiting Yanapacha in a snowstorm. Still it was great climb and once we got out of the wind the skiing was fun too.

After a restday down in the valley we headed over to Pisco basecamp, scrambling over the probably worst morain ever up to the highcamp, and summited Pisco the next day.

So with 3 mountains done we were ready for some treat, and our local porters and guide took us to some truly Peruvian lunch - Cuy (an animal we know under the name guinea pig). It´s not as bad as it sounds, tastes a bit like chicken and is a lot of work to eat.

After some refreshing nights in Huaraz we finally got on the road to Cajamarca to visit both CETA and the Casa de Acogida (Chibolito), the 2 projects we are supporting with this expedition. It was great to see how the kids get help in their struggle for every day live at these places, and what a difference our efforts will have for both projects.

After getting back from Cajamarca we tried again for Tocllaraju, but this time without any porters and cooks. Arriving in basecamp the weather looked promising, and the mountains looked really inviting, even in the dark.

Thanks to the K2 Adventure meal we are all in perfect shape and the hike up to highcamp was not that bad (actually it was since it´s about 700m vertical all straight up with all our gear - tents, skis, boots, ropes etc - making our backs hurt).

The sunset up at highcamp was again unreal, and we were all hoping for good weather the next day.

Giulia, Marja and me at highcamp just before sunset with Urus in the back.

But again nature was not on our side, once we woke up at 2am we were greeted by heavy gusts and strong winds from all directions, but still our hopes were high so we started hiking anyway. Once we passed the glacier and made our way through the serac zone up to the ridge the wind was getting too strong, and we were only able to crawl on all fours. Better to turn around than get blown off the mountain we thought and so we skied back from around 5700m to camp and had some more sleep.

Now we are enjoying some more days in Huaraz before we get back to Europe in a couple of days.  If you ever plan to visit the Cordillera Blanca / Huaraz make sure to stay at La Casa de Zarela! Great place, great host and best breakfast with probably the best view of the Cordillera Blanca in town!

View from Zarela´s patio with Huandoy, Huascaran and Chopicalcqui in the distance.

Overall it was a great trip with lot´s of adventures, but also a very good feeling seeing that with Summits4Kids we were able to help the 2 projects in Cajamarca.

Best thing though is that everybody of YOU can be part of it too. Check out the website and make sure to not leave the site without donating for the project.

We all get to travel a lot, whether for business or pleasure, and we are usually oblivious to the poverty around us, no matter if it is downtown a big city or in a 3rd world country. But it´s very present, especially when you realise that it impacts children the most. There are a lot of charity projects around so it is hard to imagine the money ends up at the right spot, but this time you will really know and see where your money goes to, as we have been visiting the kids and centers and can ensure you the money ends up in the right spot.

Or become friends of the project at our facebook site and spread the word!

Black (Marketing geek K2 Europe)

About the supported projects:

CETA, opened in 1997, provides children and teenagers a safe environment for learning through sport, theatre and arts activities. The Casa de Acogida, founded in 2001, also provides youth with a safe haven at any time of the day or night. Learning opportunities focus around creative activities as well as sport and handicrafts. The centre offers counselling services as well as a permanent home for children who need it.