Listen to Your Elders

On the way up to Ranralpaca, we met one of the strongest local professional guides coming down the trail. This guy had done Tocllaraju's West Face Direct from Ishinca Base to Summit in 12 hours - a true Inca warrior of a very high calibur! He advised us to take a steeper line to the left on Ranralpaca's East Face, far from the Normal Route up. We took his advice. These two guys from a Mexican team shown here are just starting the Normal, about 90 minutes behind where we would have been. Seconds after this pic was taken, hundreds of V8 engine block sized rocks fell from the second cliff band a thousand feet above them and completely enveloped them - the Inca are strong, but the Aztecs are brave as f*ck! They stood their ground and dodged left and right - and survived. Witnessing that was one of the longest 5 seconds in my life. Had we been on the Normal and higher up as originally planned, we would almost certainly have been killed.