We suddenly found ourselves with a chance to once again escape the darkest time of the year to the other hemisphere. And since there’s been an outstanding debt to Marmolejo hanging over us since last year, that’s where we headed again — this time bringing along a companion. To avoid repeating ourselves, we decided to take a different route this time — via the San José volcano, 5,856 m. We did summit San José. And then we spent two days sitting at 5,100 m in a snowstorm that buried us under a meter and a half of wet snow.
That put an end to the Marmolejo ascent: avalanche danger shot up to an indecent level, scrambling through volcanic rubble in that kind of snow was completely leg-breaking, and we didn’t have the time to wait another two or three days for the sun to settle the snow.
Details to follow.
