CLAWING FOR THE STARS: A SOLO CLIMBER IN THE HIGHEST ANDES
THE PRELUDE: A RENDERING OF MOUNTAINS ASCENDED BEFORE MY SOLO ANDEAN CLIMBS
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We reached the bottom of the Polish Glacier Direct route and stopped to buckle our crampons to our boots. Normally, this is a straight-forward affair. Yet, for some reason, I kept having problems. The others moved off. At one point I stood and stepped forward thinking them fastened securely. However, the right foot crampon came undone and I had to stop and secure it again. Finally, I succeeded, but I now found myself at a distance behind the others, as their headlamps glared across the slopes above me. I tried to catch them by striding faster, although I abandoned that and decided to go at my own pace. At one point, I told myself I wasn't going to join them and the guides would shout down for me to return to camp. That's okay, my inner voice said. I could return next year and try it again. While I was wrapped in this reverie of believing that I would fail to reach the others, I was startled by a shout from Val above me. "Okay, Bob, we're roping up. Judy and your group are here to your right."
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About the Book
In this book, the author describes his climbing adventures prior to his solo mountaineering days. He began with mountains in Ecuador guided by American Alpine Institute, culminating in a climb of the highest peak in the country, Chimborazo (20,564 feet), in 1989. Because of its height and its proximity to the Equator, it is the highest mountain on Earth when measured from sea level and closest to the Sun when measured from the Earth's core. The next year, he went to Bolivia with the same company and climbed peaks there, the most notable, Illimani (21,122 feet). In 1991, he journeyed to Argentina to attempt the highest mountain in the Andes, Aconcagua (22,841 feet), by the difficult Polish Glacier Direct route, once more with AAI. After that expedition, he felt he had the skills to try things on his own, and he tells of certain of those climbs in his, "Clawing for the Stars. A Solo Climber in the Highest Andes".
About the Author
Bob Villarreal acquired a passion for climbing in the Andes later in life and tells of his solo climbs in “Clawing for the Stars: A Solo Climber in the Highest Andes”. In this book, the “Prelude” to “Clawing”, he tells of the guided climbs that preceded his solo adventures. His interest in South America is wider than the mountains, however. He and his wife of fifty years adopted daughters from Pasto, Colombia, and Cuzco, Peru and see them and their grandchildren often. This fascination with Andean countries also led him to write about the conquest of the Incas, as told in his books, “The Adventure Chronicles of Conquistador Pedro de Mérida, Volume I: Almagro, Volume II: Valdivia, and Volume III: Pizarro”. Visit his book site at bobvillarreal.com.