To our great satisfaction and relief, the weather continued fine
and there was very little wind. On the preceding afternoon the snow
had been so soft one frequently went in over one's knees, but now
everything was frozen hard. We left camp at five o'clock. It was
still dark. The great dome of Coropuna loomed up on our left, cut
off from direct attack by gigantic ice falls. To reach it we must
first surmount the saddle on the main ridge. From there an apparently
unbroken slope extended to the top. Our progress was distressingly
slow, even with the light loads. When we reached the saddle there came
a painful surprise. To the north of us loomed a great snowy cone, the
peak which we had at first noticed from the Chuquibamba Calvario. Now
it actually looked higher than the dome we were about to climb! From
the Sihuas Desert, eighty miles away, the dome had certainly seemed
to be the highest point. So we stuck to our task, although constantly
facing the possibility that our painful labors might be in vain and
that eventually, this north peak would prove to be higher. We began to
doubt whether we should have strength enough for both. Loss of sleep,
soroche, and lack of appetite were rapidly undermining our endurance.

The last slope had an inclination of thirty degrees. We should have
had to cut steps with our ice axes all the way up had it not been for
our snow-creepers, which worked splendidly. As it was, not more than
a dozen or fifteen steps actually had to be cut even in the steepest
part. Tucker was first on the rope, I was second, Coello third, and
Gamarra brought up the rear. We were not a very gay party. The high
altitude was sapping all our ambition. I found that an occasional lump
of sugar acted as the best rapid restorative to sagging spirits. It was
astonishing how quickly the carbon in the sugar was absorbed by the
system and came to the relief of smoldering bodily fires. A single