The plane from the aerial photography unit of the Peruvian air force was flying over the white peaks, in search of a signal. The expedition members had shown signs of life just a few hours before, but had they achieved their aim?

Text: David Roca Basadre
Photos: Yanac family archive.

Suddenly, the flight crew, who had been searching for an hour and a half and taking photos non-stop, erupted into joyous celebration. On the northern peak - the highest part of Huascaran, the roof of Peru - the red and white of the Peruvian national flag could be seen. The Yanac brothers - Guido, Apolonio and Pedro - together with their companions the Fortunato brothers and Felipe Mautino and Macario Angeles, had reached the summit of the highest mountain in the tropics. It was 12:35 pm on August 4th 1953, and the 6,780 metre sacred Apu had been conquered by a group of six Peruvians with little modern equipment or clothing, but with all of the courage and tenacity of the people of the Andes.

The press had been following the adventure closely for days: an adventure that had filled their front pages since it began on August 1st.

The first Andean mountaineers
The Cordillera Blanca has always been an object of fascination for all those who know it. The Spanish conquistadores chronicled their first view of this majestic mountain range, when Hernando Pizarro described it in the following terms: "The interior of the country is very cold and there is much water and snow, but the coast is very hot and it rains very little and the moisture here would not be enough for growing crops without the water from the highlands to improve the soils enough to produce abundant cereals and fruits".

However, the concept of these great peaks as a sporting challenge is a modern one, although it can be compared to the ritual expeditions made in order to offer sacrifices to the mountain gods by priests from the region's principal pre-Hispanic ceremonial centres.

There are few traces of those first mountaineers, and even less evidence of settlements, for it is difficult to grow enough food to sustain a permanent population over 4000 metres above sea level.

The absence of such evidence and the difficulty of the local terrain make it easy for us to accept the common assumption that the first person to come close to conquering this peak was the American climber Reginald Ennock, who reached 5000 metres above sea level at the beginning of the 20th century.

A few years later, in 1908, the journalist and adventurer Annie Peck (see box) - also from the United States - reached the northern summit in the strong arms (according to her own account) of her two local guides. However, many doubt the veracity of Peck's account of her expedition, although nobody would deny her claim to be the summit's highest female achiever. Finally, in 1932, an Austro-German expedition led by Dr Philip Borchers conquered the 6768 metres of the mountain's southern summit.

The Yanac brothers and their friends
The group of friends worked for the development ministry in charge of the region's lakes, some of them situated at 4,500 metres above sea level. They would gaze up at the peaks of Huascaran and the idea of climbing the mountain took root in their minds. They just needed a pretext. Meanwhile, in their free time they developed and practiced their own climbing techniques.

A group of Mexican climbers, returning from an attempt on the summit, left behind much equipment that would facilitate the Peruvian climb. The Mexicans said they had reached the north peak, the highest of all. The challenge had been issued.

The Yanac brothers and their companions were ready for the challenge. They sought support from institutions and local companies and by August 1st 1953 they were finally ready to begin the ascent.

They did not have the best equipment: there boots were so ill-fitting that they had to stuff the toes with cotton wool. Their crampons were cumbersome, their ice axes were homemade, their floorless canvas tents meant they had to carry ichu grass to sleep on, while their backpacks were fashioned from ordinary suitcases, the ropes they were using inadequate and their food consisted of toasted corn and dried venison. Together with a collective iron will, these were the team's only weapons as they launched their attack on the peak.

The ascent and the summit
The climb to the summit would take four days, and it began at 9 am on August 1st with the hike to the base camp at 4,500 metres above sea level, "in a sheltered area, surrounded by quinua fields from where the Callejon de Huaylas could be seen", according to Apolonio Yanac. The next day, after overcoming crevasses that occasionally gave way, they reached 5,700 metres, where they made camp and spent the night.

They found food that had been abandoned by the Mexicans and, as prearranged, at 7 pm they sent up green flares to indicate that they were well.

The next day, August 3rd, they embarked on the riskiest stage of the climb, crossing crevasses and snowfields that took them to a great wall of ice. The Mexicans had left a rope that made the Peruvians' ascent easier. The scaling of the wall took several hours, after which the team continued for two hours more to an altitude of 5,900 metres, where they pitched their tents once more. It was difficult to sleep: they sent up their flares and simply held on until the next day in temperatures of 25 below zero. 

Tuesday August 4th saw the team in high spirits despite their tiredness. A few incidents would endanger the whole group that day: slips that could easily have been fatal at such altitudes, as well as a few knocks that slowed down Felipe Mautino and Macario Angeles. 

After climbing a steep ridge, surrounded by fragile crevasses, they reached the summit at 6,780 metres: something no Peruvian had ever achieved before. They celebrated while the rest of the team caught up with them. 

They found no trace of the Mexicans at that altitude. Returning first to their base camp, the climbers left the mountain. All the villages in the area were flying the Peruvian flag and there were celebrations as far away as the capital of the republic. The Yanac brothers and their team mates had made one of the greatest sporting achievements in history. The national press made much of their feat and the foreign correspondents filed their stories around the world. Subsequently the Yanac brothers would conquer Aconcagua, before travelling to the Himalayas. But that is another story.

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