Peru - Cordillera Blanca 2021

Peru - Cordillera Blanca 2021 (2.7. - 5.8.2021)

The blog was prepared by our athlete Bor Levičnik. (bottom row, third from left to right)

The idea for the expedition to Peru was born at the end of 2019, when, like every year, we had a final campaign with SMAR (Slovenian Youth Mountaineering Team) in Buzet, where we set goals for the coming year. Unfortunately, last year the situation was quite unfavorable for travel, so we decided to postpone the idea for a year. We chose the Cordillera Blanco mountains as the destination, and we were staying in the city of Huaraz the whole time, which is an excellent starting point for the mountains.

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Members of the expedition, from left to right, top to bottom: Blaž Karner, Matija Volontar (leader), Krištof Frelih, Matevž Štular, Žiga Rozman, Bor Levičnik. Photo: Katarina Rogelj

Personally, I went to Peru without too many expectations, as training and serious fitness preparations were prevented by college and illness just before departure. However, I managed to more or less pull myself together at the beginning and so our first acclimatizations went without any problems and we were quickly motivated for the main goal. For the first acclimatization, we decided to go to Hatun Machay, which is actually a granite forest with large boulders up to 30 meters high, where sport climbing routes are drilled. The climbing area itself is already located at 4250 m, so your body is already getting used to the altitude while you climb attractive routes in granite.

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Hatun Machay climbing wall, Photo: Matija Volontar

After two days of rest, Matija and I decided to go on our first serious hike to the east face of the Sphinx (5450 m), which is a very popular destination for both acclimatization and pushing our own limits. After a day of driving and access, we set up a five-star bivouac about an hour's walk away from the wall. The next day, we climbed the Original route 1985, VIII-, 750m, which we climbed in about 7 hours. The altitude was already familiar, especially since my forearms were tingling in the stretches where I usually warm up. So we abandoned the ambitious plan to climb another route and instead descended into the valley the next day, mentally preparing for the upcoming main goal.

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Starting point for the Sphinx Wall – Laguna Paron

Matija in the opening stretches of the Original route 1985

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Detail of the route, photo: Matija Volontar

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On the descent from the Sphinx

After three days of rest, we felt we were ready for the long-planned climb of the north face of Hualcan (6122 m). The face was first climbed only in 2017, when Aritza Monasterio and Alik Berg climbed a new route. The mountain was climbed from this side so late because it is quite inaccessible and invisible from popular tourist routes. When we mentioned our plans to Aritza, he expressed his interest in joining us and we welcomed him with open arms. So Matija, Blaž, Matevž, Aritza and Bor set off under the wall of Hualcan with the desire to climb two first-class routes. Blaž, Matevž and Aritza imagined a route leading to the west summit, while Matija and I flirted with the crack leading to the main summit.

On the first day we were able to take a closer look at the climbing line for the first time and from the glacier it looked extremely attractive, as it had just the right amount of snow, almost no objective dangers, a good place to bivouac and the difficulties concentrated in the lower part of the wall. The next day, after about 200 m of climbing, we realized that not everything was so rosy, as we were having problems with large snow mushrooms that could not be easily bypassed, in places unworked vertical and overhanging snow and consequently poor protection. Of course, there were also sections of compacted snow and good ice, but they were shorter than we would have liked.

After 12 pitches, we reached the ridge, which was one big snow mushroom and not an easy passage, as we had initially expected. So, progressing along the ridge was impossible and we decided that the easiest thing to do would be to make a short transverse descent on the rope and look for passages lower down. We repeated this twice more. In the last rays of light, we tried to make a memory of the terrain in front of us, but everything at night is quite different from what you see during the day (and from afar). So I started climbing the last pitch of the day and after the pitch ended, I climbed to the top of the ridge, where I expected a leveling for the bivouac, but the wall in front of me just drops steeply to the other side. It takes me quite a while to figure out roughly where we are, then I look down and see that we climbed one pitch too high. So we made a quick descent and at 11:00 PM we started setting up the tent.

The next day we decided to start later, as it would be warmer. The late start ended up hurting us, as the sun shone for exactly one hour, and then the fog and wind completely chased it away. The climbing itself was technically easier on the second day, but we were surprised by sections with large seracs and poor snow. Just when we thought we were at the end of the climbing and the rest was just easier snowfield, the last 60 meters probably kept me busy for more than an hour. After about 30 meters of good ice and rock jumps, a 20-meter almost vertical snow mushroom appeared above me, forming the eastern peak of Hualcan. Without any reliable protection and smart support for ice axes or legs, we still had to overcome these last few hellish meters accompanied by wind and fog. Shortly after me, Matija reached the top and we practically immediately started descending, as the weather had deteriorated considerably at this point, and we still had a challenging descent ahead of us, which was made even more difficult by our exhaustion. At night, we reached Lake Cocha, where we set up our last bivouac and fell asleep practically immediately.

On the fourth day we went down to the road and found transportation back to Huaraz. We named the route Virtual Insanity. In the same time frame, Matevž, Blaž and Aritza also climbed the first route Knights and Days .

Satisfied with the result, we celebrated in Huaraz as befits and slowly prepared ourselves physically and mentally for the next climb. However, almost all of us had health problems towards the end, so we had to miss the last tour and were forced to rest. In short, a great month, where almost everything fell into place for us, especially the most important thing: that we got along great and really had a great time 😊 .

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