Yarupa and Other Peaks, Cordillera Raura. Our expedition was composed of Ottavio Bastrenta, Fiolin Gugliermo Bertino, Gian Battista Campiglia, Giuseppe Ferrari, Vittorio Lazzarino, Renato Lingua, Piero Malvassora, Corradino Rabbi, all instructors in the Giusto Gervasutti National School of Alpinism, and myself as leader. Our porters were Rómulo Carascal, Natividad Bedón, Sergio Callupe and Federico Livia, and our head arriero, Virginio Aldave. Since our first objective was the unclimbed east face of Yerupajá, we left Chiquián on June 12 and via the village of Pogpa and the Camino Pass (14,750 feet ) crossed around the northern end of the Cordillera Huayhuash to reach Carhuacocha at the foot of Yerupajá’s great east face on June 14. After a day’s snowstorm we discovered that the icefall below the face was a veritable trap which had grave dangers for placing camps. Because of continuing bad weather we went on to our second objectives in the Cordillera Raura. From June 17 to 19 we went over the Carnicero Pass, through Huayhuash village, over the Jarara Pass, past Lake Ciconga, over the pass down to the Quebrada Pucaranra, over a small ridge and up an unexplored valley that led north to Base Camp at 14,200 feet (Valley of the Italians). East of this valley rose virgin peaks in the northwestern chain of the Cordillera Raura. On June 28 Rabbi and Lazzarino made the fourth ascent of Yarupa (18,726 feet) by a new route, the steep west face and the exposed south ridge, all on ice. Bertino, Rabbi, Campiglia, Bastrenta, Malvassora and I made the first ascent of Yarupa Norte (18,406 feet) after several unsuccessful attempts on the north ridge. We climbed the west face, which is steep at the beginning but then runs into the gentler south shoulder, from which we reached the summit easily. Other first ascents were on the crest that runs northwest from Pass 5150 just north Yarupa Norte (from southeast to northwest): Matador* (18,045 feet) on June 21 by Bastrenta, Ferrari and porter Carascal by north ice ridge, which was of moderate but continuous difficulty and had great exposure to the east; Culí ( 17,422; "Sparrow" in Quechua; off the main crest to west of previous peak) on June 21 by Dionisi, Lingua, Bertino and porter Bedón via moderately difficult north ice face and by Rabbi, Malvassora, Lazzarino and Campiglia via moderately difficult east-southeast rock and ice ridge; P 5170 (16,962 feet; north of Pass 5100 on June 23 by Bastrenta, Campiglia, Ferrari, Lazzarino and Bertino via moderately difficult glacial southeast face; Calua ("White Hood" in Quechua; 17,356 feet) on the same date by the same climbers via east face on very difficult mixed rock and ice; Pucacalle ("Red Street" in Quechua; 17,635 feet) on June 23 by Dionisi, Rabbi, Malvassora and porter Bedón by south-southwest and east faces entirely on ice, and finally the south ridge 500 feet below the summit, the last section being very exposed and up to 60°.

Giuseppe Dionisi, Club Alpino Italiano

*The Italians have given some of these peaks names for famous Italians, but since the Editor has been assured by Peruvian authorities that such names have no chance for official adoption, they have not been used in the text. They have called Matador "Giusto Gervasutti", P5170 "Torre Franco Monzino", Calua "Giorgio Rosenkrantz”, and Pucacalle "Giuseppe Canevaro.” Wherever possible, climbers should make the effort to discover the local name and keep it. Names given by climbers when no local name seems to exist should normally be Quechua names or at least Spanish.—Editor.