Cordillera Raura. Our party was Bob Gunn, New Zealander, Dick Heffeman, Australian, Rob Wilson, Alaskan, and I, English. Heffeman got typhoid fever and stayed at Mina Raura. We left Lima on May 18 and got to Raura the next day. On May 20 Gunn and I climbed Patrón Sur (17,179 feet) by the southern steep snow slopes. The next day we two climbed Patron Noroeste (17,300 feet) from the col between Patrón and Torre Cristal. On May 24 Gunn, Wilson and I tried to climb Torre Cristal but got only to the east peak. The east ridge had rotten rock and rotten snow. We three set up camp on the glacier west of the col between Cristal and Matapalomas, south of Cristal. We fixed ropes up the iced gully from the glacier to the col, hammering ice pitons into the rock sides as we had no rock pegs. After a day’s snowstorm, on May 29 we left camp at 4:45 A.M. From the col we traversed the east face of the peak to join the northeast ridge, which we followed to the top of Torre Cristal (18,140 feet). The narrow snow ridge had many humps and bumps. After getting to the top at 4:30 P.M. we retreated to a cave under snow overhangs for a bivouac. We left the cave at 6:30 A.M. and followed the ascent route back to our tent in poor visibility. On June 4 Gunn and I climbed by its east slopes the south peak of Sillajanca (17,547 feet), which lies in the Nevados Azuljanca.

David Clarke, New Zealand Alpine Club