South America, Peru, Cordillera Blanca, Alpamayo Norte

Publication Year: 1974.

Alpamayo Norte. Mel and Becci Knapp, Roy and Joan Fray, Brock Wagstaff, Karl Gerdes and I arrived at the Pucacocha hut around June 1.

The place was an incredible mess. The debris yielded rusty carabiners, cigarette cartons, Courvoisier bottles: climbers’ spoor no doubt. There are enough climbers coming here now to make a significant impact on this wild, beautiful valley. We should have the courtesy to treat the South American wilderness with the same respect as our own. Two attempts on the south ridge of Jancarurish were turned back by deep powder snow. About the middle of June, Wagstaff, Gerdes and I ascended Alpamayo Norte with a little help from our Polish friends who ascended it the day before. We traversed most of the summit ridge but did not climb the mushroom on the south summit. The rock on the north ridge was covered by a layer of hard snow this year.

Robert Boyd, University of California, Davis