Alpamayo; Artesonraju, East Face; Artesonraju; Aguja Nevada, North Face; Caraz Este, North Face; Quitaraju. The Dartmouth Mountaineering Club Andean Expedition was composed of John and Spaff Ackerly, Tim Ammons, Chris Copeland, B.A. Doyle, Blake Kerr, Jim McKusick and me as leader. We had a successful month, climbing out of Base Camp near the mouth of the Quebrada Arhueycocha. The Ackerly brothers, Copeland and Ammons reached the summit of Alpamayo Norte on June 29. They climbed across the col between Alpamayo and Quitaraju, crossed the western rib of Alpamayo and climbed a short part of the northwest face before joining the standard north ridge route. The round trip from Base Camp took 4½ days. From July 7 to 11 Ammons and I made a variant on the wide east face of Artesonraju. We crossed the glacier below the face to gain the left (south) side of a large snowfield. Ascending the snowfield almost to its top, we crossed a rock band via a beautiful ice gully and gained a smaller, steeper snow slope which angles right toward the summit. After a sitting bivouac, on July 10 we gained the southeast ridge about 400 feet below the summit and made our way to the top in poor weather. We had intended to descend the north ridge, but lack of visibility and cornices sent us down the east face, this time on the north side. We down-climbed and rappelled to another cramped bivouac and finished with a spectacular rappel the next day to the lower glacier. Kerr and McKusick climbed the north ridge of Artesonraju. Briefly stymied by a huge crevasse, which cut across the ridge, they eventually completed the climb on July 12. They were 4½ days on the mountain. The Ackerly brothers made a long approach through a horrible moraine to the north face of the Aguja Nevada. They made the first ascent of the face in a day on July 15. The major technical difficulties were on the last mixed pitch up to the needle-like summit which gives the peak its name. They returned to Base Camp for a day (round-trip of four days) and then slogged their way back up to make the first ascent of the north face of Caraz Este on July 19. John contracted snow-blindness on the descent and had to be led off the glacier. McKusick, Ammons, Copeland and I made a quick ascent of the north face of Quitaraju on July 23 and at dawn the next day walked over to the little peak of Loyacjirca for a beautiful view.

Peter Kelemen, Dartmouth Mountaineering Club