Alpamayo, Artesonraju, Ulta. After failing because of bottomless snow in an attempt on a new route on the south face of Ranrapalca, Philip Stuart Dawson and I climbed the north ridge of Alpamayo from the Quebrada Santa Cruz. This took us four days and involved traversing the lower south face and climbing across the east face to break onto the north ridge at about 17,000 feet. We reached the top on August 3, 1976. The traverse from the lower north summit to the main (south) summit was more difficult than anything else on the route and took us a good five hours. We next climbed Artesonraju by its north ridge in two days from Base, August 7 and 8. We then climbed the northwest face of Nevado Ulta by approximately the line tried unsuccessfully by the New Zealanders in 1973. (See A.A.J., 1974, p. 180.) At the top we went right to avoidthe summit cornice and did three pitches up the west ridge to the top. This took us five days, from August 15 to 19, including the descent down the standard north rib. It was, surprisingly, mostly on good hard ice.

David Malcolm Cheesmond, South Africa