Salcantay, East Ridge. Our original objective had been the formidable south face of Salcantay, but the terrible avalanches which swept it ceaselessly made us give it up as too dangerous. Instead we divided into two groups. Five tried the normal route, but they quit after nearly being carried away by an avalanche of séracs. The other six of us climbed the east ridge on two ropes of three, alpine-style. We were my wife Gilberte, André Berry, Jean-Claude Chatot, Michel Mabillon, Jean Van Dame and I. We got to Base Camp on July 4 but it snowed until the 11th. On the 12th we bivouacked at 15,770 feet at the foot of the ridge in two caves scraped out by the hand of man, possibly in Inca times. On July 13 we climbed to a snow saddle and continued along the sharp, corniced ridge to bivouac at 16,400 feet. On the 14th we bivouacked at 17,550 feet after advancing along cornices. The night was cold and windy. On the 15th we had a sitting bivouac at 18,700 feet. On the 16th we reached the foresummit for our bivouac. We reached the summit at ten A.M. on July 17 and descended to the moraine. The route followed the ridge constantly except for one section where we progressed on mixed terrain 150 feet below the crest on the right. It was a beautiful, esthetic ridge, essentially snow and ice, delicate at times because of cornices, difficult without being extremely so. We were happy to do it alpine-style, since we had bad conditions with two feet of new snow. Salcantay had not been climbed for three years.

Louis Audoubert, Club Alpin Français