Salcantay, Northeast Face Direct. Our expedition consisted of Theo Dowbenka, Rudolf Friedhuber, Martin Klein, Austrians, and Elmar Fries and I as leader, both Germans. We started from the village of Mollepata. Base Camp lay at 14,925 feet on the north slope near the top of the Palcay Pass. We spent two weeks to acclimatize. From June 30 to July 3 we attempted the northeast buttress which ends on the upper part of the northeast ridge (“Kasparek Ridge”). After bivouacs at 16,325, 17,775 and 19,200 feet, the last in an ice cave just below the ridge, we were turned back by bad snow and dangerous cornices on the summit ridge. On July 5 we crossed two passes on the east slope of Salcantay above the Palcay valley. The next day after a bivouac at 15,750 feet on the American-French route of 1952, we climbed to bivouac at 19,425 feet in a crevasse. On July 7 we left the first-ascent ridge and traversed right to climb the face direct by a new route to the snow saddle between the south and main summit. We all five climbed the south ridge of the highest point of Salcantay (6271 meters, 20,574 feet). On July 18 Dowbenka and I climbed Chopicalqui in the Cordillera Blanca by its west ridge.

Herbert Ziegenhardt, Bayerische Naturfreunde, Germany