Huascarán Norte, North Face. After acclimatization climbs on Artesonraju and Alpamayo, Kurt Saurer and I on May 19 left the lake in the Llanganuco and walked up to the north face. We spent a bad night in a snowstorm without a tent. The next day we climbed the glacier with a difficult bergschrund and an icefield. Two pitches of steep rock were climbed with crampons on to the beginning of a big vertical icefall. We had a bad bivouac because of drifting snow. We climbed the difficult icefall on May 21 and came to the less steep part of the wall to reach our third bivouac with wet sleeping bags now weighing seven kilos. We crossed the Spanish route and traversed more to the left. Three pitches of difficult rock climbing led us to the very dangerous north ridge, which was covered with very steep powder snow. We bivouacked again before climbing over the summit of Huascarán Norte for a fifth bivouac near the Garganta.

Daniel Anker, Schweizer Alpen Club