South America, Peru, Cordillera Blanca, Nevado KLayesh, Italian Route Variation Attempt

Publication Year: 2002.

Nevado Kayesh, Italian Route variation attempt. In June Guillermo Mejia and I set up a tent on the glacier, a half-hour from the bergschrund of Kayesh (5721m). We started up the German line, then followed the fixed Italian ropes (1973) until they ended. We continued for one more rope length up a couloir with hard ice until we reached a rock wall, at the bottom of which we bivouacked. All night it was snowing. The next day, leaving gear at the bivouac, we went as light as we could. We climbed the 40-meter wall, which was covered with snow and verglas, exposed and difficult to protect. We then traversed to the left over a hanging serac (soft snow, 60 degrees). We continued to the ridge, which we gained as high as we could, since it was double-corniced. We reached the ridge from the bivy site in three ropelengths, approximately 70 meters in a straight line. We descended the same line. It would be possible to climb the route in a day by going light. The route (400m, MD+) has eight pitches, of which we believe the last four are a variant of the Italian route.

Richard Hidalgo, Peru