South America, Peru, Cordillera Oriental, Huarancayo South, First Ascent

Publication Year: 2007.

Huarancayo South, first ascent. Tony Barton returned [AAJ 2006, pp. 249-250] to the rarely visited and still partially unexplored subrange of Cordillera Huagaruncho, but unusually poor weather thwarted ambitions. With Andy Houseman he made the first ascent of Huarancayo South (5,150m) via the southeast ridge and southeast slopes. Starting from a base camp at 4,200m, the British pair found the only technical climbing was limited to four mixed pitches near the summit and rated the ascent PD. They then established a high camp at ca 4,800m below the unclimbed southwest ridge of Huagaruncho Chico (ca 5,445m; photo in May 2006 INFO) but bad weather and unstable snow conditions forced a retreat. The mountains were well covered with new snow, and there were only six days of good weather in the two weeks they were at base camp. Returning from their high camp on June 28, they found that base camp had been raided, with the theft of food and the camp stove. This and continuing poor weather forced a conclusion to the expedition.

Lindsay Griffin, Mountain INFO Editor, CLIMB magazine