South America, Peru, Corillera Blanca, Apu Wall, Pararasapac Inti

Publication Year: 2008.

Apu Wall, Pararasapac Inti. In summer 2006 Odín Pérez noticed a big unclimbed granite wall in the Quebrada Ishinca. Back in Mexico he showed me pictures, and I was committed to climbing it.

We arrived in Huaraz on July 17 and soon established base camp right at the entrance of Huascarán National Park. Our unnamed wall was the second from the left (west) of four large rock buttresses that rise from the slopes of the north side of the canyon.The first wall when entering the canyon is unnamed, the second is what we ended up naming Apu, the third is Hatun Ulloc, and the fourth is Ishik Ulloc [see below report]. From base camp we cleared a trail up to the base of the wall at 4,100m. The approach takes 30 minutes.

On July 19 we started climbing. The lower headwall is characterized by discontinuous cracks that traverse under huge roofs. The lower pitches were the hardest of the route. During our first day on the wall, we opened two pitches. The first is a sparsely protected granite slab that led to the overhanging headwall. The second is a beautiful pitch that traverses up under huge roofs, and has the hardest free-climbing of the route. A small horizontal crack remained A2, because a key hold broke while I tried to free it. The rest of the pitch can be climbed at 5.12. The next two days we struggled to climb the third pitch, which goes under a roof to a ledge below an imposing black roof. This pitch remained unfinished as we left for a week on July 22 to climb Cruz del Sur on La Esfinge.

We returned on August 1. After another day on pitch 3, we finally reached the ledge. Pitch 3 combines run-out face climbing with overhanging crack climbing. Pitch 4 goes under a 10m black roof. We free-climbed the first part of the pitch but aided the upper part. I took a 15m fall while leading the A2+/A3 upper part, when a RURP’s sling snapped and several knifeblades and Lost Arrows pulled.

Easier terrain above pitch 4 finished the headwall. After spending a night on the wall, we reached the summit in three long, exposed pitches, with some short aid sections, finishing with an amazing chimney that goes from one side of the wall to the other. Almost all the pitches are 40-50m long and R-rated, even though the route has high-quality climbing on good rock. After making the first ascent of the wall on August 5, we named it Apu (Quechua for “mountain guard”). We named our route Pararasapac Inti (“wall of light and shadows”; 310m, V 5.12R A2+/A3), because it’s located on a south face and never receives sunlight below the summit.

Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga, México