Nocarane Volcano, Southwest Face, New Routes

Peru, Cordillera Volcanica
Author: Sergio Ramirez Carrascal. Climb Year: 2012. Publication Year: 2013.

Nocarane Volcano (5,787m) is located on Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca, close to Arequipa. Beginning in May 2012, Xavier Ossola and various partners established three new routes on a rocky aspect of the southwest face, which does not see any sunlight.

On May 13, Xavier Ossola (France), Patricia Bolanos, Guido Mollepaza (Peru), Krista Dawn Mackenzie (Canada), and Martin Hourigan (Australia) climbed 400m up a couloir and mixed ridge (45-60º) to the ridge line at ca 5,650m. They rappelled the new route: Matrato del Viento (400m, AD French 3 60º).

On May 23, Ossola, Martin Hourigan, Miguel Zea Bellido, and Juan Carlos Velarde (Peru) climbed a new route Ah, Uh, Ah (500m, D WI3+), which shares its first pitch with Maltrato del Viento. The six-pitch route contains ice up to WI3+ and moderate rock climbing.

On June 28, Ossola, Mollepaza, Patricia Bolanos, and Alonso Medina (Peru) climbed the hardest of the three routes, Gritos de Guerra (500m, D+/MD- UIAA IV W3/4 M3/4). The four-pitch route begins on thin ice before climbing moderate mixed terrain to the rocky summit ridge.

Ossola, Bolanos, and Mollepaza also discovered an area with waterfall ice routes only four hours by car from Arequipa, near the town of Callani (ca. 3,850m). Water ice is an unusual formation at lower elevations in the Peruvian Andes. The trio climbed eight routes up to 25m in length. The best season is June through August.