This expedition (www.arrampicande.it) was the initiative of Pietro Rago (Italy), who first visited the Quebrada Rurec in 2005 and wanted to establish new routes with two professional athletes with disabilities: Silvia Parente, a skier who is blind, and Kevin Ferrari, a triathlete with an above-knee amputation. There were many others involved, including Peruvian mountain guides (who got their first experience working with disabled climbers), numerous climbers from Italy (Raffaele Agazzi, Carolina Busseni, Riccardo Colosio, Giovanni Foti, Lorenzo Migliari, Luca Ranghiero, Elena Robusti, Luca Sossi, Ralf Steinhilber, and Sandro De Toni), and Mirko Sotgiu, a photojournalist and filmmaker.

The group made their base camp at the beginning of August, directly under Chaupi Huanca. (Chaupi Huanca was called Punta Numa in some past AAJs.). From here, the team climbed three new routes (the following route lengths are shown as climbing distance not elevation gain). The first, La Vendetta degli Apu (125m, 5.10 A1), was climbed by Colosio, De Toni, and Sossi, and is located directly across from Chaupi Huanca on the northwest side of the valley. Bad weather and vegetation prevented the team from pushing this four-pitch attempt higher. The second route, Tana Libera Tutti (190m, 5.10d A1), was climbed by Colosio, De Toni, Sossi, and Steinhilber. This beautiful six-pitch face climb on compact rock terminates below a giant roof on Itsoc Huanca and is located to the left of Dominguerismo Vertical (AAJ 2006). The final route, La Fiamma Bianca (370m, 5.10c A1), is located on the northwest side of the valley and was climbed by Agazzi, De Toni, and Steinhilber. Seven of the nine pitches were climbed free, and the two sections of A1 are likely 5.11b.

Unfortunately, the cracks here are often grassy or clogged with pressed, dry mud, which do not accept cams and nuts well; these new routes mostly follow slabs, so much of the climbing was bolt protected. The teams tried to free climb as much as possible but adopted fixed-rope, multi-day tactics due to the bolted style and the necessity of having the disabled athletes follow the routes on static ropes with other climbers assisting.

– Mirko Sotgiu, Italy