Nevado Tunsho (main summit), southeast face, second ascent and correction

Peru, Cordillera Central
Author: Octavio Salazar Obregón. Climb Year: 2019. Publication Year: 2020.

Nevado Tunsho (5,730m) is in the central mountain range in Peru, the Cordillera Central. Few climbers have managed to reach its highest summit. In May, Peruvian guides Octavio Salazar Obregón and Eloy Salazar Obregón, along with Erick Llantoy, climbed the southeast face of Nevado Tunsho (5,730m), believing this face to be unclimbed. [Editor’s note: The main summit of Tunsho (often spelled Tunshu) was first reached by the northeast ridge in 1958 (AAJ 1959). In November 2005, Axel Loayza, Guillermo Mejía, and Jenny Postillos climbed a new route (650m, AI3) on the main peak, reported in AAJ 2006 as the northeast face. However, it’s clear this climb was actually on the southeast face and slightly to the left of the ascent described here.]

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The Tunsho group showing: (A) Tunsho Sur, (1) Southeast face (2018, not to summit); (B) Tunsho Central (2) Chinita (2011) and (3) Nómadas del Kangia (2019), and (C) Tunsho main summit (4) Southeast face (2005/2019; the more recent ascent was slightly to the right of the original line). 

We began from Lima and traveled a long distance by vehicle until we arrived at Lake Huay Huay, where we camped. From there, we were able to see Nevado Tunsho, but we weren’t able to see the face we hoped to climb. Later the following day, Rubén Zacarías brought us to another lake, Suitucancha, where we could observe the southeast face. We set up our tent and rested a little in order to refresh our energy, happily scoping out the face. We later continued on to a moraine camp where we bivied under a rock below our objective.

On May 28, we began our ascent at 11 p.m. We moved first through a rocky bit until we reached the main wall, where we began our climb. The first part was about 400m of compact snow (65­–80°), which we simul-climbed. The last part is the steepest part of the route with 80­–90° mixed terrain. Here we encountered a lot of loose, fresh snow leading directly to the ridge. From the ridge, we continued climbing, thinking that we could walk along the arete, but this was not to be. The snow there was in terrible condition, and so the last stretch was more mixed than expected yet led us to our objective. We arrived on the summit of Tunsho on May 29 at 11:30 a.m., totally psyched about reaching our goal.

We started descending along the same ridge we had climbed, but the snow became even worse, and so we decided to finish our descent via the north face, which is about 65°. We did four 60m rappels to make it back to our camp at Cauncocha. In all, the ascent took 13 hours, with an 8-hour descent. We felt the difficulty was 600m, TD 60-90°.

–       Octavio Salazar Obregón, Peru



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