The Cashan massif is located in the Rajucolta Valley, which hosts several peaks over 5,600m. On previous trips to climb the north face of Cashan Oeste (AAJ 2020) and the south face of Huamashraju Este (AAJ 2022), we noticed the elegant north face of the main peak of Cashan (5,761m, 9°33'5.03"S, 77°21'1"W).

In late June, we hiked into the valley with cameraman Alex Estrada (Peru), making camp at around 5,000m below the terraced, rocky north face. On June 21, we left camp early and climbed natural weaknesses up snow-packed granite corners and then the steep upper snowfield to the left of a broad serac zone. We reached the top in approximately 6.5 hours, then took an hour to eat and rest. Looking to the sides, we realized the descent would be difficult. 

Retracing our route would have required too many rappels, so we decided to descend the opposite, south side. This decision cut off radio and visual communication with Alex in base camp, leaving him worried that we had suffered an accident. Alternating scrambling in the snow with rappels on vertical rock walls required us to draw on years of experience. It was nearly dark when we arrived back at camp five hours later.

Our route is the first recorded on the north face of Cashan, and we called it Bizirik (980m climbing distance, M6 85°), which means “living” in Basque.

— Iker and Eneko Pou, Spain