Cordillera Vilcanota. When William Whelen and I left New Zealand our plan was to join the 1970 New Zealand Andean Expedition climbing on the eastern side of the Cordillera Blanca. The earthquake prevented our making the planned rendezvous. Thanks to maps and suggestions left for us in Lima by John Ricker we were able to formulate alternative plans. To the northeast of the main peaks of the Cordillera Vilcanota, lying between the Ríos San Gaban and Marcapata are four knots of minor peaks. Three of these groups had been visited prior to the 1970 season. The group to which John directed us lies to the east of the Kishuarnioq Group and the peaks above Chimboya Pass and to the northeast of the northern end of the Ritipampa de Quelccaya. John had circumnavigated the group the season before, but so far as we knew no climbing party had been into the group itself. We approached the group from the town of Macusani, a day’s ride by truck from Juliaca. One more hour by truck and another on foot saw us to the town of Tantamaco, where we hired horses for the one-and-a-half-day walk through the towns of Korani and Lacaya into one of the three quebradas that drain roughly southwards from the group into the Río Huaracuni (which further down is known as the Río Korani and eventually joins the Río San Gaban above Ollachea). A preliminary climb on July 6 onto a small but glaciated peak on the ridge above our first camp clarified the topography of the area and confirmed our suspicion that a camp higher up the valley was both feasible and desirable. The following day, after moving camp, we climbed a minor rock peak above a pass which leads to the Río Sorapata which flows into the Río Marcapata. Following these two climbs an unseasonable storm swept in from the southeast. In a clear half day we managed to climb two of the main peaks of the group, both without difficulty, except that the summit of the second was one of those spectacularly perched Andean cornices which we trod gingerly, one at a time. The weather prevented our completing the traverse over the other two of the four peaks which ring the head of the valley in which we were camped and which together constitute the eastern half of the main east-west ridge of the group. We were tantalized by glimpses through the mist of the highest peak in the group, lying to the north, some distance from this main east-west ridge across extensive snowfields. When we woke the next morning to six to eight inches of fresh snow around our shepherd’s hut and continuing storm, we decided on retreat.

The valleys being largely deserted, we were unable to establish many local names for valleys or peaks. The few inhabitants in Lacaya were uncommunicative and our arrieros came from too far from the group to be able to name particular features. We referred to the group as the “Lacaya Group”, but do not wish to propose this as a final name, since Lacaya is only one of a number of villages around the perimeter of the group and the one furthest away from the highest peak. Our approach along the trails via Tantamaco and Korani was probably the best from the south. The group could also be approached from the Marcapata-Quince Mil road, to the northwest of the group. From the town of Chili-chili, on the road, we were told a day’s walk would take a party to Quichu and another up the Río Sorapata to a position from which the eastern flank of the main peak, the prominent eastern outlier and the peaks on the eastern half of the main ridge, would all be accessible. The peaks on the western half of the main ridge would be accessible up one of the tributaries of the Río Huaracuni off the Mina Chimboya road. The group cannot be recommended to those who go to Peru looking for difficult peaks of relatively easy access. But to those who seek to combine easy to moderate climbing with close-at-hand observation of remote areas of the Sierra, the group (together with the others that form part of the same northeastern extension of the Cordillera Vilcanota) has much to commend it.

JOHN Wilson, New Zealand Alpine Club