South America, Peru—Cordillera Blanca, Toqllaraju, West Face, Huascarán, East Face, San Juan, South Ridge and Other Peaks

Publication Year: 1981.

Toqllaraju, West Face, Huciscarán, East Face, San Juan, South Ridge and Other Peaks. During May, Abigail Fisher, Brad White, Robert Blatherwick and the Peruvian Hugo Colonia made ascents of Vallunaraju and Chopicalqui by the normal routes and a first ascent on the west face of Toqllaraju. The new route takes a line up the right (south) part of the face and connects with the ridge 100 meters south of the summit. In June Blatherwick soloed the north face of Ranrapallka following the 1975 route from Ishinca. He also soloed a route on the east face of Huascarán, a variant of the 1971 ANZUS route. Starting at the high point on the glacier, he moved up and left following ice gullies in the center of the face and then back to the right into large snowfields below the summit ridge. He started slightly right (north) of the ANZUS route and joined it above the ice gullies. He took 2½ days with two bivouacs in the face. He reached the summit on July 4 and descended the normal route. On July 10 Blatherwick and I climbed the Nevado Parón by its long west ridge. The approach was from the Quebrada Santa Cruz. We made the climb in a long day from a camp just below the Parón- Artesonraju col. In late July and early August I made two solo ascents: San Juan by its south ridge in six hours from the Tumarinaraju-San Juan col and Maparaju by the east face. The route on Maparaju follows the obvious north-south diagonaling snow-and-ice ramps to the south ridge 200 meters below the summit. It took seven hours to climb and descend Maparaju. Both climbs were approached from the Quebrada Carhuas- cancha.

Mark Richey