Dispatches From Bolivia and Peru

Our South Amer­i­ca sea­son is get­ting off on a great start! Our guides from Bolivia and Peru have report­ed great weath­er so far and our climbers are excit­ed for the chal­lenges ahead!

Four climbers joined Gas­par Navar­rete in the beau­ti­ful Con­doriri area in Bolivia last week for an exten­sive Glac­i­er Moun­taineer­ing School. The climbers acquired fun­da­men­tal snow and ice climb­ing skills and prac­ticed glac­i­er trav­el before accli­ma­tiz­ing on the glaciat­ed Tar­i­ja. Six oth­er climbers joined the group after the school to on our Cordillera Real trip. All ten clients are hop­ing for a break of bet­ter weath­er for their attempt on Huay­na Poto­si this sunday. 

After fac­ing some dif­fi­cul­ties on the tech­ni­cal­ly chal­leng­ing peak in Peru, Yana­pac­cha, our two climbers, along with guide Ale­jo Laz­za­ti, were prepar­ing for a sum­mit attempt on Pis­co sev­er­al days ago. We’re look­ing for­ward to updates from them when they return to Huaraz. 

Dur­ing the ascent on Arteson­ra­ju. Joshua Jar­rin photo

Joshua Jar­rin, with our clients on Arteson­ra­ju, con­tact­ed us yes­ter­day with great news that they suc­cess­ful­ly reached the sum­mit of Arteson­ra­ju from the South­east Face! The ascent to the sum­mit last­ed eleven hours and fol­lowed a very aes­thet­ic line of mixed and snow climb­ing. Close to the top, the going start­ed get­ting very steep and the hard ice put the dif­fi­cul­ty of the route at D+. After six­teen rap­pels and some crevasse cross­ing on the way down, they reached high camp to rest up and celebrate. 

The route to the sum­mit. Joshua Jar­rin photo

Joshua Jar­rin photo

John on the sum­mit with Neva­do Cruz in the back­ground. Joshua Jar­rin photo