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Huge Alpine News – Mega New Routes in Andes and Eternal Flame

The east face of Siula Grande climbed, a new 5.13a M7 WI6 and Eternal Flame sent again

Jirishanca Peru Mountain

There has been a lot of hard ascents going down in the alpine over the past few weeks, from new difficult lines in Peru to hard repeats in the Himalayas.

Top alpinists Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson have made the first ascent of a difficult new line on the impressive Jirishanca in the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru. The two Americans, who’ve climbed big alpine lines in the Canadian Rockies, spent three days climbing the 1,000-metre-plus face. “We completed the long standing open project Italian Route which had never been climbed to the summit (just to the ridge),” Anderson said. The climb goes at a grade of 5.13a M7 WI6, which might be the most difficult alpine climb in the range. It came with “lots of psychedelic snow climbing.”

Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have sent Eternal Flame, the 24-pitch 5.13 on Nameless Tower in the Trango Range, over six days. They onsighted every pitch of the route, 22 this year and the first two in 2021. We reported last week that Edu Marin had freed Eternal Flame while supported by his father and brother. Alex and Thomas Huber made the first free ascent in 2009. It was established in 1989 by the German team of Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Güllich, Christoph Stiegler and Milan Sykora.

The east face of Peru’s Siula Grande had never been fully climbed until this month. In a single push from July 11 to 16, Spanish climbers Bru Busom and Marc Toralles established Ànima de Corall, which they say is the hardest climb they’ve ever done. They graded the climb at 7b (5.12) A3 AI5 M6. See their social media below for topos and videos. Toralles established a route on Jirishanca in 2017, read more about it here.

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