Serious New Alpine Route on Concha de Caracol in Andes
Conditions seem to be lining up as ace climbers have descended on the mountains of Peru
It’s a busy alpine season in Peru, as a number of notable climbers from around the world have travelled there to attempt new and old alpine objectives in the Andes.
Anna Pfaff, Andrews Marin and Alex Suesca have made the first ascent of Cerveza, Pan y Ácido, a 700-metre ED 90° mixed ice and rock line up Concha de Caracol (5,640 m) in the Vilcanota Mountain Range. Marin said, “Due the difficult climbing we had to spend an open, unplanned bivy at 5,500 metres and our toes got pretty frozen.”
Last week, the Eneko and Iker Pou made the first ascent of a difficult new alpine line up the south face of Nevado Huamashraju Este at M7, read about it here. Top alpinist Colin Haley is also visiting Peru for his first time in a few years, and has been climbing with French 5.14d climber Melissa Le Neve and and mountain guide Lise Billion.
Haley said, “I’m giving the mountains of Peru another chance to inspire me to the degree that some other mountain ranges have. The first order of business however is to get acclimatized, and doing so with some sport climbing at 4,000 meters is a nice change from the typical expedition experience of hiking around with heavy packs…. We’ll see what this trip brings, but for now I’m just focused on some mellow acclimatization and trying my best to not succumb to any gastrointestinal illness, so far so good.”
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