An Italian trio have added another route to the largely unexplored Santa Cruz Chico (5,800m) in the Northern Cordillera Blanca of Peru.
Fabrizio Manoni, Enrico Rosso and Paolo Stoppini first planned to make an alpine-style ascent of the long, unclimbed East Ridge of 6,359m Nevado Santa Cruz, which begins with a steep triangular rock buttress.
They first climbed the right flank of the buttress, starting at c5,100m, and established a high camp at 5,530m before returning to base for a rest.
Later, they regained the camp and the following day continued up the north flank of the buttress, over snow and ice to 80°, before making a 90° exit onto the ridge at 5,800m, just north of the ice-dolloped buttress top.
From here, they could see the way ahead was badly corniced and the flanks of the ridge unclimbable. However, from this vantage point they could also see an excellent line on the East Face of Santa Cruz Chico. They decided to change their goal.
The Santa Cruz Group is one of the most important in Peru, and one of the most popular in the Blanca.
Apart from the main summit of Nevado Santa Cruz, it contains well-known peaks such as Quitaraju (6,040m), Alpamayo (5,947m) and Taulliraju (5,830m).
Despite this, Santa Cruz Chico (aka Atuncocha), which lies on the ridge between Nevado Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Norte, has rarely been ascended. In fact before the current millennium there was only one route on the mountain, and it is likely that no one has ever trodden on the very highest point.
Chico was first climbed during the highly productive 1958 North American Andean expedition. David 'Georgia' Michael, Irene and Leigh Ortenburger spent 12 hours on the icy North East Face, reaching the North Ridge and then continuing along the crest until three or four metres below the huge cornice forming the summit.
In 2002 the very steep, mixed, East Face, 450-500m high, formed the goal of Scottish climbers, Jason Currie and Guy Robertson.
In mid July the pair tried a direct line to the summit up the centre of the face. Hoping to complete it in a single day, they carried no stove nor bivouac gear. They ground to a halt c150m below the top, sat out the night, and next day were forced to retreat, severely dehydrated.
Three days later they tried again, this time carrying a stove (but no bivouac gear). Three initial pitches (75-80°) led to a rock pitch followed by a 60° gully. A steep rock band above was overcome at A1, after which the pair moved right through typical Peruvian mushrooms and seracs to reach a 55° couloir leading to the summit ridge.
They were forced to stop 20m short of the highest point due to unstable cornice formations. The rappel descent used rock anchors and Abalakovs and the route was rated TD (c600m of climbing).
The Italians climbed the next gully to the left, before moving out left onto the face. Continuous ice climbing, with one vertical section, led to the huge capping seracs. Here, they were forced to make a long and intricate traverse right, crossing vertical serac walls, to join the Scottish route, which they followed to the summit ridge.
The Italians too were faced with a summit meringue some 10m high, and stopped immediately below, as it was too unstable to climb.
Due to the rocky nature of the face, a logical central line will most likely vary over time due to the changing snow/ice cover.
A seven-minute video briefly documents both climbs.
In the rather less visited Cordillera Vilcanota of southern Peru, Spanish guide and North Face team member Pere Vilarasau with a partner from Argentina climbed a variant to the Normal Route on the South Face of Ausengate (6,372m), joining the standard line above the headwall. This pair also put up a possible new route on the northern side of nearby Mariposa (5,808m).
A three-man North American party also established a possible new line On Ausengate's south side up the smooth ice face right of the headwall. Both this and the Vilarasau line join the Normal Route a considerable distance from the summit.
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