Anyone been to the ishinca valley recently? Will be heading there to climb in a month, and so am looking around for any beta photos or conditions reports, as additional pieces of info on how the climbing season is shaping up.

I heard from locals that right now they have july condiitons, which is really good but that could signal that by july the mountains will be quite dry. Shouldnt be a problem for anything not technical on Ishinca Valley though.

Thanks. Hmmm, that's too bad. We're planning on technical routes around there.

Anyone have a photo from the valley, into the surrounding areas?

I'm flying out there next week. I may do Ishinca in the ensuring week or two as acclimatization. If so, I'll post some pics for you.

Sweet. That would be super useful (for others too).
Safe travels!

pjc30493:

I stopped by the Casa de Guias today to pick up a map and chatted with a guide about conditions. I specifically asked about the conditions in the Ishinca valley, noting Tocllaraju and Ishinca since I think I read those were your targets in some other post. He said nothing is especially unusual on those two peak so far this year, and while there are a bunch of crevasses they are small.

However, I also ran into a local guy at the supermarket who saw I was buying a lot of climbing type foods and he struck up a conversation on snow pickets, I think because he wanted to direct me to his friend who sells them. He indicated that last year was bad (i.e. a lot of crevasses) and this year seems to be heading in the same direction, though maybe not as bad.

So, with two conflicting reports, my help ain't much help in the end. Please note my spanish is so-so at best, so I could have gotten all this wrong. If/when I run into another climber that has returned from Ishinca, I'll ask for a first hand report and post an update.

This is awesome info, thanks a bunch for following up! We're thinking toclla ridge or west face, or ranra east ridge or northeast face, conditions depending.

When are you heading up, what's your objective? Stay safe and good luck!

Coincidentally, the pickets questions is one that i've heard conflicting reports on. All actual data on such pickets shows failures far below high-grade pickets, eg MSR or SMC, but some climbers seem to utilize these local pickets. Have you used them yourself previously? We are planning to bring (most of) our own from the US.

I have not used them yet. They seem standard among the guides here, though. I elected not to bring a bunch of pickets simply because of space and weight. I did bring 2 Yates pickets because I consider them cadillac of pickets and so wanted have the best option if I had to rely on something to rappel in some sketchy situation.

The guide at the Casa de Guias said 3-4 pickets for Toclla, but he noted that you may encounter one or two along the way that previous guides have put in and left behind. Test them and if you're confident, use 'em he said. I spoke with a climber who did Alpamayo a few years ago and he said there were pickets left in the mountain as repel stations. So I'm guessing this is the case on the more popular routes, Toclla being one of them.

In the end, I'm not sure how bad these local pickets (estacas) can be. I mean, you can build a deadman's from an ax, skies, trekking poles, a backpack, a stuff sack filled with snow, and any number of other things. A t-shape piece of metal seems at least as good as any of these, whether made by MSR or some local metal worker in Huaraz. I guess the actual data tests you refer to must indicate the the local pickets aren't made of strong metal and thus bend under load..? Can't think of how they'd be far below a similarly-shaped MSR, but I defer to any more experienced or knowledgeable SP member reading this for better beta.

In the weeks since the start of this post, anyone have beta pics of conditions in the area?

Sorry to be giving half-beta, but in the absence of other responses, I will update some info.

I just returned from Maparaju, which is a few valleys southeast of Ishinca. It seems that Cissa's sources are correct: the Cordillera is pretty dry. On Maparaju the glacier is in full retreat and there seemed to be no evidence of accumulation. Pickets were useless on 90% of the mountain. Large crevasses were opening up near the summit. This is in contrast to the relatively benign picture of the route described and photographed in the 2009 edition of Johnson's book . Additionally, Ranrapalca (in the next valley north) has a bigger/more exposed rock band than in Johnson's book.

The guys I climbed with are planning an Ishinca/Tocllaraju trip in the coming week. I will forward more useful beta as it comes in.

Great, thanks for the update (even though the news is that it doesn't seem like promising conditions...) The rock band size on Ranra is a pretty good starting data point.

Good luck on your climbs!

Really appreciate the update and any more you can provide in the near future. T minus 2 weeks before I'll be down there!

Ok. So I had a long chat with a guide in the Casa de Guias about routes, including the normal route on Tocllaraju. Here is a summary:

- Conditions are generally normal on the mountain. Some snow but really it is crusted and nieve-like due to the lack of significant snowfall this year. But no special concerns with respect to increased crevasses or serac danger.

- He noted that the route has changed some since the picture in Johnson's book. This goes without saying. The firn line is creeping up and so the crusty, gray, crevassed lower section is a bit higher up. Additionally, he showed me the current line, which meanders through the glacier and up to the ridge, but said that you may have to go to the other side of the ridge for a long section on the mid-upper portion of the ridge.

- He also said that the key change to note is that last year the summit had a large overhanging cornice that you walked under and then climbed up a short near-vertical pitch (maybe 80*). If I understood correctly, this year the cornice has either fallen or sagged or whatever so that you don't or can't walk under it and now you go up earlier on what is, again, a short near-vertical pitch. On the image in the Johnson book he marked roughly where, which was halfway across the summit (rather than all the way to the right, which is where the red line ends in the picture).

- He suggested 3-4 pickets, and a few ice screws.

- That's it for Toclla; as mentioned my partners on Maparaju are climbing Ishinca and Tolla and left this morning, so I should have updated first-hand data and maybe some pics in a week.



FINAL NOTE: I also talked about some other routes with the guide. Yanapaccha was one relatively easy peak that I was thinking of trying with another climber. The guide said is has become dangerous and is very different from the picture/description in the Johnson book. The crevasse field has expanded and on the upper portion the seracs have become unstable. A climber (American I think he said) died there a couple of years ago. I say this because I was hoping to tag a bunch of easier (F, PD) routes to acclimatize and get into a rhythm before trying harder peaks. But it appears that for some easy routes objective hazards are increasing making them dangerous even while technically easy. Do your research and be safe, all.

Ok, so I finally made it to the Ishinca valley. Climbed Ishinca up NW slopes and down SW ridge. Conditions were good. NW didn't have much snow fall, but being north-facing the surface of the snow was crunchy and crampons/axes stuck well. SW ridge was more the classic Andean sugar snow. Everything was as expected.

Didn't go up Toclla because after Ishinca I felt I needed a little more acclimatizing. But all reports of people that had gone up were positive. Mountain is one of the lucky ones that doesn't seem to be suffering too much from lack of snow and high temps (see my post on Raranpalca, to follow below).

Beta from teams that have gone up has indicated there are two places for a belay: 1) a steep section of maybe 60*-or-so that goes up to the ridge plateau before the final climb up to the summit pyramid, and 2) the summit pyramid itself, which is consistent with prior years.

Pics to follow.