Alpamayo

Overview

12 persons from Germany started in July 2006 an expedition to climb Alpamayo and Quitaraju. All 12 participants reached in August 2006 the top of Alpamayo.

Getting There and Trekking through Alpamayo-Valley to High Camp

From Lima to Huaraz we travelled by bus (about 8 hrs). In Huaraz we have stayed for 2 days for a better acclimatisation before we drove again per bus to Hualcallan. At Hualcallan (3115 m) was our first camp. After a walk of three days through the very nice Alpamayo-Valley we reached the Base Camp of Alpamayo (Altitude 4500 m). There were no other groups at this Base Camp - that was really nice! At this point our donkeys leave us and we have to carry the complete luggage. The next camp was the Moraine-Camp at an altitude of 5000 m before we go up to the Alpamayo-Highcamp at an altitude of 5400 m. From Moraine-Camp to High-Camp we have to pass a zone with dangerous seracs.

Climbing Alpamayo

At Alpamayo Highcamp we have one day off, before we climb via Basque-Route to the summit. Waking up at 1 AM we started at 1.30 AM and reached at 6 AM the summit - exactly at sunrise :-). The conditions in the route were very different - there was a little bit firn but 70 % of the route was very icy (see picture: "Alpamayo from Quitaraju" - here you can see the icy slope were we get to the top.) Two short sections of the slope were nearby 80 degrees steep - predominant there was an average slope of 60 degrees. During abseiling you should avoid any mistake and so you have to concentrate again for two hours. At 10 am we reached Alpamyo Highcamp and prepare for the next summit: Quitaraju - see TR Quitaraju (coming soon)

External Links

The expedtion was very well organized by DAV Summit Club in Munich - very recommendable.

www.dav-summit-club.de

Images

View Alpamayo Image Gallery - 17 Images