Chopicalqui Climber's Log

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runout

runout - Dec 29, 2018 12:41 pm Date Climbed: Oct 6, 2010

Windy summit  Sucess!

The summit cornice was the crux.

aduris12

aduris12 - Jul 28, 2017 10:08 am Date Climbed: Jul 2, 2016

Chopicalqui  Sucess!

Amazing experience!

lzpup

lzpup - Jul 10, 2017 6:49 pm Date Climbed: Jul 29, 2017

almost

150 ft shy, deep uncosolidated snow made it scketchy. Great mountain, route finding would be tough without a boot pack. Went from high camp.

Jake

Jake - Aug 1, 2016 12:09 pm Date Climbed: Jul 31, 2016

Great climb  Sucess!

Fantastic climb, we had a fantastic luck with good weather window. Highly recommended!

SarahThompson

SarahThompson - Jul 24, 2016 1:29 pm Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2016

Thin air up there!  Sucess!

Climbed the standard route after acclimating on Yanapaccha & Pisco. First day to moraine camp, second day to high camp, third day rest/weather day at high camp and then summit & back to Huaraz on the fourth day. Bad weather and new snow had kept parties from summitting for a few days but finally conditions improved. Glacier approach to high camp was more heavily crevassed than expected and high camp was nestled uncomfortably among gaping abysses with almost constant rockfall nearby. The summit mushroom was in fairly easy condition but the lower crux section of the climb was quite steep and sustained. Ended up simulclimbing this without protection but only because it was pitch black and we couldn't see what we were getting into. Managed with a single 70m rope but had to downclimb a bit after both more or less mandatory rappels.

HeyItsBen

HeyItsBen - May 9, 2016 10:32 pm Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2015

Awesome summit  Sucess!

SW Ridge in great conditions and great weather. Fun route and amazing summit. Two short 2-tool sections on the way up, downclimbed one and rappeled the other on the way back. Did the roundtrip in 4 short days after Pisco.

viktor vaughn

viktor vaughn - Jan 29, 2015 2:15 pm Date Climbed: Jul 24, 2013

Incredible shape at the summit  Sucess!

July 2013 was very stable weatherwise in the Cordillera Blanca. Our team managed to climb Urus, Ichinca, Toclaraju (through the Bergshrund route), Huascaran Sul and Chopicalqui. We had to abandon halfway up the Pisco due to very bad weather.
We climbed up to the moraine camp located at 4800m or so. The normal route had just been "opened" due to too much snow the previous weeks. So there was a lot of people which can lead to a lot of waiting at the narrow & steep passages.
Astounding peak

Ted Eliason

Ted Eliason - Jul 14, 2014 5:38 pm Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2014

Went too fast

The 20 something beta was that you could go to morraine camp and skip high camp with an earlier start. We were pretty tired by morraine camp. Combined with only 4 hours sleep before Summit day, cold and windy conditions, we headed down short of the Summit. Next time will take the 2 hr hike to high camp from morraine and treat it as a rest day.

Cissa

Cissa - May 30, 2014 5:49 pm Date Climbed: May 29, 2014

Terrible snow conditions

Breaking trail in deep, wet and powdery snow all the way to the false summit, at about 6000m, truly frustrating. Cold and windy. Even worse snow conditions descending from high camp. Maybe worth a try when conditions are WAY better.

jonboy

jonboy - May 2, 2014 10:56 pm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2012

Normal Route  Sucess!

2 of us made it out of the 6 who set out. We were extremely slow and it took us 11 hours to get to the summit from the high camp and another 5 to get back down to high camp again. It was a brutal day, but that's part of the fun. This was my highest summit so far.

Vitaliy M.

Vitaliy M. - Aug 31, 2013 12:48 pm

SW ridge solo

Partner got sick so I went up solo. Pretty scenic with a few steep climbs.

TR: http://vividrea1ity.blogspot.com/2013/08/soloing-chopicalqui-6354-m-and.html

Humberto

Humberto - Jul 24, 2013 5:10 pm

SouthWest Ridge  Sucess!

A bit of a slog to carry all our gear up to Morraine camp only to find out that water was hard to come by. Either one risked going to the edge of the glacier or else like us, you were lucky enough to find dirty standing water from the last precipitation.
We topped off in a whiteout so didn't enjoy the scenery much. Will go back one day with more time just to be 100% certain!!!

starybaran - Aug 18, 2012 9:23 pm Date Climbed: Aug 12, 2012

Normal route  Sucess!

With a friend from moraine camp in 6,5 hours up. Great views, really nice mountain. Perfect conditions. The same day back in Huaraz.

tb00957 - Aug 10, 2012 5:10 pm Date Climbed: Jul 27, 2012

south west ridge  Sucess!

Climbed it in a whiteout. A bit disappointed not getting the view.

astrobassman

astrobassman - Jul 30, 2012 11:40 pm Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2012

Nice climb up the SW Ridge  Sucess!

Very aesthetic route to the top of one of the most beautiful mountains in the Cordillera Blanca. Conditions were perfect. The summit mushroom was easy compared to the two steep sections before it. This summit was the highlight of our trip.

rpb13

rpb13 - Jul 16, 2012 11:56 am Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2012

SW Ridge  Sucess!

Climbed SW ridge. Great snow conditions. There were two steep sections before the summit that we belayed to be safe and we used a total of 4 rappels to descend. Fun and beatiful route!

markthejock

markthejock - Feb 17, 2012 12:06 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2011

Soth West ridge  Sucess!

Climbed the South West ridge with rgg in good conditions with a good track to follow. Some red flags even showed the way!

rgg

rgg - Aug 19, 2011 8:35 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2011

My last climb in the Cordillera Blanca (for now), and a beautiful one it was!  Sucess!

I was down to the final week of my long Peruvian vacation when I met up with Mark, a Scottish climber. We talked a bit and pretty quickly settled on Chopicalqui. Normally, it takes four days, and to improve our chances, I proposed taking food for six. As that made our bags rather heavy, we hired two porters to carry our stuff. No guide this time though; I had tried that before.

- The first day we went up to moraine camp at about 4900m.

- The second day we bypassed the usual glacier camp somewhere just above 5400m and camped at 5600m, primarily to make for a shorter summit push, but also because on my previous attempt I had been thwarted by route finding problems not all that far above the usual glacier camp in the dark hours of the night, and by camping above them, we passed that section in daylight. And, after seeing the spot during the day where, last time, not even my guide could find the route while there were no tracks and in the dark of the night, I recognized how difficult it had been to find it. And, to jump ahead of myself, without having a track to follow, it would have taken far too long to rediscover the route higher up as well, so our decision to turn back was vindicated.

- Third day we summitted. Leaving camp just after 3 am, we reached the top at 8, thanks to almost perfect conditions: it was a bit cold, but not too much, virtually no wind, no clouds (they would come later though) and a highway of a trail from lots of other climbers in previous days. Back at our camp, our porters had our stoves running already - I had told them we planned to descend all the way down if we were up to it and the conditions good enough, and still promised to pay them 5 days instead of 3, so they were really motivated to help us in all ways possible. After a bit more than an hour of eating, drinking, resting and packing up - the porters made soup and tea and did the packing, we did the eating, drinking and resting - we headed down. The clouds were getting thicker all the time, albeit well above us, and somewhere after three a very light drizzle started. No need for the wet gear though, and it stopped pretty soon after that.
Back down at the road shortly after four, we hitched a ride back into town, that is, to Yungay, where we got a warm reception in Hostal Gledel (which I warmly recommend - you can even get a pretty good meal there).

andret

andret - Aug 13, 2011 7:15 pm Date Climbed: Aug 7, 2011

Made it despite snowfall  Sucess!

Made an attempt from high camp at 5600m. Left at 3:15, summited at 9:30. It had snowed about 6-10 inches the previous 2 days. We were the second party to break trail. Several parties who started from moraine camp (5000m) became warn out and turned around. Go for the higher camp!

sergejf

sergejf - Aug 8, 2011 11:26 am Date Climbed: Aug 3, 2011

Summit!  Sucess!

Left at 2:00AM from high glacier camp and got to the top of the first 55 degrees snow/ice wall at 4:15AM, too early, so we sat with my guide, Alberto Hung, one hour in the cold to wait for sunrise. Quick progression to the summit on the ridge with high exposure. Quite definitely an AD climb but some wonderful views from the summit. Photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergejf/sets/72157627265452906/

Viewing: 1-20 of 46
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