The snowy Alpamayo, located in the mountains of the Ancash region, is considered one of the jewels of the Cordillera Blanca and a desired goal of lovers of mountaineering and mountain tourism. In 1966, 52 years ago, the prestigious magazine Alpinismus awarded it the title of “The most beautiful mountain in the world” and there are plenty of reasons for such a deserved distinction.
Departure from Huaraz at 7:30 a.m. in private car with destination to the village of Cashapampa located in the northern part of the Cordillera Blanca going through the towns of Carhuaz, Yungar and taking the detour in Caraz to the village of Cashapampa at 2800 msal. The tour will take us 3 hours, once in Cashapampa there will be a pause to load the equipment on to donkeys and then begin to walk east to get deep into the ravine of Santa Cruz and to Llamacorral where we will setup our first camp at 3400 m.s.n.m.
Breakfast at 9:00 a.m. at Llamacorral and beginning of the hike at 8:00 a.m., delving even further into the lakes of Ichiqcocha and Jatuncocha, with a very nice view of Taulliraju mountain at 5850 m. and then turn north into the ravine of Arhuaycocha where we can already see the Alpamayo, Quitaraju at 6036 masl. and Jancorurish at 5578 masl, arriving at the base camp of Alpamayo almost at the end of the ravine of Arhuaycocha. Duration and the walk (6 to 7 hours).
Breakfast: 6:00 a.m. and preparations to go to the moraine camp, where it is not possible the access of donkeys and porters will be carrying the technical equipment and each person takes your own basic material such as a sleeping bag, mat, cameras, a bottle of water and adequate clothing, the distance is not very long but the path is steep from the base camp to moraine camp and has an approximate duration of 4 hours. Installation of the camp to take a picnic and bring with us our technical team and head toward the foot of Alpamayo passing by a series of cracks inside the glacier, section extremely exciting and fun. Once at the feet we can appreciate the spectacular west face of Alpamayo where you will find all the most famous paths and the one which we will climb, the Ferrari.
Breakfast at 7:00 a.m., 8:00am we start the ascent to the camp 1 arriving at the glacier of Alpamayo, where we use our technical team and everyone has in their backpacks the basic equipment necessary such as sleeping bags, sleeping mats, bottles of water and cameras, the porters are in charge of carrying people, food and cooking utensils, here there are stretches of escalation that are already known after the recognition of the area during the previous day, technical sections are the same but with a little bit more difficulty, this stretch is done always roped, given the conditions of the glacier, cracks and stretches up to 80° almost vertical, the guide is responsible for fixing ropes for customers and leaving everything in good condition so that there is no type of problems, the distance is not so long where you reach the Camp 1 and stay overnight with truly impressive views of Alpamayo and Quitaraju. This day the guide depending on the weather conditions and the number of groups present in the camp 1 will make the decision of the departure time taking as reference: Breakfast: 4:00 a.m. and beginning at 4:30.We start out in the direction to the path Ferrari on the west face of Alpamayo. It will take approximately an hour and a half to reach the burgschrund in where we will begin the ascent on the same wall of 400 m. of altitude of 60 degrees average of verticality, you must be equipped so that your only mind set is to climb the summit, then depending on the conditions you can stay for a few moments then, continue with the decline where the guide will install the rappels for the safe return to the camp 1.
After the summit we will begin the following day more relaxed, breakfast will take place at 8:00 am and we will go through the same places where we passed going up, coming down the glacier to the base camp to enter again to the Santa Cruz ravine to Jatuncocha.
After the summit we will begin the following day more relaxed, breakfast will take place at 8:00 am and we will go through the same places where we passed going up, coming down the glacier to the base camp to enter again to the Santa Cruz ravine to Jatuncocha.
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