Alpamayo Southwest Face

Cordillera Blanca, Huascarán National Park · Peru

Extreme12 daysSouth America~£3,400 est.

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Overview

In 1966 a panel of alpinists voted Alpamayo the most beautiful mountain in the world, and from col camp at 5,500 m you see why: a perfect trapezoid of fluted ice, corrugated like cathedral organ pipes, glowing pink at dawn. The Southwest Face routes — Ferrari and French Direct — climb those very flutes: 400 m of sustained 50-to-65-degree ice runnels to a summit at 5,947 m barely wide enough to stand on. This is a real technical climb reached by a genuinely lovely expedition. From Huaraz you trek up the Santa Cruz valley behind burros, establish moraine camp, then climb to the col between Alpamayo and Quitaraju, itself steep enough to need fixed lines. Summit day is six to ten hours of calf-burning ice protected by screws and stakes, with abseil anchors threaded down the flutes for descent. The variable is the runnels' condition — a dry year turns them brittle and raises the grade — and queues into the same flute are the modern hazard; start first. Climb June to August from Huaraz (3,050 m), capital of Andean mountaineering, after solid acclimatisation. Twelve-day guided expeditions cost £3,000 to £3,800; you need confident front-pointing and multi-pitch ice experience.