Trip Report: Cordillera Blanca 2026
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Cordillera Blanca 2026 By James Fierbaugh |
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| CLIMBING | 07/07/2026 | ALL |
| Cordillera Blanca, Andes, Ancash Region, Peru In the fall of 2025, I reached out to Nathan Heald - long-time guide and mountaineer based out of Cusco. I told him I was interested in a real high-altitude climbing adventure. We discussed options for a time, finally settling on a number of potential objectives. Over the next months we stayed in touch, updated our plans, and began to finalize details. He had obligations up to July 10, so we decided to begin our journey on July 12. I arrived in Huaraz on July 7, and began my acclimatization, which involved a couple of days hikes up to ~4850m (16,000ft), and finished with a solo ascent of Nevado Vallunaraju 5,686m (PD, 650m), with a planned bivy at the beginning of the glacier. In the meantime, it became apparent that the climbing conditions in the Cordillera Blanca were some of the worst in memory. Numerous icefall and avalanche incidents led us to make changes to our plans. After much discussion between Nate, Myself, Macario Crispin, and Ben Billet, we landed on a peak with significantly less objective hazard: Hualcn Hualcn is a rarely-climbed mountain peak in the Cordillera Blanca range of the Peruvian Andes. Located between its much more recognizable neighbors Huascarn and Chopicalqui to the north, and Nevado Copa to the south, it rises to a respectable 6,165m (20,226ft). Nate had been to the basecamp there just a couple weeks earlier, so he had a good idea of the conditions: Very little overhanging serac, and what we hoped would be much more consolidated snow on the unclimbed south and west faces. Excellent. On July 12, about 6 hours prior to departure, we were informed that the burrows (donkeys), and requisite arriero (donkey driver), were in need of rest after a hard night of drinking and would not be joining us. However, our minds were set and we took off with just 10-15kg of extra weight per person for the approach. After 2 days, we reached high camp, and prepared for the ascent. At approximately midnight, July 14, we set off. The first portion of the climb from high camp was a maze of complicated glacier and sugar snow. The conditions improved slightly on the south face with steep snow and ice to 80deg;, but loose snow continued to complicate the climb. This eventually transitioned to an interesting pitch of mixed climbing to gain the upper southwest ridge and more moderate terrain above. After approximately 12 hours, the team was able to gain the summit. Just as we began to prepare for the first rappel, fog banks and cloud began to rip over the summit to the east. We quickly decided our best option for retreat was via the west face, which we could see was in much better condition. However, poor visibility and worsening weather complicated our descent. After several hours of increasingly difficult navigation and hostile conditions, we set up an unplanned bivy at 5600m and settled in for a long, cold night. After 12 hours of violent shivering, huddled together on our impromptu platform, dawn began to brighten the eastern sky and illuminated our way home. The remainder of our descent was uneventful, and after a nap, food, and water, we packed up our gear and returned to basecamp, then Huaraz, and finally home. |
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