After the ski expedition to Chumpe and my visit to Manu National Park, I went to a place I have become quite familiar with in the last couple of years: Huaraz. Conditions were supposedly very good for skiing this year and I wanted to take advantage of this situation. In nearly three weeks I wanted to complete some unfinished business.
Since I had at least partly lost my acclimatization during my trip to Manu, I started in Huaraz with another multi-day trek. Apart from the more popular treks like Santa Cruz and Huayhuash, there are many more options with very few visitors. I chose to do the Akilpo to Ishinca trek which is one of the less known but beautiful treks in order to prepare the body for the skiing at higher elevations later on.
The first mountain to ski would be Yanapaccha (5.460 meters). I have already had one summit attempt in 2022 but had to return due to bad weather. This climb has a 100 meter vertical wall of between 50 and 60 degrees depending on the snow that season. Since there was a lot of snow this year resulting in the wall to be close to 50 degrees and crevasses to be filled in, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to ski this beautiful mountain.
Next on the agenda was Nevado Copa. I have a rather special connection with this mountain. I visited Huaraz last year as well and attempted to ski my first 6000-er with Copa. Unfortunately, I experienced my first real disaster in the mountains. After a successful first day on the glacier with a descent from ‘Copa Chico’ I lost my vision in the night. Probably due to bad sunglasses, I had to deal with snow blindness and a rescue team of 4 mountain guides had to help me get down the mountain and back to civilization where I needed another week to recover. This trip I wanted to ski from the summit of Nevado Copa (6.188 m) to finish what I started last year and complete the chapter.
Trekking from Akilpo to Ishinca
Over the years, I have done several treks around Huaraz. In order to explore new areas, I had to be a bit more creative because I have already done all the treks with regular group departures. Last year I discovered the option to go with an aspirant guide or porter which suited me well. It’s a cheaper option than hiring a fully certified guide, aspirant guides know the trekking routes just as well and the aspirant guide I hired, Hernan, turned out to be a great match. He has worked as a cook and porter on Everest and really enjoys to cook varied and healthy meals. He is a funny guy and holds the record time to climb Vallunaraju from the center of town. In just over 4 hours he covered more than 2.500 meters vertical and 33 kilometers in distance from Plaza de Armas to the summit…
The first day of the three-day trek had a 5-hour uphill walk in store to the first campsite at 4.300 meters, just below laguna Akilpo. The weather was variable with both sun and rain. The first part of the day was spent in a beautiful forest which provided a nice way to get back into ‘suffer-mode’. The remainder of the walk was done in an open valley until we reached the campsite. The only living creatures we encountered during the day were a few cows. After dinner (delicious trout with rice and potatoes), we enjoyed the silence of the night.
The following day turned out to be rather exceptional. Within an hour, we arrived at laguna Akilpo from where the views were spectacular in all directions. Nevado Copa was clearly visible to the west, Akilpo (5.495 m) to the north while Tocllaraju (6.034 m) was shining east of us. We spent some time to absorb the beauty of the place and took some photos and shared some laughter. When I told Hernan that he could work as a professional photographer after he had taken some nice photos, he said he already had two jobs: mountain guide and porn actor…
Next, we ascended from the lake to the Urus pass at 5.000 meters. The day clearly had more in store for us. Clear skies provided 360 degrees views of a whole cirque of incredible mountains. With Akilpo and Tocllaraju on one side and Ishinca, Ranrapalca, Ocshapalca and Vallunaraju on the other side of the pass, it was a pleasure to enjoy a nice break and eat something at the highest point of the trek. And to finish things off, we were greeted by a condor…
Far below the pass, at 4.350 meters, Refugio Ishinca could be found. Next to the refugio, we set up our camp. I spotted four skiers from Colorado at the refugio which offered the opportunity for a nice chat. In the meantime, Hernan was preparing a real treat with a nice lomo saltado, one of the classic Peruvian dishes. After dinner the refugio provided a comfortable place to relax before going to bed. The next day, we descended to Pashpa and took a collectivo (shared transportation) back to Huaraz. Time had come to get ready for the skiing…
Weather can be a bitch…
May 26, I headed towards Cebollapampa with Ale (my Italian ski guide who lives in Peru) and Daniel, our porter for the day, in order to ski Yanapaccha. With the help of Daniel, reaching the base camp was a piece of cake. In about 1,5 hours, we found ourselves surrounded by quite a few tents. As it turned out, Hernan was there to provide a few course members with a lot of healthy food for 5 days while they were learning the basics of mountaineering. At the same time, multiple groups took advantage of the nice weather that was forecasted. In total there might have been around 15 tents…
Yanapaccha is a beautiful and fun mountain to climb. Skiing it, is a completely different ball game though. Where you can climb and descend in almost any weather condition, skiing this 5.460 meters high mountain requires rather specific conditions. Because it features a 50 degrees or more 100 meter vertical wall, soft snow is preferred if you’re not suicidal. This means that after a cold night, sun is required to melt the top layer of snow. A cold wind, clouds and/or fog can be dealbreakers since they all prevent the snow from melting. Given that Yanapaccha is surrounded by some giants (Huascaran Sur (6.768 m), Huascaran Norte (6.654 m), Chopicalqui (6.354 m) and Chacraraju (6.108 m)) you’ll quickly realize that weather is complicated here. Once the clouds arrive, which they usually do each morning, they tend to stick around. In other words, we needed quite a bit of luck to catch a good weather window and be able to complete the steep ski descent from top to bottom.
After having some fun with Hernan and talking to Romain, a Brazilian guy who stayed at Casa de Zarela (my home during all my visits to Huaraz) too, I went to bed around 7 pm. Given the number of tents, it was no surprise it was noisy for a few more hours. When the alarm went off at 2:30 am, I had slept a whole hour at most. While Ale and I were having breakfast, the other teams took off for their climbing mission. Around 4 am, in clear skies, we started our climb at the foot of the glacier. Just over two hours later, we reached the bottom of the steep wall where a queue had been formed of all the rope teams. Once our turn had come, we were in the middle of a cold wind, fog and surrounded by clouds. Things were not looking promising…
We decided to wait, hoping the weather would clear. Around 8 am, we had to conclude the sun would not show up soon and time had come to accept our defeat. We transitioned to ski and snowboard mode in a complete whiteout and descended a rather steep and exposed section until we reached a plateau. There we took some time to get ourselves together. After a sandwich and a few cookies, we completed the remainder of the descent. Half an hour later, we were back in camp where we were greeted by Hernan and his group. The other teams slowly reached camp one by one. Almost all of them summited but all without a view. The weather had been bad all morning. The next day, Ale and I would try to tackle Yanapaccha for the third time.
We would start a bit later the last day to give the sun the opportunity to warm up the snow on the steep wall. All the other groups had left so a quite afternoon and night assured some good sleep. We woke up under another clear sky and left camp around 5:30 am. By the time we arrived at the bottom of the steep wall, the weather had changed, again. Much to our frustration, we had to acknowledge our defeat one more time. The weather is so complicated on this mountain that it’s almost impossible to catch a good window to ski something so committed without increasing your risk tolerance. We skied the lower part of Yanapaccha for the third time in total (two times this trip and one time in 2022). Back at camp, we were done with this mountain and left after a soup and a drink. We said goodbye to Hernan and his team and a couple of hours later, we were back on the road to Huaraz. Ale and I agreed never to attempt to ski Yanapaccha one more time.
Nevado Copa, a “slab” in the face
After our defeat on Yanapaccha, we took five days for our mission to ski at least one summit of Copa. It takes two days to reach the glacier and set up the high camp, leaving us with two days of skiing and the last day to descend. The plan was to attempt the second summit, which is well suited for skiing, in order to have a reserve day for the main summit which is only a few meters higher and less known for skiing. With stable weather being common on Copa, we sure couldn’t fail this time, right?
Ale and I headed towards Vicos, the starting point of the expedition, and picked up Daniel, a strong aspirant guide and our porter for 5 days, along the way. A rather long hike to the base camp was required to cover the 1,5 kilometer of vertical. On arrival, we checked out the current state of Copa and things looked promising. The mountain was very white, indicating it was covered with big amounts of recently fallen snow. A good night sleep was all we needed to complete the first day and be ready for the spicy second day…
The 500 meter vertical between the base- and high camp consists of a regular hike, a short section on the glacier and a rather steep rocky couloir. The couloir used to be full of ice but has dried up in recent years. It nevertheless remains the crux of the climb. Daniel had the heaviest backpack, so I could go as light as possible. I still carried quite a bit, including mattress, sleeping bag and ski boots. Once both Daniel and Ale and cleared the rather wet couloir (there had been quite a bit of precipitation the days before) of loose rocks, I made my way up the gully. Not being my favorite activity, I was glad to reach the glacier. In the end, it wasn’t too bad but I’m still more comfortable on snow…
At high camp I was reminded of the events of last year when I woke up completely blind. It felt a bit weird to be back but I wanted to defeat the demons. This year I arrived well equipped with some of the best sunglasses I could find. With a good experience at similar elevations on Chumpe I wasn’t too worried about my eyes. All we needed was a good weather window and we were good to go. So far the weather was pretty bad but that was as expected. According to the forecast, the weather should change for the better in the upcoming night and stay good for two full days.
When we woke up early in the night, the sky was clear. We had our breakfast while being as comfortable as possible in our sleeping bags outside on a rock before we moved to the glacier. We made quick progress on the lower and rather flat section. Once we had started to make some zigzags, the wind started picking up. It got cold very quickly, to the point I could barely move my hands. The sky was still clear but we had to wait a few hours before the sun to arrive. When some feeling in my hands started to return, we arrived at some big crevasses, the more technical part of the ascent. We had passed all but one when Ale looked in a state of shock to me and shouted: “the glacier is broken here”. He indicated there was a huge crevasse preventing us from going any further. He had climbed and snowboarded this line several times before but the mountain had changed. We were around 6.000 meters and could clearly see the summit but had to turn around. We were so close, but yet so far away…
We were still freezing up there so did not have the time and comfort to eat something or take a lot of photos. We simply descended and made our way back to camp where a nice meal together with Daniel was our only consolation. Luckily, we had another day left and from camp the route to the main summit looked connected all the way. With another good day in the forecast, I shifted my focus to climbing and skiing this summit the following day.
Last year, the fact that there is mobile phone signal at high camp might have saved my life. Without phone service, Ale would have had to get me down on his own which would have been close to impossible. With full eyesight this is not a big deal but without, it takes more people to securely help someone to get down some technical sections of a high mountain. This time, phone service prodived Daniel with the latest news that three aspirant guides were missing on Artesonraju, the famous mountain because of Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures. A big avalanche most likely caught them by surprise. Daniel, being an aspirant guide himself, knew them very well. This news was shocking to say the least and put us on guard for our next mission.
While we were still processing the recent news. the wind picked up once more. It was very, very cold and while we could barely finish our meals, we were hoping to wake up in calmer conditions. Another night with freezing fingers was not a pleasant prospect…
A few hours later, we found ourselves having another breakfast in our sleeping bags. Around 2:30 am, the sky was clear and the wind had died down. Soon, we were ready at the foot of the glacier for another adventure. Ale had climbed the main summit but never on his snowboard. Once we had skinned our way up around the high camp, we entered a really exposed section. Luckily for me, it was too dark to see very well what was below us. Ascending on ski crampons with a cliff of several hundred meters right next to you, is something special. I was quite happy when we entered less consequential terrain. By less consequential, I mean a maze of huge crevasses with overhanging seracs…
We passed one deep crack after another and finally, we could see multiple summits. Again, we were really, really close. Skins couldn’t do the job anymore, so we transitioned to bootpacking mode. Skis on the backpack, crampons under our boots and with one ice axe, we put one foot in front of the other. We progressed surprisingly fast but then Ale heard a big “whumpf” which usually means the snowpack is alive and conditions are very dangerous. This alarming sound is caused by a fracture of a lower layer in the snowpack. Combined with a huge wind slab on top, you’ll have the perfect conditions for a deadly avalanche.
We immediately thought about the news of the previous day and quickly left the area and went back to our safe spot. However, we didn’t give up yet. Climber’s left, another summit was well within reach and the approach looked more gentle. Expecting amazing views and a nice ski run, we decided to give it a go. After two defeats on Yanapaccha and another two on Copa already, we were both eager to summit at least something. Soon however, we encountered similar slab conditions while traversing under a huge cornice. To summarize, again we were in very dangerous conditions. We descended as quickly as possible to some avalanche debris and made our way around the corner to a safe plateau where we had a snack and a drink to calm down. It simply wasn’t our time…
After one last view of Huascaran, we descended back to camp. This time though, we had to pack our stuff in order to get down the mountain. We had no more food and simply had to acknowledge our defeat by Nevado Copa. Skiing at high altitude is no easy endeavour. So many factors will have to come together to ski down from a 6.000 meter summit, something we experienced just one more time.
Casa de Zarela, a special place
Back in town I enjoyed my last days from my usual base, Casa de Zarela. I had my meals at the usual spots, visited the market a fews times, discovered a new bakery and had my first “pollo a la brasa”, a popular meal among locals. It’s roasted chicken with fried potatoes, accompanied by a salad to get your mom’s approval. It’s all very convenient and this routine of having my fixed bars and restaurants works perfectly for me to relax after any adventure in the mountains.
I have to write a few words about Zarela, as I have done before but will do again now. Her guest house is almost an institute and well-known amongst hikers, climbers and a few skiers. People come back to this place and for good reasons. In the end, it all comes down to one person and that is of course Zarela. She interacts with everybody and makes sure that the guests interact with each other, something that’s usually easy because they all share the same interest, the mountains.
Last year she proved to be very special again. When I came back from Copa b eing snow blind, she helped me tremendously. I couldn’t deal with any form of light, it simply hurt too much. Zarela ordered food for me and we enjoyed lunches and dinners together in the dark with a very subtle light in the corner. When I was close to a depression after three full days in the dark, she took me to a restaurant by car and asked the waiter to put us in a dark corner. We visited an eye clinic together and she helped me with the medication to treat my eyes. Without her, I would be lost, both literally and figuratively speaking. Zarela showed to be a great host, again. I can not recommend this place enough. Thanks for everything Zarela!
Final words
This trip was a challenge in terms of reaching my goals. I knew Yanapaccha would always be a risk and finding the steep wall in good conditions (both in terms of snow and weather) was not likely. Copa however, was a different story. Being in good shape and having stable good weather conditions, I was expecting to summit this one without a doubt. I never could have imagined that the mountain had changed making Ale’s usual route inaccessible. Avalanche conditions on Copa were a first, even for Ale who has been around for more than ten years.
Not to summit anything has not been easy to digest, to be honest. I know I have to enjoy the adventure in the mountains and accept anything the mountain “throws” at you and not being so focused on summiting. Unfortunately, this is not how my mind works. When I have a ski descent from a summit in my mind, I want to ski from the summit. This is something I have to work on.
As mentioned before, skiing a 6.000 meter peak is not easy. Aside from your own physical and mental condition, you’ll also need stable snow conditions and good weather. Then you’ll depend on your material (think about ski bindings or boots that can break or getting snow blind due to bad sun glasses) and your company. You can be as strong as possible but in the end you’re only as strong as the weakest member of your group (unless you’re very selfish and don’t care about others and do your own thing). Over the years I have met people in Huaraz who turned around because of sickness, snow conditions or because they were too intimidated by the mountain. And they came from all over the world and some of them had paid crazy amounts of money to give it a go. That should put my efforts into perspective. Again, something I have to work on. I try, trust me…
In the years to come, I will probably leave Huaraz alone. I have been several times in recent years and it’s time for a change. That’s not to say I’ll never go back, it remains a special place for me. I have discussed the potential of Bolivia with Ale and also, Ecuador has some unfinished business. Pushing my own limits still feels good, so let’s see what the future brings.
Click here to see more pictures of my trip to Huaraz!
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