British climbers Tony Barton and Olly Metherell have made the first ascent of the North Summit of Huaytapallana II, a 5,025m rock peak in Peru's Cordillera Blanca.
Barton is arguably Britain's most prolific exploratory Peru climber in current times and is married to a local. In 2007 he teamed up with American Jim Sykes, who also has a Peruvian wife and is a resident of Huaraz, the gateway town to the Blanca. The two made a foray into the little known Huaytapallana Valley on the south west slopes of the Huandoy Group, where they climbed the highest summit in a small cluster of rocky peaks known as Cerro Huaytapallana.
That year Barton and Sykes climbed the 300m North West Face of Huaytapallana I via an excellent granite rock route of VS 4c standard. This appeared to be the easiest line on the mountain and the pair found no evidence of any previous ascent to the summit.
This summer Barton, Metherell and Sykes made an attempt on a direct line up the West Face of Huaytapallana II. The climbing proved to be slabby and often runout with the psychological crux on the 60m poorly-protected seventh pitch.
By mid afternoon and nine pitches above the ground it was decision time. To continue with a direct line would mean a certain descent in the dark, so the three took the easiest line out left to the ridge, followed it towards the summit for a pitch until stopped by a gendarme, and then made several rappels down the shorter North Face to the screes. They named the 550m route Cop Out (E1 5a).
Sykes had to return to Huaraz but Barton and Metherell decided to have one more shot at the unclimbed summit via the spectacular North Ridge. On a bitterly cold morning the two reached the col between Huaytapallana I and II, and setting off up the ridge above, found to their delight clean sound rock, good belays and memorable climbing. There were several 5a pitches, the crux again runout.
In early afternoon the two reached the North Top, a short distance from the South Top formed by a slightly higher block that they did not climb. Last Exit seemed a suitable name for the 400m route, which was again graded E1 5a.
Although this valley is largely unknown to mountaineers, the glacier below the peaks is used by 'ice collectors', who have the dangerous job of chipping ice from beneath seracs to use in up-market Huaraz restaurants. Jim Sykes was involved in the making of Shika Shika, a documentary film on this, understandably, declining profession. Watch out for it at film festivals in the UK.
This expedition was one of 11 to receive a BMC Award in 2008
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