Alpamayo

Interesting facts

Alpamayo takes its name from a nearby hamlet; in Quechua it combines words for earth and river, while locals call the peak Shuytu rahu, the slender snow mountain.

Three European expeditions failed before the first ascent: an Austrian attempt in 1936, a Swiss one in 1948 and a French-Belgian one in 1951.

The 1951 French-Belgian party reached the mountain's northern summit, which they took for the true top of the peak.

The famous 1966 poll grew out of a photo contest by the German magazine Alpinismus to choose the ten most beautiful mountains in the world.

In 1966 a British team sponsored by the BBC made the first filmed traverse linking Alpamayo's two summits.

The final headwall of the south-west face rises about 450 metres at an average angle of around 60 degrees.

The line called the French Direct was not first climbed by French alpinists; it was named after a French party who died attempting it.

Alpamayo carries a glacier of about 4.7 square kilometres and belongs to the Santa Cruz massif, the northernmost group of the Cordillera Blanca.

Though noticeably lower than many of its neighbours, Alpamayo stands out for its almost perfect pyramid of ice when seen from the Alpamayo valley.

Why it is worth it

Alpamayo owes its fame to one side of it. Seen from the south-west, the 5,947-metre peak in Peru's Cordillera Blanca is a near-symmetrical wall of ice, its face scored top to bottom by parallel flutings that catch the light like pleats in fabric. In 1966 the German mountaineering magazine Alpinismus printed a photograph of that face by Leigh Ortenburger together with a poll of climbers, and the verdict that Alpamayo was the most beautiful mountain in the world has followed it ever since. It is a label that is easy to repeat and hard to argue with once you have seen the fluting in person.

The mountain lies inside Huascarán National Park, surrounded by other big names of the range: Artesonraju, Huandoy Norte and the northern summit of Huascarán are all within view from its slopes. Its climbing history begins with a dispute. A French-Belgian expedition reported reaching the top in 1951, but when a German team made the ascent on 20 June 1957 (Günter Hauser, Bernhard Huhn and Horst Wiedmann), they concluded that the earlier party had stopped short of the actual summit. The line most climbers follow now was opened in 1975 by an Italian group led by Casimiro Ferrari, straight up the celebrated south-west face. The Ferrari route is a sustained, steep ice climb that demands confident crampon and ice-axe technique; at least half a dozen other routes exist, with the so-called Basque-French line the next most travelled.

What makes Alpamayo special for non-climbers is that its beauty is visible from a trail. The approach follows the Santa Cruz valley, which also carries the Santa Cruz trek, one of the classic walks of the Andes; walkers on that route can glimpse the ice pyramid without setting foot on a glacier. The longer Cedros–Alpamayo circuit swings around the mountain and shows it from several sides. Everything here is high: climbers set up base camp near the lake of Artesoncocha at around 4,300 metres and the valleys below hold glacial lakes in shades of blue and green.

Getting there

The regional hub is the town of Huaraz, about 3,050 m above sea level, where expeditions and trekking groups organise transport and guides. The nearest commercial airport by straight line is FAP Lieutenant Jaime Andres de Montreuil Morales Airport (CHM) at Chimbote on the coast, about 100 km away; the nearest town of any size is Centenario, about 72 km away. From Huaraz the usual start is a drive to the village of Cashapampa, at about 2,900 m, at the mouth of the Santa Cruz valley; from there it is a multi-day walk to the base camp. The climb itself is technical and is done with an experienced guide or as a self-sufficient expedition.

Alpamayo

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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