Chopicalqui 6,354 m

Chopicalqui

This is an album of the pictures we took with my friends on our last climbing season @ Peru, we succeeded in reaching the summit and getting back in one piece without any accidents and very greatful after reaching the summit. This was our firs 6 thousand summit expereience for all of us, coming from a country where our mountains lack of snow and height this was an Epic trip we wont forget.
Enjoy!!

External Links

www.zonadeaventura.com

Report

Day 1
We departed from Huaraz on a Monday on July 28 this 2008, heading to Yungay, it took us about 2 hours to get there. Here you find a Check Point "Puesto de control Llanganuco" were you have to present you Huascaran National Park pass and register on the book. Once you do that, you keep on going on a dirt road and you pass by the Llanganuco Lakes wich are 2 big torquise lakes right between the Quebrada Llanganuco. About 45 minutes you reach the place where the bus dropped us off to start the walk towards Chopicalqui.
We started walking towards the Base Camp wich is about 4200 meters, we kept on going making our way around rocks and a trail that takes you all the way to the Morraine Camp wich is about 4800 meters. It took us about 4 hours to get to M.Camp, the camp was settled in a really nice big plataform were we were protected from wind, and avalanches and rock falling. went to sleep after a really nice meal, next day we would make our way on the glacier up to Camp1.
Day 2:
woke up around 630 a.m still kind of cold outside so i waited for the first sun beams to hit the camp but that wouldnt happen like until 8 or 830, the big mountain standing infront of us was big, and now we could see the summit from this camp. Amazing view of the summit and the Huandoy Mountain Range on the other side. After a really good breakfast we packed our stuff and started to make our way to next camp. We started walking around 1030 a.m and began to make our way by big crevasses and snow brigdes. the geography of this mountain was something i never experienced before, you could hear some rocks fall from up high and see crevasses all over the place, really intresting, after 3 hours we reached the Camp 1 at 5500 meters, here we settled for the rest of the day, nex day we would leave really early to attempt the summit. This day was intresting because the sun was so hot we could be around withot tshirts and boxers around the camp jajaja ... those are some pictures you wont get to see on this gallery jaja ... beeing around on thiscamp and having a view of the sunset was amazing, good vibes were around a day before attempting the summit, for some reason i was convinced we were gonna make it...
Day 3 Summit Day
We woke up really early, we could see the stars shining on the sky and the lights of the city on our way to the summit, we found very steep terrain on the way up. we started an early walk around 130 a.m was very cold but the weather was amazing, after 4 or 5 hours we reached a spot that would lead us to the last part of this amazin mountain. Here we had to make a climb of about 120 meters long, steep wall but really good snow conditions, your crampons could get attaced to the ice really good so did your ice axes, on our way up we could see the sun rise, still we couldnt het the sun to warm us up so it was really cold on that wall, you could feel the ice penetrating your gloves as you make your way up. After 45 minutes or so we reached the las part. at this point you could see the summits mushroom and the amazin Huascaranes on the other side. Amazin view, we kept on walking to make our way to the last part of the climb, at this part you get to pass on this part that i like to call "catwalk" where you have a fall next to you like 1000 meters down, amazin, didnt felt scared, i guess adrenaline pumped me up to make my way on that part and keep on going to the summit, a non-stop climbing until the wall satrted to loose inclination, it took us about 30 minutes to make this last 80 meters high mushroom to reach the summit, The views were amazing from this point, the happiness we felt as a team made us give a big group hug and shout out loud that we made it. After taking pictures and recording some video footage we started making our way down, the first group rappeled down the summit, we climbed down the summit with my other friend, then we made a 2 section rappel, 60 meters each until we reached the bottom of the wall. Then we made our way back to Camp 1, the way back was kinda slow and long, clouds wouldnt let us see our way back, once we reached the camp we took a drink and then continued on our way to Morraine camp, we reached morrain camp after an hour and a half walk and finally we had time to rest. happy for reaching the summit and with no accidents we celebrated with a really big dinner, and some tea, we all slept like babies that day. next day we would make our way back to Huaraz :)

Images

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