Alpamayo Route - French Direct
Disclaimer: The above displayed route crossing the bergschund may deviate depending on the different conditions each season.
The route from base camp to the moraine camp follows a path up the steep slope marked by cairns and leads us to some rock slabs with a number of paths leading in different directions. We head towards the moraine camp which should take us around two hours total.
From the moraine camp the climb begins proper on the glacier's edge. We ascend carefully avoiding the crevasses towards Quitaraju-Alpamayo Col. The final 200 meters of the climb is the most difficult with some short sections of ice up to 80 degrees. We then drop down on the other side of the col and set up the col camp.
We make an early Alpine start somewhere between midnight and 3 am to maximize our chances of excellent summit views. If the snow bridges are in good condition it's easy to pass the bergschrund onto the hard snow pack. The route steepens as we climb right up the 65 degree fluting until the last pitch which can be up to 70-80 degrees and then we traverse over the fluting and continue on the snow to the summit.
Our descent is rapelling the route we just climbed.
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