The time I didn't climb Chopicalqui

Project Cordillera's co-founder relives the time he failed to climb Chopicalqui, Peru's third highest mountain.
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Chopicalqui sits on the eastern flank of the mighty Huascarán Sur – Peru’s largest mountain. “Chopi” has the vibe of being Huascarán’s little brother but it’s still a bruiser in its own right, coming in at 6350m. In the end, it turned out I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I still managed to get higher than I had ever been before.

A trip through the ever-impressive Llanganuco valley got us to the trailhead and basecamp. From there, the order of the day is ‘up’. The first objective is moraine camp, located at 4800m. In retrospect we should have pushed a bit less. The plan to shoot straight for high camp on day one made perfect sense while we were sitting in the pub!

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High camp is a stunning place to spend the night - even with one less tent than there should be .

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At basecamp we met Merlin. His climbing partner was ill, so he asked if he could join me and Willy on our rag tag team heading for the top. Of course he could. It turned out to be a wise move, not just because we’ve been friends ever since, but also because the average fitness of our team just doubled.

The mountain towers above you as you ascend from moraine camp to high camp. This can be a cold and lonely place to spend a night. The sun was setting and I’m not ashamed to admit that I was starting to panic, when we saw the faint glow from other tents that led us to a relatively flat patch of snow and ice that was to be our home for the night.

As Merlin was putting up his tent, his poles took an impromptu skiing trip down the side of the mountain. We followed their slender tracks in the moonlight to confirm that they had indeed disappeared into a crevasse. So it was that less than twelve hours after meeting, the three of us piled into a two man tent and snuggled up for the night. At least it was warm.

The standard route along the Southwest Ridge is a classic of the Cordillera Blanca and comes in at PD+/AD-. However, the ever-changing nature of the mountain has meant that in recent years some crevasses and ice cliffs have appeared. The route is still largely non-technical but offers some serious exposure when making the final summit push.

At least that is what Willy and Merlin told me. As we left the next morning I felt relatively strong, but as we hit the 6,000/6,100 meter mark I hit the proverbial wall. Each step left me needing five minutes to catch my breath. In the end I turned back and made my way back to high-camp and left Merlin and Willy to shoot for the summit.

A few hours later we were reunited in our cozy tent. Our new climbing buddy had made it to the top with Willy and I was just thankful that we could head back down.