Mountain: Huascarán Sur
Route: Anqosh Face - Southern Cross
Country: Cordillera Blanca, Peru
Height: 6768 meters/22,132 feet
Dates of Expedition: August 1985
Overview of climb: The Anqosh Face of Huascarán Sur
Team Members: Sharon Wood, Canada Carlos Buhler
Lasting Impression:
Viewing this face from across the Quebrada Llanganuco, I was struck by the possibility of lines leading to the crest of the Spanish West Ridge. In the summer of 1985, I finally had a chance to attempt the face with Sharon Wood. A long morning manouvering through the broken glacier at the base of the face caused us a late arrival at the bergschrund. That afternoon, Sharon was struck by a rock on the first pitch of the climb as she was setting up a belay in the couloir. Although her scapula was cracked by the stonefall, we only knew it was very tender. In pain, she rappelled back to my belay and we bivouacked in the bergshrund to wait and see how she felt the next morning. By daybreak, thanks to her immeasurable determination and commitment to this project, she felt recovered enough to attempt climbing. We took a line through the lower rock band that began in the steep couloir left of center. This gave us access to the huge ice runnel above. A long rising traverse to the right, mostly on ice, led to the final short but very steep mixed wall capping the face. The resulting route, difficult and sustained, required four additional bivouacs to complete. The hardest pitch, by far, was a scary and strenuous off-width crack that allowed us to break onto the West Ridge and easier ground. We descended the normal route in two more long days. Our success was a tribute to her unfathomable strength and perseverence. With this ascent, and her climb the previous December of the South Face of Aconcagua, she was feeling more prepared for the West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir first ascent she made with Dwayne Congdon and the Canadian team on Everest the next spring.
