Nevado Huascarán - Northeast Faces

The highest mountain in Peru's Cordillera Blanca (and highest in the Tropics!), Nevado Huascarán is a pair of glaciated summits (Huascarán Sur is 114m higher than Huascarán Norte) with different personalities: their south sides are glaciated and fairly mellow, offering a reasonable normal route, while their north and east aspects, shown here, are massive rock and ice faces with very serious and mostly unrepeated lines. Since a flurry of activities in the 1970s and a handful of new routes in the 1990s, objective danger has kept climbers mostly away. Lone exception, the ever visionary Silvia Vidal and partner Youri Cappis climbed the then-virgin north pyramid wall on Huascarán Norte, capsule style over 18 days!

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Route List

1: Northeast Ridge, TD+, P. Acuña, A. Pérez, S. Rivas, F. Mautino, 07/1961
2: Northeast Pillar/The Road to Hell, ED-, M. Kovač, B. Ložar, T. Petač, 07/1993
3: Northeast Face, Slovenian Variant, TD+, P. Kozjek, 07/1991
4: Northeast Face, French Variant, ED, B. Grison, 07/1985
5: North Face via Northeast Glacier, D, J. Agulló, T. Bros, J. Anglès, J. Prunes, R. Biosca, R. Pajares, 07/1980
6: Entre Boires, ED+ A3 6a+ 80°, S. Vidal, Y. Cappis, 08/2008
7: 1980 Variation, TD+, Y. Astier, J.M. Boucansaud, 06/1980
8: Northeast Face, TD+, M. Barrard, L. Desrivières, G. Narbaud, J.J. Ricouard, 08/1973
9: Northeast Ridge, ED-, R. Coëne, M. Fevrier, J. Fréhel, J.F. Porret, 08/1972
10: Catalan Route, ED A3 90°, J.I. Moreno, J. Tomás, C. Vallés, 07/1983
11: Swiss Route, ED+ 6b 90°, D. Anker, K. Saurer, 05/1986
12: Casarotto Route, ED A2, R. Casarotto, 06/1977
13: Paragot Route, ED, R. Jacob, C. Jacoux, D. Leprince-Ringuet, R. Paragot, 07/1966
14: De Skeeper Route, TD+ 60° V, J. de Skeeper, 07/1981
15: Northwest Ridge via West Spur, TD 60°, I. Lesjak, F. Knez, M.Čulk, 06/1978
16: Northwest Ridge/Italian Route, TD, E. de Tomasi, C. Piazzo, D. Saettone, T. Vidoni, 07/1974

Sources

• “Cordillera Blanca: Escaladas, Parte Norte,” Antonio Gómez Bohórquez, Andesinfo, 2003

• “Escalada en los Andes, Guia de la Cordillera Blanca,” Juan José Tomé, Desnivel, 1999

• “Climbs of the Cordillera Blanca of Peru,” David Sharman, Whizzo Climbs, 1995

• “Classic Climbs of the Cordillera Blanca, Perú,” Brad Johnson, 2003

• “Silvia Vidal big wall climbing on Huascaran North, Peru,” Planet Mountain, 2008

• The American Alpine Journal

Updates

Nov 19, 2024: First version published.

Mar 1, 2026: Minor caption update