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2007
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Richards/Walsh/Ruddy—SE
Face of Huantsan
The third time was not the charm.
 Eamonn
Walsh, Dana Ruddy, and I arrived in Lima in late may and
found our way to Huaraz via the comfiest bus ride ever.
You wouldn’t think it, but the bus lines out
of Lima, servicing the better part of Peru, are awesome.
Anyway, after arriving in Huaraz, we jetted out for a four-day
trip into the Llaca Valley and an easy, single day jaunt
to the top of Vallanaraju. Aside from a six-hour, debilitating
headache, no one felt the affects of altitude.
We returned to Huaraz to gear up for something a bit higher
in order to get our lungs, hearts, and heads sorted, and
set our sights on the normal route on Huascaran Sur. This
route, although exposed to objective hazard, is a walk up.
Even though the terrain itself was less than exciting, we
looked at it as a way to get high enough to feel physically
comfortable moving quickly above 6,000 m in the latter stages
of our trip.
 Unfortunately,
high winds and some frightening serac activity turned us
back before we could really reap any of the benefits. And,
Once again, we found ourselves sipping coffee in Café Andino.
At this point, we had blown through a week and a half and
decided to gear up for our primary objective, the S. Face
of Huantsan. We all felt slightly uneasy about our lack of
acclimatization, but shrugged it off and headed to Chavin.
Chavin lies in a tight valley on the eastern slopes of the
Blanca and is far less developed than the western aspect.
Not only is it hard to find pack animals, but also, unless
you speak Fluent Spanish with a subtle twist of Qechua slang,
you might just be screwed.
 So, after several hours of running around, pan miming and
spitting Spanglish, we arranged our logistics for the trip
in. Comparatively, the logistics in Peru are very easy. Likewise,
the distances you have to travel are markedly shorter than
those in other ranges, so our struggles seemed, all in all,
quite minor.
After a two-day walk in (it can be done in a day if you
can find a suitable ariero and animals), we arrived at base
camp with enough food for two weeks. This was my third trip
into this particular base camp, and I was stoked to be back.
Last year, I attempted the mountain twice via the unrepeated
E. Ridge, once with Adam French, and once with Carlos Buhler.
Both times we got bucked fairly low down. Those recollections
made the imposing south face look even more foreboding.
 Base camp was mellow as we studied the line for passage
and movement. It seemed solid, although the approach slopes
were heavily threatened by the active serac at the top of
the couloir that splits the face on its left side. We watched
it calve several times during our stay, making us grow ever
wearier of getting through the terrain safely.
Finally, an hour before we were set to leave, the serac
let loose a massive load, dusting our tent across two miles
of abrupt moraine.
At this point, my partners were having very understandable
doubts as to the safety of getting on the face. As we spoke
about it in the early hours of the morning, it seemed that
perhaps discretion really might be the better part of valor,
and we opted out. Thwarted before we even left the valley
floor, I felt that familiar flood of disappointment rush
in.
 We awoke to splitter skies and calm winds and decided to
turn our attention to the E. Ridge that I had tried twice
the year prior. Given that it was a stunning line on one
of the most impressive peaks in the range, I was still stoked
to give it a go.
We left that same afternoon and made our first bivi at 5,100
m on the col separating the ridge from a small satellite
peak. We were alarmed to find an iso-thermal snow pack as
deep as we could dig. It was far warmer this year than it
had been the previous and it posed some concerns about the
amount of crap falling from the ridge that route follows.
Regardless, we set out early the next morning and followed
the lower slopes for about 400 meters before heat and falling
rocks, ice, and snow forced into a small bivi cave where
we stayed for 18 hours. The occasional slide that plummeted
past the opening was enough to encourage us that we had made
a prudent decision.
 We rose early the next morning after a remarkably comfortable
bivi and began to parallel the ridge, climbing towards the
crest on the N.E. aspect. Intermittent cloud cover kept the
air cooler and the nerves at bay. It was obvious to me however,
that the conditions were warmer than the year before, which
made everything seem a little less friendly.
Dana set out up and across the 65-70 degree N.E. Face. We
simul climbed quickly over roughly 300 m of terrain before
coming to rest in a sheltered serac two pitches below the
ridge crest. Eamonn, enthusiastic to take the reigns, started
out up deteriorating snow runnels towards what we assumed
would be easier ground. As the terrain steepened, progress
slowed. Dana and I hung from a marginal belay as Eamonn disappeared
into the mist above.
During the occasional clearing, a huge serac/cornice became
visible on the ridge ahead. The temps as high as they were,
coupled with the amount of shit falling off the face surrounding
us, made the thought of traversing the face underneath the
feature nerve racking at best. Banking on the idea that we
would be able to traverse behind the enormous hanger, Dana
and I waited for Eamonn to break through the smaller cornice
overhead, thus granting us passage. No such luck.
 After
following runnel to my partners’ perch, I found
us huddled underneath the smaller cornice. Eamonn had broken
through three meters to the left, but had found nothing but
steep, unconsolidated and unprotectable terrain on the other
side of the knife-edge. We discussed our options for 30 minutes
or so before deciding that the conditions weren’t safe
enough to warrant further efforts and we bailed. Although
I knew it was best, I was crushed by the decision to descend.
Every
time…a little higher, a little better, a little
more committed. Not yet however, had I achieved what I had
come to do. The mountain had become engrained in me. I had
been thinking of it for a year, and now I would think about
it for another.
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