Climbing on Pico Italiano.

In the later half of April I did two trips to Pico Italiano. The first attempt was not successful because we decided to continue on the glacier for too long. There is a point where you choose to go left towards a couple small snowfields and a couloir, or keep moving up on the glacier and try to get to the 5700m high summit from the opposite direction. We decided to take the glacier approach even though it was obviously full of crevasses. First it was better to follow a terrible, steep, narrow scree slope between a rock face and the glacier. After a gaining elevation slowly there, we arrived at a spot where the glacier looked nice. It was the upper part of the glacier almost where it turns into snowfields.

It was nice and steep at first. Then the angle eased up and we really had to work to find a way across and over the numerous crevasses. Most of them were really deep, maybe 10 meters or more, and some were about 5 meters deep but really wide and had snow on the bottom. Being in that labyrinth of crevasses was actually quite fun for a moment, but eventually there was a very long crack in the glacier that simply made it impossible to cross it. It wasn't even very wide but just enough to be too much, the bridges that covered it were just really really thin and it was too dangerous to try them, walking along the edge of the crevasse was equally dangerous because there was a spot where another crevasse was too close and made the bridge too thin and anyway further away it seemed really bad. Going down a little bit and following the edge of the glacier was not possible because right there was a vertical 10 meters high slick rock wall and right next to it was a vertical ice wall that was as high as the rock wall. A lot of time was spent trying to figure how to get across the crevasse but no solution was found. The elevation there was 5430 meters and the best climbing was really close but we didn't get there.

Just 5 days later I went and tried another route on Pico Italiano by myself. So, this time instead of following the glacier like last time, I took left. I had started the walk from the road early and got to the beginning of Pico Italiano's lower southern snowfields really fast. There was a bad rock fall about 400m to my right. About 10 boulders the size of a closet broke loose and flew and rolled down at incredible speeds. I checked out if there was an easier way up, but ended up taking a quite steep and narrow couloir. It is about 50-55 degrees and steeper than it looks like in the picture.

I had seen this couloir pretty well in December from across the valley. Then it was still covered in snow and all white but now it was very icy. There was a section of approximately 15 vertical meters/45ft that was pure hard and slick ice, not crunchy ice, but higher up it looked like there was crunchy ice. So I got to the last meters of the icy section, grabbed a rock with my hands with ice axes hanging from the leashes and thought I was in a good position, but then my foot slipped. In a couple of seconds I was 50 meters down. I'm lucky I didn't hit the rocks but my knee got twisted and it took 5 hours to get to the car. 

Climbing Arkhata

Arkhata is a 5647 meters or 18,525ft high mountain about south-west of Mururata. They are very close to each other, and there is a ridge that connects the Mururata main glacier and Arkhata. I didn't use the ridge and haven't really seen it well, but it should be easy.

It was Wednesday April 13th when me and another Finnish La Paz resident left after 10am from the city. Compared to last year, the road was a lot better because it was paved a lot further, and it was widened and ready for pavement all the way to Ventilla (I think that's the name of the very small village) where you have a choice of taking a very steep right down towards Palca and Illimani, or go straight towards Los Yungas (the road goes between Illimani and Mururata), or take a very slight left and drive toward Mururata. When you take the left, the next small town is Choquecota.

 The drive is bumby, and eventually you take a right to cross the river. We drove to about 4230 meters/13,880ft and parked. Soon after that spot the little road goes left and up in another valley. Suddenly a man appeared and asked if we were going to Mururata and when we were going to come back and some other questions. Then he left almost running. I never want to talk to these people because you never know what they are up to. Of course they are usually harmless country people but I never really feel safe unless I am at 5000m or higher. So, for me camping there was out of the question and we took out heavy backpacks and headed up. I had been there before and climbed Mururata, so I knew what to expect. This time it looked like a better idea to stay on the right side of the valley. There are actually slight paths there and one of them goes really high, maybe up to 5100m. There are some steeper sections, but all in all it's all quite nice going compared to many other mountain approaches. At about 5050m there was a green area that could have been good for camping, but we had time to go higher so we kept going. The glacier starts at about 5015 meters and we were to the right of it. I think it was at 5130m where we saw another small flat area with some ok camping spots that were fairly wind protected. We left our stuff there and went higher but there were no campsites there, so we went down and got ready for camping.

The sunset was nice, but when it got dark and colder it was time to get in the tents at about 7pm or a bit before that. I think I slept from about 12 to 3. It was a very nice, windless starry night that never got very dark. At 4.25am we started getting ready. Even after a badly slept night that didn't help your recovery, it's a nice feeling to get up on the mountain and get ready for some climbing. All the water and wet areas just outside the tents were frozen, but in the night I wasn't even close to being cold, thanks to my -20C /-4F sleeping bag. I didn't  even have to fully zip it or have gloves or inner boots on at 5130m or 16,830ft.

We started walking at 4.55am in the darkness and crispy cold. It would have made no sense to go down to the glacier, so the best thing to do was to keep going up along the right side of the valley on rocky terrain, and eventually we would have reached the Mururata main glacier. Then it looked easier to go right and up a steep sand slope, than to continue to the glacier. So we went slowly up for maybe 150-200 vertical meters until the terrain got flatter. And as the terrain I was reaching the flatter terrain, I could see the Arkhata summit, and it's western glacier. They both looked a lot bigger and nicer than I had anticipated, so I was excited. There was a little pond. My partner was behind me and he had taken a different route, so I got to the glacier by myself, put on my climbing boots and crampons, and headed up.

It was still early, about 8am, and I was on the shadowy side of the mountain so it was cold and the snow was perfectly hard. It was totally calm and the sky was clear. I went up or a while and the saw Jari putting on his boots on the edge of the glacier. From there it was fairly steep but not exactly steep.

It didn't take very long to get to the top. I would have liked the climb to continue longer. It was pretty easy. The top of the mountain has plenty of room and it's almost flat while the opposite side of the mountain is very steep. The views of Mururata and Illimani are great. Starting from the beginning of the western Arkhata glacier now looks like a good idea. It should be an awesome climb, but the beginning of the glacier may be steep (and icy) according to Google Earth.