Type: Ice, Alpine, 2000 ft (606 m), 8 pitches, Grade III
FA: David Sharman, August 14, 1991
Page Views: 1,097 total · 12/month
Shared By: Ryan Marsters on Jul 26, 2016
Admins: Tony Yeary, MAKB

You & This Route


3 Opinions
Your To-Do List: Add To-Do ·
Your Star Rating:
Rating Rating Rating Rating Rating      Clear Rating
Your Difficulty Rating:
-none- Change
Your Ticks:Add New Tick
-none-
Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Description Suggest change

This is a fantastic, rarely-traveled route on Shaqsha's west face which involves weaving through seracs and crevasses.

The route differs slightly nowadays from Johnson's book. Rather than traversing the face and taking the ridge, it is recommended to traverse most of the face and then simply topping out via the upper face to avoid poor rock and tricky seracs. It is highly recommended to scout out the route and take some decent route photos the night before the climb.

From camp, follows abundant cairns along the rocky ridge and path of least resistance with a bit of class 3 until reaching a prominent rock tower. Bypass on left, dropping around 50 ft, until one can gain the tongue of the prominent west glacier. Follow the glacier up until you can traverse above the complex lower glacier and below Shaqsha's west face (cross quickly as this probably has the most objective hazard of the day).

Find obvious weaknesses up the north/left side of the west face until you can traverse back right/south. A few pitches should take you to the summit, with careful route-finding around various crevasses.

Glaciers change, but we encountered several moderate to steep ice/snow steps, numerous crevasse crossings, and a couple near vertical steps up to brief AI3.

Location Suggest change

Start at the dirt road to the cemetery in Olleros. From Huaraz, it was about 70 soles and 40 minutes one way. Hike up the dirt road, occasionally shortcutting switchbacks, until the grass slog up to the ridge. It was a 4.5 hr hike for us with mules to camp at around 16K. Plenty of great spots.

Protection Suggest change

4-5 pickets and 6-8 screws. We had 5-6 lengthy simul pitches with 3 people. About 4 double-single rope raps off v-threads and pickets (non-existing) with belayed downclimbing.

Photos

0 Comments