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2004
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
McMahon/Wharton—Peru
Brian
McMahon & Josh Wharton
Dear
Mugs Stump Award Committee,
On
June 19th Brian McMahon and I walked away from the base of
Huascuran Norte’s North Face. Although we’d spent
a few days acclimatizing below the wall earlier in the trip,
when we negotiated the glacier and got closer to the wall
we found nearly constant rock fall scouring the face; in
fact it sounded as if missiles were pouring down the face
every five to ten minutes! Brian said he felt the objective
danger was just to high, and he’s probably right, although
it was still hard for me to walk away without at least giving
the climb a proper try. Someone will climb the north face
again, but it will likely be a much different experience
than Cassarato’s. Most of the ice on the lower face
is gone, only measly snow patches remain, and the ice routes
that once existed on the wall’s left flank seem to
have entirely disappeared. Since I’ve never been to
Peru before it might be possible that this year was just
a bad season, but from most reports it sounds as if climate
change is the more likely culprit. Maybe I’ll
be back to wall in the future—I still think there’s
a chance that the face is climbable by a team with the right
combination of huge speed, tremendous luck, and suicidal
tendencies. And to be honest I haven’t climbed many
peaks with major objective hazards, so someone else might
deem it less risky and more reasonable. However it was somewhat
reassuring to learn a few days later that Steve House and
Marko Pretzl (a team that’s probably got more combined
years on big scary mountains than years I’ve been alive)
made the same decision. Steve going so far as to say he thought
it was the most rock fall prone face he’s ever seen.
Disappointed,
but wanting to make the most of our trip, Brian and I spent
our remaining week climbing on the popular alpine rock
wall, La Esphinge. We climbed the Normal
Route (V 5.11) in 4.5 hours to get a sense for the wall.
Then made a successful attempt to free the route Riddle
of the Cordilla Blanca (Offenbacher and Davis, May 2000).
The crux of the route, a three-pitch variation to avoid an
A3 section, involved two short spectacular pitches—a
steep .12a finger crack up an arête, and a completely
desperate section of 5.12 down-climbing to gain a technical
corner. We call the free version of the route King of
Thebes (V+ 5.12b/c) because as Brian pointed out legend
has it that Oedipus became king of Thebes when he solved
the Sphinx’s riddle. We climbed the route onsight in
7.5 hours without pins or bolts. On our final day at La Esphinge
we made an onsight 7-hour ascent of the much-publicized Cruz
Del Sur (Bole and Karo, June 2000), finding that it
was indeed much over-graded at 5.13a—probably more
like .12a. Still it was a high quality, fun route, that will
surely become increasingly popular as word of the inflated
grades and excellent climbing continues to circulate.
On
July 1st Brian returned to the States to attend to his
1st year wedding anniversary, and I took off for the bottom
of Huandy Norte to make a solo attempt on a line I’d
scoped from Huascuran. Unfortunately, after a bivy at Pisco’s
Moraine camp, I was again thwarted by objective dangers,
this time by a heavily crevassed glacier that I was unwilling
to cross alone. Not wanting to waste my remaining time I
rushed back down to Huaraz traded in my ice gear for rock
shoes, and jumped back into a collectivo headed toward La
Esphinge. After a hectic bus, taxi, and steep hike I arrived
back at La Esphinge’s base with very tired legs. The
next morning I made the probable first free solo of the Normal
Route (V 5.11) in 1 hour and 28 minutes, catching a
taxi back to Huaraz that afternoon, and a plane home the
next day.
Sincerely,
Josh
Wharton
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