Peru 2024 Pt 8: Shacsha Sur Trip Report

This is part of a series of blogs about a group of dudes on a mountaineering trip to Peru. You can read more here.

Due to our work restrictions and family lives, we weren't able to all line up three weeks together in Peru. Miles could only take two weeks off but is able to stay in Peru a little longer and work remotely, while Nate had to fly home a week earlier than me, Matt, and Alan. This meant that after a day of travel to Huaraz, three days of acclimatization, six days in the mountains, and a day of rest, we only had a few days left with everyone here. We decided to see what our options were and attempt to find a cool mountain that all of us would enjoy and be able to do together before Nate left. We went to Casa de Guias.

Once there, Nate asked what cool mountains there were to climb that would only require a single night on the mountain. The lady working there immediately pulled up a photo of a mountain that showed multiple pitches and slope angles for each. It looked amazing! Like, Nate and I both said "Whoah! Let's do that!" We quickly decided and asked for help arranging guides and transport to the mountain. A few hours later, we met with the main guide, Miguel, and listened to his advice on getting two certified guides and an apprentice. It cost a little extra but there's no way we would have made it to the top without the guides leading the pitches. In fact, we wouldn't have found the camp or the way to the glacier without them.

Shacsha Sur (aka Huantsán Chico or Huanchan) is a spur on the larger Shacsha massif and it's face is somewhat rarely climbed due to the technical difficulty and that it is often not good enough ice conditions to safely climb. Miguel had done it a few days before (while we were on Yannapaccha getting rained on). He was the guide we met briefly on Pisco. He was confident it would go, and we were confident in his confidence. We went back to our hotel and packed. The next two days would be big days.

Our ride showed up on time with our guides and we loaded our stuff and left. Shacsha Sur can be seen from parts of Huaraz and is fairly close to town, taking about an hour if your driver knows the way. Ours didn't, but he found it eventually after a few detours. We found the donkey driver with the four donkeys were requested, left our duffels with him to load and bring to camp, and set off over the rolling hills toward camp. A couple hours later, we got to camp. We set up, made dinner, sorted gear with the guides, and went to bed for an early alpine start.

Most alpine starts are around 1 or 2 am. This was a 12:30 am start meaning a 11:30 pm wake up time. We needed the extra time because we're a large group and there are a couple pitches that bottleneck to one rope team at a time. We didn't know it then, but the summit only has room for a few people at a time, so we had to take turns standing on the summit and taking photos.

The walk to the glacier took a couple hours over granite that reminded me a lot of ours in the Sierra Nevadas. We got to the edge of the glacier, took a break, geared up, and got into our rope teams. Nate and I were on the team with Miguel who was the lead guide. The walked for a bit in the dark across the glacier until the slope started steepening. Then Miguel stopped, said if we wanted a snack, now was the time, and three minutes later, he was ready to begin climbing the first pitch. Nate and I took turns belaying Miguel on two ropes, one attached to each of us. Nate was the faster climber and often when I got up, I needed a few minutes to catch my breath before being able to do anything, but the split still ended up being Nate 3/5 and Me 2/5. Miles was on Hoon's rope, right behind us, and Alan and Matt were with Mitchell. Often we would be next to eachother and able to talk and joke while belaying.

The first two pitches went as they were sup

posed to. On the third pitch, Miguel lead, Nate followed, and I took a few steps and looked down and only had one crampon on my feet! Luckily my crampon didn't fall down the mountain, because that would have meant me having to go back down the mountain while everyone else got to move forward. Unable to communicate effectively with Miguel and Nate, I ended up putting an ice screw in, hanging from that in my harness and, very carefully, puting my crampon back on. It took at least 10 tries since sitting in a harness didn't give me a great angle to be able to reach all the way around my foot like I needed to. This all took about 15 minutes, with Miles, Alan, and Matt like 20 feet away from me, unable to help since their guides were climbing still. None of this was unsafe, as I was both attached to an anchor and still on belay from Miguel. Anyway, as soon as I felt comfortable with how my crampon was attached, I climbed right in to the top, freezing cold and frustrated. Miguel checked my crampons and then lead the fourth pitch.

The forth pitch was where the bottleneck starts. It's also where we started climbing ice more than snow. Once Miguel set up the anchor, Nate and I could climb at the same time, just a little apart, so I had the benefit of seeing Nate struggling and kicking his steps in further for the guys behind us. We climbed, then traversed left through the crusty ice. The ice itself was like taking a partially melted snow cone and putting it in the freezer to try to preserve it. There were thin layers of solid ice with air and granules in between. Our sharp tools with dig in and drag down a few inches to consolidate enough ice to actually purchase, then we would move, hoping everything would hold. At the end of fourth pitch, We were sliding so much it became unsafe for us to climb as close as we were, meaning I had to try to stick in one spot to give Nate a bigger lead so he didn't fall on me. That was probably the most unstable section for us, though the fifth pitch was the spiciest.

Pitch five was short, but up to 90 degrees and over a an overhanging crevasse that spanned about 3 feet. Paired with the same unstable ice for our tools and we had to move like Spiderman running up a building, losing ground with every move. We made it to the top though and found out just how small the summit block was. There was enough room for the anchor to rappel (made from ice) and 4 people. Nate and I took pictures and then got ready to rappel off the top, when Miles showed up and with nowhere else to go, he stbled over us to get tied into the anchor, all while Nate and I sat looking down a 1000+ foot drop off.

We rappeled down the same way we came up and made it to the less steep slopes where we tied into rope teams and headed down the glacier. At the bottom of the glacier, one of our camp dogs was waiting for us. He showed us back to camp where we packed up our stuff and left camp. On the couple hour hike back to the van, we saw a vicuña and over the next hill, we saw a pack of them running around the hills. Vicuña are super rare, so it was really special to see them.

Matt, Alan, and I had planned to climb Alpamayo while we were down here, but Shacsha ended up being our Alpamayo. Alpamayo is famous for being voted the most beautiful mountain in the world, and for having runnels that are climbed to the top. This year was a great year for climbing Alpamayo and because of this, we heard it was basically like climbing a ladder for 1500 feet. That wasn't nearly as interesting as Shacsha ended up being, with 1000 feet of climbing at steeper angles and without steps already kicked in. It was the mountaineering adventure we had sought and we are all so glad we did it!

Due to the size of the summit, we decided to take our group photo with our banner back at the hotel.

Keep reading about our adventures in Peru!

All photos taken by members of the group and used with permission.