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All About Salkantay Mountain – Cusco – Peru (part 2)

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Note: There is, in my opinion, a controversy regarding the paternity of the first ascent of this crest S.E., since it consists in the previous realization of a powerful group of Japanese who achieved the ascent by this route. Unfortunately, the only reference found in this Japanese ascension dates from an Iwa magazine to Yuki, written, of course, in Japanese, so without a translation of the text there is no concrete data.

Humantay Mountain – Salkantay Route To Machu Picchu

The western edge of the Salkantay is a route that remains virgin after years given the complexity of its layout and the distance from the traditional approach points, which requires additional porting based on the dragging of backpacks.

According to the prestigious Pyrenean Louis Audoubert, who ascended to the top by the northern slope in 1977, the west edge is feasible, but it will certainly be a good problem to solve at the Andean level.

This crest was attempted in 1975 by a group of Catalan climbers from Mataró formed by Manuel Punsola and Mitjans, Miquel Sala and Roy, Xavier Varela and Pinart, Ramón Armengol and Carbó, Antoni Sors and Farre, Antoni Rosa and Olivera and Vicente Aris and Julta .

On August 5, 1975, three members of this expedition approached the edge by an additional buttress of the northern slope that had been previously recognized. They go up for a good part of the day until they reach a point with two possibilities that seem unattainable. The logic was to tackle the ice ridge, something impossible given the lack of material means. The other option would be to flank the slopes of the ridge to look for the hill between the two Salkantay peaks.

At a certain point of this great flanking, which they calculate, it will take them a whole day, they decide to leave due to the large number of avalanches that leave the ridge and that are obviously a first order objective danger. Catalan climbers believe that the difficulties so far have not been important or dangerous, but moving away from the obvious route of the ridge, which would require more human and material equipment, greatly increases the risk.

Coming from Mollepata the first vision we will have of Salkantay is in its overwhelming south face a huge wall that closes the bottom of the valley with its vertical seracs hanging from huge rocky spurs, this wall could not fail to attract the attention of those who try to complicate a little their lives for pure personal satisfaction, so in 1970 a powerful group of Germans from the Munich DAV composed of Walter Welsh, J.Vogt, H.Koebrich, H.Haver and M.Olzowy made a meritorious attempt on the left side of the wall, leaving quite high on the crest that descends to the western summit of Salkantay.

In 1986 an English group led by J.Lowe broke through this hillside attacking the rocky base to the right of the German attempt of the 1970s. The snow zone continued a slight diagonal to the right until it reached the eastern peak of the mountain.

On June 15, 1978, a powerful Slovenian expedition of the Planinska Zveza, composed of Libor Anderle, Zoran Breslin, Marjan Brisar, Edi Torkar, Jure Zvan and Jure Ulcar, accompanied by Dr. Borut Pirc and Matjaz Derzaj as coordinator, opened in a week Exploring and climbing an intelligent route along the eastern slope of the mountain, the Slovenian route, which without detracting from the difficulty, is the most feasible option of trying to reach the top.

The second ascent to this route was made by the Mexican Roberto Morales Puebla and companion on June 17, 1978 and the third by Los Vascos de San Sebastián, Iñígo and Jesús Mª Barandiarán, José Luís Conde and Jesús Mª Rodríguez accompanied by Alberto Cabezón and José Antonio Fernández de Aranguiz on July 3 of the same year, which makes it the first ascent of mountaineers in the Spanish State.

The Salkantay has been visited by mountaineers from around the world, French, Swiss, North American, New Zealander, Polish, Austrian, German, Mexican, Slovenian, Slovenian, Spanish (Asturian, Basque, Andalusian, Catalan)…. that have crossed its steep slopes… some lived the light of the reward from the top … others, a great majority, had to withdraw when the chance of triumph among the cornices escaped.

SALKANTAY TREK TO MACHU PICCHU INFORMATION

 

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All About Salkantay Mountain – Cusco – Peru (part 1)

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Also known as Salkantay, Peru’s snowy peak located in the department of Cuzco, it is one of the main elevations of the Vilcabamba Range, an extension of the Eastern Cordillera, a mountainous branch of the Peruvian Andes. It reaches an altitude of 6,271 meters. It has two snowy peaks, known as China Salkantay and female Salkantay, separated by a port that opens to the Santa Ana Valley in the province of Urubamba. Both the mountain pass and the course of the river that is born there are called Salkantay. This river pours its waters into the Urubamba on its left bank.

Our company has the Salkantay Trek, a walk that will take you to Machu Picchu.

Hence the name of Snowy Salkantay:

The name of this mountain is a contraction that comes from Salga = sullen or wild and Antay produces bees or avalanches. It is usually preceded by the name of Apu, which in Quechua language comes to mean sir, is defined as large mountains that mean something sacred above the valleys. For example, Apu Salkantay in the Vilcabamba mountain range.

Snowy Salkantay (6,271) Source: Musical Henares, S.L. (Alcalá de Henares – Madrid)

The great white Apu. A little stories between ropes and crampons:

The Salkantay is one of the highest mountainous regions of the Qosco (Cusco). The highest mountain is the Gran Agusánate with 65 meters more in the Vilcanota mountain range located further south. However, and without a doubt, it is the greatest in its splendid isolation and in the greatness of its double-headed massif, to which is added the fact of being one of the mountains of this magnificent Andean region that presents greater technical problems for all its slopes This is evidenced by the six itineraries opened to date by the different slopes of this white giant.

His conquest dates from 1952 by the Swiss cordate composed of Bronimann and Marx.

This first ascent, like so many others in the history of mountaineering, is involved in several contradictions, since a few days later it is promoted again by a Franco-American expedition that included the well-known and relevant mountaineer of the Claude Kogan era.

Modern statistics merit being the first woman on top of the Italian Consuelo Bonaldi who climbed Cresta Este on August 4, 1978 accompanied by G.Marconi, A.Monononi, F.Nodari, S.Castellani, Augusto Zanotti and M.Quatrinni, obviously this is a mistake, since Claude Kogan did it 26 years before.

The Salkantay summit has two peaks, the East and the West, formerly the West, more slender and attractive than the East, which was slightly taller because it was crowned by a seracoa. After the passing of the years and the collapse of this serac, as the prestigious Pyrenean Louis Audoubert has pointed out, the height is practically identical in both peaks.

What happened in those two consecutive “first ascents” gave rise to the controversy that it had really been the first real one.
The Swiss went up in the fog to the top of the East (the lowest in those days), the Americans however went up to the West, which was somewhat higher so the statistics, always relentless, want to deny Bronimman and Marx his first absolute ascension.

In 1953 he was climbed for the third time by the prestigious Alpine guide Lionel Terray, who together with the Dutch T. de Booy and the Swiss Raymond Jenny defeated the summit following a route along the northern ram, now known as the Terray Ram.

Years later, a German expedition tries the top following the dangerous crest of the N.E. which, with its cornices, does not favor traffic … a relevant rope formed by Tony Mazenauer and Fritz Kasparrek (the latter conqueror of the north face of the Eiger) disappears on this ridge and the expedition has to be withdrawn.

Today there is a plaque commemorating that unfortunate event under the passage of Palcay (the usual base camp of the mountain) and on a block of visible rock.

On August 23, 1975, it was the turn of a long and steep crest of the S.E. of an Australian-New Zealand expedition composed of Peter Jennings, Wayne Barton and Michael Andrews. This ascent was the ninth to the top.

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