Peak Climbed: Nevado Tocllaraju (19,619')

Route: NW Ridge Difficulty: D

Location: Cordillera Blanca, Peru Trailhead Elevation: 12,000'

Mileage & Gain: 8 mi & 2,600 ft to base camp + 2.5 mi & 2,400 ft to moraine camp + 2.5 mi & 3,400 ft to summit

Dates Climbed: July 18-22, 2016

DAY ONE: Ishinca Base Camp (14,400')

DAY TWO: Sick day at Base Camp

DAY THREE: Tocllaraju Moraine Camp (16,700')

DAY FOUR: Summit, return to Base Camp

DAY FIVE: Return to Huaraz

Tocllaraju was the fifth and final peak that we climbed on a three week trip to the Cordillera Blanca, the icing on the cake. With our main objectives complete and time to spare it seemed appropriate to check out popular Ishinca Valley and see for ourselves what all the hype is about. We had hopes of climbing both Ishinca and Tocllaraju, but both Dom & I ended up getting bad colds and decided to focus our energy on just Tocllaraju. In addition to your standard cold issues, I endured a low grade 24+ hour fever (summitted 2 days later) and Dom was plagued by a nasty sore throat for days.

The standard northwest ridge route wasn't in the best of shape and it was windy for days but we caught a lucky break and conditions were manageable for our summit attempt. The summit pyramid was the definite crux of the climb and required scaling and traversing delicate chandelier snow/ice. Reaching the true summit required jumping a large crevasse, rumors of which had many would be suitors concerned. On the return trip I employed the full body stem rather than the jump!