House and Prezelj in Peru
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Southwest Face of Taulliraju, showing ascent (red) and descent lines.Photos courtesy of Marko Prezelj.
Steve House and Marko Prezelj made good work of a three-week trip to Peru, with a new route on 18,770-foot Cayesh and a quick repeat on 19,127-foot Taulliraju. After acclimatizing on the golden granite of La Esfinge, the two climbed a new line up the middle of the West Face of Cayesh, a striking rock and ice needle. Their route required 11 pitches with difficulties up to M8 and 5.10, and the round trip took only 15 and a half hours.After a look at the North Face of Huascaran Norte, where the sound of 17 “significant” rock falls in 43 minutes after sunrise drove them off, they headed to Taulliraju hoping for a new ice route on the Southwest Face. Finding nothing but frost smears on their intended line, they turned to the 1980 Italian Route on the left-most buttress of the face and repeated this climb to the summit, finding rock and mixed climbing where good alpine ice used to lie, along with tricky and heady snow conditions among the summit-ridge cornices.For more great photos from these climbs, see the “Headlines” and “Ambassadors” pages of www.grivelnorthamerica.com.
House finds interesting terrain on Cayesh.Photos courtesy of Marko Prezelj.
The House-Prezelj line on the West Face of Cayesh. Green and yellow arrows point to previous lines on the face.Photos courtesy of Marko Prezelj.
