Japanese establish Dream House on Nevado Quitaraju in Peru

Japanese climbers Keisuke Ohkura, Kazumasa Ostubo and Yudai Suzuki have made an extremely impressive first ascent of Nevado Quitaraju, the 6036m peak in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Climbing alpine style from 25 - 29 June, the trio forged a 1240m line up the south face, South Spur and South Ridge, past difficulties up to M6, AI5+, A2, R/X, VI. Four bivies were needed before reaching the summit, after which the trio descended via the mountain's north face.

According to Suzuki, none of the 30 pitches were easy. Commenting after the ascent, he explained "I thought we would be able to speed up once we crossed the technical south face at the 1st day, but the crux of the climb was the whole ridge beyond that, which looked like White Godzilla's back. When we felt discouraged that we had reached a dead end, we were lucky to find the ice tunnels that miraculously exist. Also, I took 15m fall on the sketchy 90° Snow-Ice section at 5900m, but we somehow pass that part with a total team effort."

The new route has been called Dream House, and Suzuki believes the climb was far harder than Mount Hunter's Moonflower buttress, or the Japanese route he established on the north face of Ausangate (6384m) in Peru with Kei Narita in May 2023, or the huge NW Ridge of Ghamubar Zom in Pakistan established with Narita and Yuu Nishida.

Summing up the 5-day experience, Suzuki stated "I may never be able to complete such a difficult and dangerous climb again in my life. I am so filled with an indescribable feeling of having done it all and being able to draw such a beautiful and adventurous big line in alpine style with no trial attempt."

 

 

 

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