New mixed climb on Nevado Pisco in Peru by Pou brothers & Micher Quito

Basque mountaineers Iker Pou and Eneko Pou and their Peruvian counterpart Micher Quito have added a difficult and direct mixed climb to Nevado Pisco (5780m), after Alpamayo and Huascarán one of the most famous mountains in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru. Named Pisco Sour, the 640m outing was climbed in a 20-hour push and breaches difficulties up to 85°/M6.

Eneko explained "We began the actual climb at 7:50 am after a long approach crossing a long, heavily crevassed, and dangerous glacier. We didn’t reach the summit ridge, and thus finish the diffculties, until 6:30 pm. At 7:30 pm, already completely dark, we finally reached the main summit of Pisco for the second time in a week, having ascended it a few days earlier via the normal route for acclimatization. In between, there were 12 pitches and 630 meters of sustained ice and mixed climbing (with ice axes and crampons), pushing us to our limits. At one of the diffcult sections, both Micher and I suffered falls. Though without serious consequences, Micher is still noticeably limping."

Iker commented "We thought it would be much easier than it turned out to be, but the little ice we found, combined with loose snow and the size of the wall — 630 meters of climbing — meant we didn’t progress as quickly as we wanted. In the upper part, we got into a labyrinth of enormous seracs that seemed never-ending. When night fell during the last pitch, there was a moment when I thought we’d have to bivouac with nothing but what we had on us. We didn’t have sleeping bags, mats, or a stove to melt snow for water and prepare food. Our plan was to go light to complete the climb in a day, but with night falling on us, our plans were going awry. Thankfully, a few minutes later, when it was already pitch dark and both Micher and I had our headlamps on, Eneko shouted through the walkie-talkie that he had reached the summit ridge and was out of the vertical section. We both screamed with joy, as did those 1100 meters below us at the refuge, who had been anxiously following our climb via the radio we left with them."

Their success on Pisco is the last stage of their acclimatisation period in Peru, and comes after the demanding rescue effort to locate and recuperate the body of Italian mountaineer Tomas Franchini. The Basque brothers concluded "We are very happy because we thought it would be a relatively easy climb to end our acclimatization process, but we ended up, almost unintentionally, achieving one of our best ascents in the range. We can assure you it wasn’t easy because, besides all the technical aspects we described, we had to battle our own minds, which turned out to be our worst enemy. Just a few days ago, we recovered the lifeless body of our Italian companion, Tomas Franchini, from Cashan at 5686 meters. We risked our own lives to bring him back to his loved ones, and with everything we went through there, we weren’t in the best emotional state. But we managed to turn it around, and that’s what’s important."

Links: FB Hermanos Pou, La Sportiva, Petzl