High camp to apex of the Alpamayo, 5,947meter

 

The summit bid was set off with guide, aspirant guide and helpers from high camp. 2 guides

left camp at 2 a.m. with ropes and ice screws, snow bars.  Seungmo Shin, Han Sang and Sang

Park left camp 3:30 a.m.  The high camp already already short of gas to cook soup, or hot

tea before the team left camp.  Three didn't have any bites and sips.

Aspirant guide from Huarez led the team to fixed lines. Early morning slope was a bit crusted

so each step require kick step. The path was pitch dark, could show cades of headlamps on

steep slope. 





The 1st passage was to reach to bergschrund where is connected lower 150 meter powered
slope then steep slope. Every one kick with front points were slipped off due to softness of
snow, particularly to Seungmo Shin.  To him it was the most recent high altitude climbs since
2005 Aconcagua Expedition.

Before breaking dawn, Seungmo tried to get back rhythm of routine climbing process.

Jumar up, put weight, penetrate ice hammer on steep surface then kicking to move up.

Panting, holding breadth interrupted continuous progress, frequently halted.
As dawn closes,  Seungmo Shin felt optimistic feeling, because his body getting warmed
enough.  Aspirant guide helped to Seungmo Shin to put his backpack to anchor.
The most careful thing on scaling the 350 meter couloir was shun to look up the couloir.
Due to falling ice chunks from high above the route.

 

Nerve wracking moments passed by when Seungmo Shin heard that Sang Park would retreat

to the high camp due to his bad ankles.  Up to steep section of couloir, there were 6 climbers.

One party of 4 were climbing, panting with staccato climbing with 2 ice hammers. To scale

the French couloir, there were 2 different ways.  One is using 2 ice hammer traction, the

other way was for us to use fixed ropes, that is anchored thoroughly from base of slope and

whole couloir and steep runnel to top.  Sang Han and Seungmo Shin could bypass a 3 man 

climbers team from South Africa.  They already reached the top then they were working

on rappel anchors.

As early morning sunlit hit the couloir, Seungmo Shin felt sign of rhythm of routine
climbing, following ropes and sound steps on icy couloir.  The pitch ahead looked
narrow runnel with semi frozen ice.  Last 60 meter pitch was mixed with narrow
conduit with demi-solid snow ice barrier on both sides.  Penetrating ice hammer was

easy with grabbing head and pushing down pic, piolet-panne posture in French technique.

At the summit, Jorge, Sang Han and other aspirant guide were waiting for Seungmo
emerge to summit.  It was passing 9 a.m. on July 9th, 2015.

Summit was quite narrow, so 4 on summit could not stand together, due to fragile snow cornice. 

Scenes from the summit of the Alpamayo.

Corniced summit of Alpamayo. Rupino peak near basec amp from Santa Cruz trail.





Southeast face of the Alpamayo. 1957 French route was the very center of apron shaped face.  The route slightly turn right to narrow runnel.  The detail of the route changes every season.  The terrain
is formed rooster comb shaped mushrooms that is fragile in afternoon sunlit.  The guide set up
maximum 6 hour summit bid plot due to unsound structure of the couloir and mushroom. As temperature raise, ice screws and stakes are prone to loosen from the anchor point.

Wrap up : Time on couloir : 5 hr 30 minutes.
                 Rappel  :  1hr 30 minutes.
                 Technique  : Jumaring on left hand,  front pointing, 3 o'clock position footing,
                                      piolet-panne position.
                                      Rappel : Seungmo Shin used half clove hitch. He dropped rappel device in
                                                    early dawn attempt.
                Temperature  :  -5C to -10C in early dawn, morning was 5C. Late morning was 15C to 25C.
                                         It  was mild cold and sunny side was close to 30C.
                Wears  :  Due to cold condition, light weight winter wears were pertinent.
                               Seungmo Shin used heavy triple layered onesport boots that was oversized for
                               him.  He wore jumpsuit type outwear with goretex jacket and heavy weight
                               Patagonia windproof pants. As a base layer, he used 2 leggings under the
                               jumpsuit. So to Seungmo, it was too heavy for leg portion.  To protect from
                               chilled air, he used bandana type mask around his neck, so he could cover it
                               over his mouth and nose.