Chopicalqui, 6354m
Peru, August 2025
The final tour of this year’s expedition was Chopicalqui, a 6000 meter peak close to the Huascarans. Compared to the mountains we had climbed before, it is technically easier, but I didn’t mind that at all as a final climb. The tour began for Luca and me at a bend of the pass road between Yungay and Vaquería. The path led through an open forest into a flat valley where the base camp was located. Even from there we already had impressive views of Chopicalqui and the two Huascarán peaks. Today, however, we didn’t stay at base camp but continued toward Moraine Camp. To get there, we had to cross a roughly 100-meter-high moraine located to the side of the base camp to reach the remains of a massive glacier on the other side. Never before had I seen a landscape shaped by so many and such large moraines. The glaciers that must once have existed here must have been gigantic. After crossing one of the glaciers, the path led steadily uphill along the crest of a huge moraine toward the camp. At times it became a bit steep again, which was exhausting with the heavy backpack, but eventually we reached the camp at about 5000 meters. We covered 5 km and 800 meters of elevation gain that day.
After arriving at camp, I looked for water nearby, but unfortunately there was none. Instead, I found a 7-liter plastic bottle someone had left behind and set off with it to the nearest glacier. There, plenty of meltwater was flowing, and I was able to fill the bottle. Afterwards, we set up the tent and ate something. I had an very nice evening while enjoying the view down to the valley and thinking about the past weeks here in the Cordillera Blanca. I was a bit emotional since I knew that this was probably the last evening in a high camp in Peru for this year and for sure the last evening before a summit push on this expedition.
That night we left the camp around 2 a.m. We had around 1350 vertical meters and quite a bit of distance to the summit in front of us. The weather was not ideal. We were in the clouds, had only a few meters of visibility and it was lightly snowing. First, we had to climb a steep scree slope to reach the glacier. Orientation was difficult due to the conditions. Luca fell far behind right at the beginning, even though I wasn’t walking fast. When I waited for him, I saw that he wasn’t doing well. He was hunched over, holding his stomach, and barely moving. When I asked, he told me everything was fine, but after I spoke to him further he admitted he was not well at all. He then returned to camp, which was only about 100 meters away. I still wanted to try for the summit, and Luca agreed that I should continue, so I proceeded toward the glacier. Now that I was alone, it was of course uncertain whether I would go all the way to the summit; I told myself I would turn back if it became too dangerous on my own.
Upon reaching the glacier, I immediately had to cross several crevasses, but the snow bridges still seemed very stable. Since Chopicalqui is considered technically easy, it is climbed more frequently than other 6000-meter peaks in the Cordillera Blanca, and therefore I found a well-trodden and firm track to follow. That was very helpful for orientation, as I could see where to cross crevasses was the easiest. I reached Glacier Camp, where I took the only break of the ascent before continuing. A bit higher up I had to cross two crevasses that were a little tricky because of the steep terrain, but the snow quality was good and I had solid footing, so these spots were manageable. The most difficult crevasse for me had a height difference of about two meters between its edges. There, I let myself tip from one side to the other, supporting myself with my hands on the opposite snow wall while my feet were still on the first side. From that position, I could carefully climb up the nearly vertical snow. After a few more steep parts came a very long and gently rising glacier slope. This section was tough because I had to cover a lot of distance but gained very little elevation. Once I made it past that area, I was already above 5900 meters. Not much was missing to the summit. As I was on this relatively flat section, the first daylight finally appeared. Unfortunately I didn’t get a nice sunrise because the sky was very cloudy. Altogether it was a very grey morning. Again and again I found myself in whiteouts, but occasionally there were short glimpses of views.
Beyond this section, the steepest part of the route lay ahead. The next roughly 150 meters of elevation climbed at a gradient of 40° to 50°. Again, the snow conditions were perfect, so aside from the physical effort at over 6000 meters, this passage had no major difficulties. Then I reached a small flat area where I got my first view of the famous summit serac. A fantastic sight. Unfortunately the sky was still grey, so the summit didn’t stand out much from its surroundings, but I was already glad I could see it at all and wasn’t stuck in another whiteout. After that it got steeper again, and eventually I reached the final slope leading to the summit. To get there, I had to traverse across this slope quite exposed. Below me the terrain dropped steeply for several hundred meters.
Only about 50 meters remained to the summit, which I climbed with easy scrambling. Then I finally stood on the summit of Chopicalqui at 6354 meters, the highest summit I reached on this expedition. It was a crazy feeling standing on top of such a gigantic mountain completely by myself. And the best part was that the weather briefly improved and I had a fantastic view. I could see many parts of the Cordillera Blanca, including many of the mountains we had climbed in the previous weeks. A very beautiful moment near the (almost) end of the expedition.
Since the weather was better now and the sun was shining, I also wanted to descend quickly. Because I was alone and had to go down the glacier unroped, I didn’t want to risk the snow bridges weakening in the sun as they warmed. So after only a few minutes on the summit, I began the descent. I rappelled four times in the steep sections—it was faster than down-climbing, it allowed me to cross a few crevasses while roped up, and after all, I had carried two ropes up, so I wanted to use them. Once I was past the steep passages, the rest of the descent went very quickly since the terrain was no longer steep and I could move fast. I enjoyed the descent immensely and was able to let the entire expedition run through my mind again. A beautiful moment.
When I arrived back at the camp, Luca was already gone. He had descended into the valley. I decided to pack everything up and descended as well. On this descent, my backpack was significantly heavier because I had to carry everything that we usually shared—tent, ropes, stove and gas, etc.—but it was manageable. I was simply happy that everything had gone so well. And so, I completed the final descent of the expedition in a spectacular landscape.
