Features of the 2023 season in the Cordillera Blanca
Alex TrubachevMy collection of mountain programs in Peru
In the 2023 mountain climbing season, we encountered unusually varied conditions on the alpine routes - from extremely low levels of snow cover and critical conditions of glaciers, to deep drifts of fresh snow, even on the most steep or vertical pitches.
The second, by the way, did not in any way improved the situation with snow bridges over deep glacier crevasses - the main difficulty and danger of this season. After an uncharacteristically hot and dry winter in the Cordillera Blanca, a critical deterioration in the condition of glaciers, collapses of snow bridges and ice seracs were observed everywhere.
Alas, with the logical increase in the number of serious accidents that follows from this fact...
Seasonal snowfalls this year began three weeks earlier than their annual schedule - the first cyclones with abnormal amounts of precipitation arrived in the Cordillera Blanca on September 5-6. Despite the fact that long-term statistics in these mountains indicate the beginning of the rainy season no earlier than September 20th.
Giant crevasses and new seracs appeared literally before our eyes in this season. The situation was constantly changing, the glacier routes changed beyond recognition within 1-2 weeks.
This variability in the condition of the climbing routes can be called the main feature of the 2023 mountain season. It is also an indirect confirmation of the theory of global warming, but this is more on the topic of Greta Tumberg.
Glaciers and lines of the snow-ice routes have changed so much over this season that there are reasonable doubts about what will remain of these mountains by the next season. But here, fortunately, options are possible. We hope for an abnormally snowy and rainy summer...
In fact, many routes in Cordillera Blanca have changed to the point of being completely impassable for climbing during this season. On the other hand, new opportunities appeared in other categories of the routes - many granite rock lines remained dry and free of snow or ice throughout this season.
Personally, I hope that one of the most interesting and diverse mountain regions in the world, the snow-ice climbing paradise - Cordillera Blanca - will not turn into the new rocky Patagonia... Although my heart is torn between the love of iceclimbing and the craving for rockclimbing, I want to draw a clear line between.
Patagonia is a paradise for rock climbers and also for those who are patient enough to spend a couple of months waiting for a short couple of day weather window. So that they can run up a rock face and have time to descend before the next two-to-three week cyclone.
And Cordillera Blanca is a dream of a gourmet climber, a contemplatively dreamy world of the snow-white fantasies of the Great Designer, frozen in incredible forms. I hope that these worlds will retain their individuality and uniqueness, each in its own nature...
Along the rocky verticals we will strive to the peaks of Patagonia. And to the openwork ice sculptures of sky-high summits - we climb in the Cordillera Blanca. Well, or at least in the Cordillera Huayhuash. Which also would also be very nice.
Author of text and photographs - Alexey Trubachev
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MCS EDIT 2023