Huascarán

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

Huascarán
Huascarán as viewed from Cordillera Negra
Highest point
Elevation6,768 m (22,205 ft)[1]
Prominence2,776 m (9,108 ft)[2]
Isolation2,207.48 km (1,371.66 mi)
ListingCountry high point
Ultra
Coordinates09°07′18″S 77°36′15″W / 9.12167°S 77.60417°W / -9.12167; -77.60417[2]
Geography
Huascarán is located in Peru
Huascarán
Huascarán
Peru
LocationYungay, Peru
Parent rangeCordillera Blanca, Andes
Geology
Rock ageCenozoic
Mountain typeGranite
Climbing
First ascent
  • Huascarán Sur: 20 July 1932
  • Huascarán Norte: 2 September 1908
Easiest routeglacier/snow/ice climb

Huascarán (Spanish pronunciation: [waskaˈɾan], wass ka RAHN), (Quechua: Waskaran), Nevado Huascarán or Mataraju is a mountain located in Yungay Province, Ancash Department, Peru. It is situated in the Cordillera Blanca range of the western Andes. The southern summit of Huascarán (Huascarán Sur), which reaches 6,768 metres (22,205 ft), is the highest point in Peru, the northern Andes (north of Lake Titicaca), and in all of the Earth's tropics. It is the 4th highest mountain in South America after Aconcagua, Ojos del Salado, and Monte Pissis. Huascarán is ranked 25th by topographic isolation.

Names

[edit]
View of Huascarán from the town of Yungay

Until the 20th century, the mountain lacked a single commonly accepted name and was known by different names within the surrounding towns and villages. The first recorded mention of the name Huascarán appeared in 1850 as Huascan,[3] given by the local people likely because the mountain rises above the village of Huashco. Huashco got its name from the Quechua word for rope (waska). At the beginning of the 20th century, the name appeared as Huascarán, and has not changed since.[4] It seems that Huascarán is merely a contraction of Huashco-Urán, or 'beyond and down from the village of Huashco'.[5]

Other names given to the mountain are Matarao and Mataraju, the latter being the name that local indigenous people prefer to call it,[6] from Ancash Quechua mata ('twin') and rahu ('snow peak'), meaning 'twin snow peaks'.

Myth

[edit]

According to a legend, Huascarán was a nobleman who lived in a certain place in Áncash, while Huandoy was a woman who lived in a small town very close to where that mountain is. Huascarán was enormously in love with the woman, and they always saw each other secretly. One day Huascarán's father found out that he was in love with the lowborn woman, so he asked the Sun God for help. Seeing that he could not separate the two lovers, he decided to turn them into mountains, but the divinity decided to bring them together so that despite being mountains they continued with their love.[citation needed]

Geography

[edit]

The mountain has two distinct summits, the higher being the south one (Huascarán Sur) with an elevation of 6,768 metres (22,205 ft). The north summit (Huascarán Norte) has an elevation of 6,654 meters (21,831 ft). The two summits are separated by a saddle called la Garganta. The core of Huascarán, like much of the Cordillera Blanca, consists of Cenozoic-age granite.[7]

Huascarán gives its name to Huascarán National Park which surrounds it, and is a popular location for trekking and mountaineering. The mountain's summit is one of the farthest points on the Earth's surface from its center,[8] closely behind the farthest point at Chimborazo in Ecuador.[1] It is also the place on Earth with the smallest gravitational force,[9] with an estimated acceleration of 9.76392 m/s2.[10]

Climbing

[edit]
The mountain is easily seen from the surrounding area, with viewing spots (miradores) found alongside the road to the mountain

Huascarán is normally climbed from the village of Musho to the west via a high camp in the Garganta col. The ascent normally takes five to seven days, the main difficulty being the large crevasses that often block the route.[11] The normal route is of moderate difficulty and rated between PD and AD (depending on the conditions of the mountain) according to the International French Adjectival System.

On 20 July 2016, nine climbers were caught in an avalanche on Huascarán's normal route at approximately 5,800 m (19,000 ft), four of whom died.[12]

On 9 July 2024, it was reported that the body of William Stampfl, an American mountaineer, had been found 22 years after he disappeared in an avalanche in June 2002.[13] The body of one of Stampfl's climbing companions had previously been recovered. A third member of the group is still unaccounted for.[14]

History

[edit]

The summit of Huascarán Sur was first reached on 20 July 1932 by a joint German–Austrian expedition.[15] The team followed what would later become the normal route (the Garganta route). The north peak (Huascarán Norte) had previously been climbed on 2 September 1908 by a U.S. expedition that included Annie Smith Peck,[16] though this first ascent is somewhat disputed.

In 1989, a group of eight amateur mountaineers, the "Social Climbers", held what was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records (1990 edition) to be "the world's highest dinner party" on top of the mountain, as documented by Chris Darwin and John Amy in their book The Social Climbers, and raised £10,000 for charity.[17][18]

Huascarán Norte

[edit]

Apart from the normal route, climbed in 1908 and rated PD+/AD-, all the other routes are committing and serious.

  1. Northwest ridge (Italian route), rated ED1/ED2 climbed on 25 July 1974 by E. Detomasi, C. Piazzo, D. Saettone and T. Vidone.
  2. Northwest face (Polish–Czech variant), rated ED1/ED2, climbed on 14 July 1985 by B. Danihelkova, Z. Hofmannová, A. Kaploniak, E. Parnejko and E. Szczesniak.
  3. North face (Paragot route), rated ED1, climbed on 10 July 1966 by R. Paragot, R. Jacob, C. Jacoux and D. Leprince-Ringuet.
  4. North face (Swiss route), rated ED2+, climbed on 23 May 1986 by D. Anker and K. Saurer. This route requires at least four days on the face.
  5. North face (Spanish route), rated ED2+, climbed on 20 July 1983 by J. Moreno, C. Valles and J. Tomas.

Huascarán Sur

[edit]

As for the South summit, apart from the normal route all the others are difficult.

  1. West ridge (Shield route), rated D+, climbed on 15 June 1969 by W. Broda, S. Merler and B. Segger. Approach as for the Garganta route but then the route develops over the knife-edge West ridge before getting to the summit icefield.
  2. West ridge direct (Lomo fino route), rated TD-, was climbed on 7 July 2007 by M. Ybarra and S. Sparano. Approach as for the Garganta route but afterwards the route develops straight over the West face.
  3. Northeast ridge (Spanish route), rated TD+, was climbed on 18 July 1961 by F. Mautino, P. Acuna, A. Perez and S. Rivas. The route starts from Chopicalqui col, crosses the upper part of the Matara glacier and reaches the northeast ridge developing across cornices and snow mushrooms.

1970 earthquake

[edit]
Photograph taken after the 1970 avalanche showing the buried towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca
Main article: 1970 Huascarán debris avalanche

On 31 May 1970, the Ancash earthquake caused a substantial part of the north side of the mountain to collapse in an avalanche with an estimated 80 million cubic metres (2.8 billion cubic feet) of ice, mud and rock, measuring about 0.8 by 1.6 kilometres (0.5 mi × 1 mi). It advanced about 18 km (11 mi) at an average speed of 280 to 335 km/h (175 to 210 mph),[19] burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca under ice and rock, killing more than 20,000 people.[20][21] At least 20,000 people were also killed in Huaraz,[dubious – discuss] the site of a 1941 avalanche (see Lake Palcacocha).[22][needs independent confirmation] Estimates suggest that the earthquake killed over 66,000 people.[23][24] The final toll was 67,000 dead and 800,000 homeless, making it the worst earthquake-induced disaster in the Western Hemisphere until the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Also buried by an avalanche was a Czechoslovak mountaineering team, none of whose 15 members were ever seen again.[25] This and other earthquake-induced avalanche events are often described[by whom?] as "eruptions" of Huascarán, despite not being of volcanic origin.

An earlier avalanche on 10 January 1962, caused by a rapid rise in temperature,[22] killed an estimated 4,000 people.[26]

See also

[edit]

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Biggar, John (2020). The Andes – A Guide for Climbers and Skiers (5th ed.). Castle Douglas. ISBN 978-0-9536087-6-8.
  • Gates, Alexander E.; Ritchie, David (2006). Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9780816072705.
  • Room, Adrian (1997). Placenames of the World. McFarland and Company. ISBN 0-7864-0172-9.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Helman, Adam (2005). The Finest Peaks: Prominence and Other Mountain Measures. Trafford. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4120-5995-4.
  2. ^ a b "ultra-prominences". peaklist.org. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
  3. ^ Julyan, Robert Hixson (1 September 1984). Mountain names. Mountaineers. ISBN 978-0-89886-091-7.
  4. ^ Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times. Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times. 1967.
  5. ^ "Quechua Names in the Northern Peruvian Andes and Their Meanings - AAC Publications - Search The American Alpine Journal and Accidents". publications.americanalpineclub.org. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  6. ^ "Enock. "The andes and the amazon", 1907". Issuu. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  7. ^ Ricker, John F., Yuraq Janka: Cordilleras Blanca and Rosko, Alpine Club of Canada, 1977, ISBN 0-920330-04-5, after Wilson, Reyes, and Garayar, 1967.
  8. ^ "Tall Tales about Highest Peaks". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 16 April 2004. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
  9. ^ "Gravity Variations Over Earth Much Bigger Than Previously Thought". Science Daily. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  10. ^ Hirt, Christian; Claessens, Sten; Fecher, Thomas; Kuhn, Michael; Pail, Roland; Rexer, Moritz (28 August 2013). "New ultrahigh-resolution picture of Earth's gravity field: New Picture of Earth's Gravity Field". Geophysical Research Letters. 40 (16): 4279–4283. doi:10.1002/grl.50838. hdl:20.500.11937/46786. S2CID 54867946. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  11. ^ Biggar, John
  12. ^ "Avalanche On Huascaran In Andes Of Peru Kills 4, 5 Rescued - A Mountain Journey". A Mountain Journey | Backcountry Skiing, Climbing, Mountaineering, Hiking. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  13. ^ "American mountaineer found mummified in Peru 22 years after vanishing". gulfnews.com. 9 July 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  14. ^ Zhuang, Yan; Taj, Mitra (10 July 2024). "22 Years Ago, He Disappeared in an Avalanche. His Body Was Just Found". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  15. ^ "1932 ascent". huascaranperu.net. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  16. ^ "Annie Smith Peck". Dr. Russell A. Potter. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  17. ^ Monge-Nájera, Julián (1995). ABC de la evolución. EUNED. p. 58. ISBN 9977-64-822-0.
  18. ^ "Mouth-watering challenge". Epping Forest Guardian. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  19. ^ Plafker, George; Ericksen, George E.; Fernández Concha, Jaime (June 1971). "Geological Aspects of the May 31, 1970 Peru Earthquake" (PDF). Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 61 (2): 543–578. Bibcode:1971BuSSA..61..543P. doi:10.1785/BSSA0610030543. S2CID 130140366. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  20. ^ U.S. Dept. of the Interior (October 1970). "The Peru Earthquake: a Special Study". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 26 (8): 17–19. Bibcode:1970BuAtS..26h..17.. doi:10.1080/00963402.1970.11457853.
  21. ^ "The Village of Yungay and the Surrounding Countryside". Jay A. Frogel. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  22. ^ a b "Sacred mountains: Myth and Morphology". Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  23. ^ Gates & Ritchie p. 110
  24. ^ Rachowiecki, Rob; Beech, Charlotte (2004). Peru. Lonely Planet. p. 308.
  25. ^ "Historie československé expedice Peru 1970 (Czech only)". Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  26. ^ "1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide". British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 January 1962. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Huascarán