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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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6.50870°N / 72.3006°W |
Route Type:
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High Level Snow/Glacier Climb |
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Time Required:
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Half a day |
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Difficulty:
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very exposed |
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Approach
From Cabañas de Kanwara, there is a trail which leads you to the base camp of the Ritacubas; it takes about three or four hours to get to the camp throughtout the Páramo before reaching an altitude of 4500 meters, where the camp is. Here, it is advisable to spend the night there, so the next day you either make the attempt to the summit or take your staff and go up to an advance camp on the snow (5000 meters). In my case, i decided to make an advanced camp in order to make the attempt as early as possible and get the snow in better conditions. The advanced camp is located at the point where the Ritacuba Negro diverges from the Blanco, just at the begin of the traverse.
it is a pretty mountain which is not very climbed, make it quite special and interested.
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Route Description
The route is a relative short traverse but very exposed; it starts with the ridge of a couple of cracks which requires atention but are not very difficult. next, it comes one of the most exposed parts of the routes, where the edge becomes really thin with walls of rock and snow going down about 800 meters on your right and a fall of 400 meters on your left down to the rest of the glacier. From this moment until the summit is advisable to make stations with stakes every time you can because the route ahead is very exposed. After two or three stations on the thin edge, you get to the base of a small hill, where you just have to climb a wall of about 50 meters. Once up on the hill, which is a little bit wider than the past traverse. Next, is better to surround to the left the top of the hill, going down a short wall and ridge a crack. In my case, we made a station before going down the wall and then we ridged the crack. After crossing the crack it comes a really thin traverse, where is very necessary to be assured because you have a high fall on you left and a deep crack on your right; at the end of this short traverse the edge becomes a little bit wider and it is possible to continue walk on for the next 100 meters, crossing a couples of cracks, until you get to the base of a long wall. This one is the last step to the summit, that begins with a snow climbing of about 70 meters; at the top , you make a little change to the other face of the wall, where is possible to make a station. From this point, there comes another wall which is shorter than the last and takes you to a cram, just below the summit. Finally there is a exposed traverse before you reacht the summit. This is the most exposed part of the route.
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Essential Gear
Due to the route is very exposed, is recommended to bring with you four or five stakes as well as a couple of screws, rope (50 or 60 meters long), crampons, arneses, ice axes if is possible. If you are going at the end of a long summer, the conditions of the route may be badly due to the absense of snow and high presense of ice all the way.
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Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.