WTB: Peru Guidebooks

[Dannible]

I'm looking for a guide for the Cordillera Huayhaush and/or Cordillera Blanca. I can't find them used anywhere, and new ones are expensive. Anyone have one collecting dust?

[Hugh Conway]

Which ones you want?

[Dannible]

Classic Climbs in the Cordillera Blanca (or something like that) looked pretty good. The only other guides I've seen cover all of the Andes, which may or may not mean that they don't go into enough detail about Peru. Something that covers both the Blanca and the Huayhaush would be cool if it exists, and is somewhat up to date. If you have a guide written in the last 10 years or so that worked for you, I might be interested.

[Farrgo]

If you can wait the books are actually cheaper and easier to get down in Huaraz. I ended up spending close to 50 bucks on the Frimer Huayhuash book stateside and could have gotten it for half that down there.

[Hugh Conway]

I don't remember seeing much in Huaraz but didn't spend more than a day. The Frimer Huayhuash guidebook or Classic climbs are all I'd bother with. The Johnson Huayhuash map is nicely detailed but dies in under a week. The Austrian Alpine Club maps are better quality but older datum (i.e. before the massive melt)

 

If you want to borrow/scan classic climbs in the blanca or the johnson huayhuash map PM me

[Dannible]

Good advice all around. I might just wait until I'm there to get one.

[RocNoggin]

for anyone going to or has been to Peru: I am thinking about going this summer but cant make it till late Aug/early Sep. my understanding is that this time frame is getting late in the climbing season, but just how late? will it work for some peaks but not all? too late, wait till next year? I havent seen any of the guide books yet, what do they say?

Edited May 6, 2008 by RocNoggin

[summerprophet]

I have an old beat up copy of "Climbs of the Cordillera Blanca of Peru" by Sharman.

 

I am not about to part with it, but if you pay for the shipping and copy fees, I could get it your way. Of course I could just get you the specific routes you are thinking of.

 

I have no qualms about making copies on books that are out of print, and are otherwise unattainable.

 

 

Justin

[Farrgo]

RocNoggin,

 

It kinda depends on the year. The best month to climb in probably July. But people show up in May and leave in September. Last year held the ice on North Faces and ephermal lines for much longer than normal, and the south faces hadn't set up by the time I left, August 1.

 

I came down for the month of August several years prior and found great conditions on South Faces and of course all the usual suspect mountaineering routes were hanging out. Weather should be perfect. I think I had three days of bad weather that August.