Alpenglow's Pisco and Chopicalqui Expedition is off to an excellent start. Yesterday the strong group made the decision to attempt the summit of Pisco direct from Cave Camp (14,200 feet), skipping the upper Moraine Camp at 16,000 feet. This made for a challenging 4,700 foot vertical ascent. The group left at 1:20 AM in perfect weather, quickly passing the moraine and getting onto the glacier. Snow conditions are reportedly excellent this year in Peru, and the team moved well on the glacier with good technical skills.

It's been a couple of whirlwind weeks since we left the Khumbu Valley for home, and it's taken a bit of work to sort through the more than 2000 images from the climb. But finally, here are a few from our summit push. We were fortunate to have incredible weather and almost no one else on the route. This meant we could move quickly on our climb and descent, and really enjoy each of the stages on the route, without hold-ups on the ropes or fear of falling rock and ice from above. The team, after plenty of acclimatization and then 4 days of rest, was ready to move.