Climbing

North Face Cobra 60 First Impressions

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(“First impressions” is a bit of a misnomer for this post, as I’ve now used this pack for around 30 days. However, I used the older rendition of this backpack for 5-6 years, so in my opinion, I am indeed still forming my first impression.)

I beat the ever-loving-hell out of my previous Cobra backpack. For years, it served for any purpose I needed it: cragging pack, international travel, overnight backpacking, ice climbing, alpine rock climbs. That pack went with me to Europe, to the top of the Grand Teton, to Mount Baker, to alpine ice climbs in Rocky Mountain National Park, and elsewhere. It finally died this summer in Peru — split along the bottom after I overloaded it, trying to fit seven days of supplies in a 60-liter pack.

North Face generously warrantied that pack, sending me the updated version. I have now taken this pack on a few outings, including local day trips around Boulder, an overnight climb of the Fisher Chimneys on Mount Shuksan, and five weeks of climbing and cragging in Indian Creek, Utah. Here are my initial impressions.

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Shaqsha, SE Face

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Shaqsha is an obscure mountain for Peru, despite the fact that it graces the cover of Brad Johnson’s “Classic Climbs of the Cordillera Blanca”, the most popular guidebook for the area.

A great book – exceedingly hard to find these days.

Shaqsha was not on my radar at all until a chance meeting with Alejandro Urrutia and Rodrigo Ramos, a pair of Mexican alpinists. They were sitting in Cafe Andino, a western-style coffee shop in Huaraz popular with climbers, making a topo of a traverse of Chopicalqui they had just completed, from the SE ridge to the SW ridge.

They had been sick half their trip, they said, but had also managed to sneak in Shaqsha, via the left side of the ridge. A good climb, easy. “The right side also looked good,” they said, showing a photo of their tent pitched on the glacier in front of the face.

I wanted that picture. And off we went.

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Climbing Huarapasca, Cordillera Blanca.

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Information about this peak is a little scarce or outdated online, so I thought I would provide a 2023 update. (2024 update: the glacier tongue shrank and technical ice section is now subject to bad rock/icefall. Guided groups are attacking it in the middle of the night to mitigate risk. As you’ll see if you read this post, that was not at all the case last year, we climbed in full daylight. For more on this topic, see my 2024 post, Climate Change in the Cordillera Blanca.)

Huarapasca is a mountain at the southern end of the Cordillera Blanca, in Peru. It is notable for an extremely short approach, by Cordillera Blanca standards, as well as a 100-140 meter section of AI3/WI3 – legitimate ice climbing. It is one of only a handful of peaks in the area which you can do in a day and back from Huaraz.

Although once considered an obscurity, it saw quite a bit of traffic this season (2023), with several agencies in Huaraz promoting the mountain as a guided offering. People who have climbed it in years past say the mountain is becoming icier.

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