Vallunaraju

Only thing tricky about this climb was getting to moraine camp where some parts of the trail up the cliff disappear or seem to lead to a dead-end. Also, parks-service workers told us it would take 3 hours to get from lake to moraine camp and it took twice that (perhaps 3 hours pace is minus heavy packs and w/100% acclimation?). As for the peak itself, it is a fairly straight-forward and popular glacier climb with several paths to follow providing you aren't the first after some new snow. One crevasse bridge looked sketchy enough to be problematic later in the day so we descended another path that didn't cross it, no problem. The final ridge to the summit was narrow enough to turn an un-roped climber around, but the path was solid and never felt precarious. I'd have been nervous or put a few pickets in w/o a beaten path, so I recommend having them unless you're a rock star. Left moraine camp at appx 1:00am and returned appx 9:00am. This felt like a slow pace to me for the distance covered but, being from Oregon, I was struggling to catch my breath the whole time (though I can't say even 2 weeks later that I ever felt up to speed above 14,000ft). One thing to note: moraine camp is a beautiful spot worth staying a few days at (which we did pinned down by bad weather) and it feels very remote even though you can see the distant lights of Huaraz at night from the glacier.