In more detail...
Al Powell and Nick Bullock loved Peru so much after climbing a new route on Quitaraju last year, they returned this May with their sights set on Jirishanca (6126m). Jirishanca is a peak in the stunning Cordillera Huayhuash, just opposite Siula Grande, which is famous because of a certain book by Joe Simpson. There's one established route on the SW face, which avoids the obvious central line. Bullock describes the face as being "covered in Canadian 6 water ice". The weather was very unsettled in May and the gully which they needed to climb to get onto the face kept melting out in the heat. On their second attempt, a storm slowed their start and as Nick led out 60m as quickly as possible, the gully was thawing dangerously. At 70m, Bullock was hit by an avalanche which carried him 250m down a steep rock and ice slope, partially burying him. Luckily, only the edge of the avalanche caught Powell and he managed to get to Bullock and dig him out.
Amazingly, Bullock only suffered soft tissue damage. Ripped musles in his back, knee and ribs and a "f*cked shoulder". The pair retreated back to Huaraz. "But the story gets better" says Nick. With Nick out of action, Powell found another partner to try a new line on the difficult Ulta (5875m) in the Cordillera Blanca. After a day of "munching Ibuprofen", Bullock headed out to a different base camp on Ulta, with the aim of "maybe having a look at another route". Knowing that once he returned to the UK, he was going to be out of action for months because of a scheduled operation to try and cure chronic tendonitis, Bullock was duely incentivised. He proceeded to solo a 1000m TD+ with scottish grade IV, V and VI, including sections on 75% thin water ice. The descent involved 25m abseils off ice threads all the way back down.."I couldn't down-climb because of my shoulder" to return to base camp 13 1/2 hours later. Powell and Owen ???? [Sorry - Ed.] climbed a new line over 3 days at an impressive ED2. Bullock and Powell are already planning to return to the Huayhuash next year to try Jirishanca again, which they expect to come in at ED3 or 4. If they can get onto it!
