LEIGH ORTENBURGER (1929-1991)
Alpamayo (5,947m - 19,511 ft)
Peru
In Cordillera Blanca - Alpamayo - Peru, South West face, 1959 et 1960, black and white photos published in 1966, Courtsesy Stanford University Archives and collections
About the photo
In the July 1966 issue of the German magazine Alpinismus, a photo taken by American photographer Leigh Ortenburger, accompanied by an article resulting from an international survey among climbers and photographers, chose Alpamayo as "The Most Beautiful Mountain in the World." The photo (above) was of its Southwest Face which is a steep, almost perfect pyramid of ice? Although slightly smaller than many of its neighboring peaks, it is distinguished by its unusual ice runnels and overwhelming beauty especially when seen in the evening alpenglow. Günter Hauser, who made the first ascent, wrote: "As we pitched our tents the sun went down and Alpamayo became a kaleidoscope of swiftly-changing colour altogether becoming suffused with the pale lunar radiance of the evening before against the background of the dark blue sky with its diadem of stars."
This mountain was first photographed in 1936 by Erwin Schneider.
The photographer
Leigh Ortenburger (1929-1991) climbed and photographed for more than forty years in the world's greatest mountain ranges. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1952 with a degree in mathematics, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1953 and a second in statistics from Stanford in 1963, where he did additional work toward a Ph.D. He worked several years as a Teton mountain guide and served a two-year stint in the Army before settling into a career as a mathematician with Sylvania. His classic guidebook, A Climber’s Guide to the Teton Range, is now in its third edition. Ortenburger’s extensive knowledge of the terrain equipped him to play a key role in the rescue of two climbers trapped on the North Face of the Grand Teton in 1967. Together with fellow climber Irene Beardsley, whom he met through the student-run Stanford Alpine Club in the 1950s, he raised a family in Palo Alto, California. He died October 20, 1991, in the firestorm that swept the Oakland, California hills.
No less impressive than the photographs of Alpamayo themselves is the process of making them, said Glen Denny, also a mountaineering photographer: “Few realize the difficulty of creating images like Ortenburger's. During hard climbs, while others rested, he performed a painstaking ritual countless times: Plunge the tripod legs into soft snow until they are solid, mount and level the camera, select and attach the lens, huddle under the head cloth while composing the dim, upside-down image on the ground glass, with the wind snatching at the cloth and shaking the camera. Then take off your gloves and spin the delicate dials on the light meter, calibrate the exposure, set the aperture, and cock the shutter, while your fingers still have feeling left. Insert the film holder, pull out the slide, squeeze the cable release--very gently--and replace the slide. There! One shot taken.”
The mountain
Alpamayo ( 5,947m - 19,511 ft) possibly named from Quechua words
is one of the most conspicuous peaks in the Cordillera Blanca of the
Peruvian Andes. Alpamayo Creek originates northwest of it. The Alpamayo
lies next to the slightly higher Quitaraju. n July 1966, the German
magazine "Alpinismus", published a photo of Alpamayo taken by American
photographer Leigh Ortenburger accompanied by an article on a survey
among mountaineering experts, who chose Alpamayo as "The Most Beautiful
Mountain in the World". Not defined by a single summit Alpamayo has two sharp summits, the North and south, which are separated by a narrow corniced ridge.
The first attempt on Alpamayo's summit was in 1948 by a Swiss expedition. Climbing by way of the heavily corniced North Ridge, the three climbers came within sight of the virgin summit when a large
cornice broke under them and they were carried down the precipitous
Northwest Face. By some amazing piece of good fortune, the three were
neither buried nor injured by the 650 foot fall and they were able to
make an 'orderly retreat' from the mountain. In 1951, a Franco-Belgian
expedition including George and Claude Kogan claimed to have made the
first ascent via the North Ridge. After studying the photos in George
Kogan's book The Ascent of Alpamayo, the German team of Günter Hauser,
Frieder Knauss, Bernhard Huhn and Horst Wiedmann came to the conclusion
that the 1951 team did not reach the actual summit, thereby making their
ascent via the South Ridge in 1957 the first. Although the South Ridge
is no less steep or dangerous than the North Ridge, it has the advantage
of leading directly to the higher south summit. This was written up in
Hauser's book White Mountain and Tawny Plain. Although there are
several climbing routes on the Southwest Face the most common is known
as the Ferrari or Italian Route. It was opened in 1975 by a group of
Italian alpinists led by Casimiro Ferrari. It begins at the top of the
highest point of the snow slope where the bergshrund separates the upper
face on the left and then ascends a steep runnel to the summit ridge. Because
of its esthetic beauty, Alpamayo is one of the most climbed mountains
in the Andes and the base camp can be a hodge-podge of nationalities.
Each year the route is made easy by the first party to ascend the route
as they usually leave snow-stakes in place at the belay stations. Then
it is just a matter of finding out what length of rope they used so that
your rope is long enough to reach each station. In the summer of 1988,
they had used 50m ropes.
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
