‘No Easy Way to the Top’: Climbers Navigate Climate Impacts on Peru’s Jirischanca

It’s finally here. The Patagonia climbing film Jirishanca dropped on November 20. It follows Josh Wharton and Vince Anderson’s 2022 attempt to scale one of the steepest, tallest climbing objectives in Peru. With climate change affecting much of the route, the athletes face challenges and risks they didn’t expect.

The trailer for this film debuted at Reel Rock 18. GearJunkie covered it when the clip was posted to YouTube. Now, the full film is available online.

Wharton and Anderson make a perfect yin-yang team, anticipating the other’s movements in the mountains, joking with each other, and often silently collaborating, moving up the rock almost as one. Climbing Jirishanca is no easy task, but these two certainly make it look like child’s play.

But the old photos of the route they choose to take in this film are outdated. And when the athletes arrive at some of the ice climbing portions, they realize that climate change has dramatically altered the topography and available route.

Watch the film, and if you want a deeper dive into Wharton’s experience on Jirishanca, check out his write-up on the climb from Patagonia’s website.

Runtime: 31:11 minutes