Some new routing done recently captured on video:
New Route on the Huayna Potosi massif
Another route has gone up in the Huayna Potosi area with the usual locals being the protagonists. The 8 pitch line is on the right side of the triangular pk 5600 on the south west of Pico Italiano.
Chris Clarke on the first pitch
Roberto Rauch on lead
Descending the SW ridge
Roberto on the descent.
The route goes up the right side of the face, to the left of the large seracs.
Over 2 weeks of sun has turned most snow slopes to ice, with patches of softer snow still lingering. The southern aspects are the most inconsistent but are slowly icing up. The ski season is pretty much over (except for some slopes later in the day) but climbing conditions are getting better by the day.
A new route was forged on the SW face of Pico Milluni (5500m) last week. Ya Pues, M5 AI3 starts up the gully to the left of the central Mesili line before a mixed pitch and 5 pitches up a left slanting ice/mixed line. 1 more pitch on rock up leads to easy ridge travel to the summit of the high peak.
There are many lines left to climb as, like many Bolivian peaks, the SW face of Pico Milluni has been largely neglected in favour of normal routes on the nearby 6000m peaks.
Chris Clarke and Robert Rauch exiting the gully for mixed terrain on Ya Pues.
Clarke and Rauch high on Ya Pues.
It’s fairly early in the climbing season but a number of new routes have gone up on rock on Pico Milluni.
Alex von Ungern and Chris Clarke were active on the South Peak of Pico Milluni a few weeks ago. They climbed a nice crack on the smallish outcrop at the bottom of the SE ridge and got close to the low peak summit before being turned back by an approaching storm.
Lower route of Alex and Chris. Photo: Chris Clarke.
They also climbed on a buttress a little below the South Peak, putting up 5 lines.
Buttress below the South Peak with route. Photo: Chris Clarke.
4 routes on the end of the buttress. Photo: Chris Clarke.
The next job will be to push these routes to the top of the buttress.
Chris Clarke also got out with Roberto Rauch and Gregg Beisly to climb a 2 pitch line to the right of Sunlight and shadows which goes at about 6a+ with a small dose of scariness.
Young Aedan Beisly climbed with his dad on the higher of the south peaks summits to come up with a quality 4 pitch 5b. The first pitch had a tricky start in a corner and after was easy but airy. The pair were buzzed by a condor on the last pitch adding to the adventure for the day.
Further up the valley on the high peak of Pico Milluni Sal and Gregg Beisly climbed 6 pitches up the central, north east facing buttress that ends on the summit. They found some great corners and a handy scramble and 2 abseil descent. The first pitch was about 6a and 4 to 5a for subsequent pitches. The first 3 pitches went up onto a pillar, followed by a short descent on the other side and a scramble to the 3 excellent finishing pitches.
Sal Beisly in a beautiful corner high on the central buttress.