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.
There was a few days of poor weather and a reasonable storm at the end of last week. A decent amount of snow fell, 5-10cm depending on the altitude, and with strong winds this has left lee slopes with plenty of snow. A slab avalanche with a crown wall of 1m, 150m wide, was reported being released by climbers on a southern aspect at about 5500m on Huayna Potosi (to the north of the normal route). Care will need to be exercised for the next week or two on wind loaded aspects. On eastern aspects slopes have settled with the last several days of good weather. Expect some deeper drifts and crusts that may be supportive early but melt out as the day goes on. Note the cornice formation in the photo below.
Climbers descending the normal route of Huayna Potosi 27 May.
The lower eastern facing rock faces are mostly snow free but higher faces now have snow on all the ledges, as seen on the east face of Pico Italiano in the photo below. This should clear over the next couple weeks.
Pico Italiano from the south east 27 May
There is snow almost down to the Zongo Pass, seen in the pic below by the lake, on the Huayna Potosi side but the Charquini side is clear of snow.
Middle peak of Pico Milluni from High peak. 27 May.
We had a couple days of snow recently, up to 15cm up high (including 5cm down in El Alto). This has fallen on most aspects. The east facing rock in the Huayna Potosi area is already mostly clear but the southern aspects will take longer.
South peak of Pico Milluni east side 15 May 2014
South face of Pico Milluni 15 May 2014
Last week La Paz based climber Robert Rauch and partner climbed Pico Italiano via the normal route, descended to the col below the South Ridge of Huayna Potosi and followed this to the top of Huayna. They report fair conditions with the last pitch to the south summit being deep unconsolidated snow.
Tiquimani is looking as impressive as ever (and still looking for an ascent this decade, or at least an attempt!).
Tiquimani south face 15 May 2014
There is mostly snow on the face and not a lot of ice currently. There is also a bit of rockfall evident at the bottom of the two main gullies. Also the high hanging glacier is breaking up and threatening the central part of the face (which is where the French route ascends).
Tiquimani hanging glacier close up 15 May 2014
There was 10-20cm of new snow in the Condoriri area a week ago. This fell over what was an increasingly firm snow pack making climbing conditions a little more difficult but skiing and boarding superb. The classic ridges and higher faces have by now firmed up again with lower south facing gullies requiring more time for the accumulated snow to become icy. No avalanche activity observed.
Condoriri Area April 2014
The SW ridge of Condoriri last friday (25th) below.
SW ridge of Condoriri 25th April
Snowboarding on the Condoriri glacier above Laguna Juri Khota:
Snowboarding near Condoriri April 2014
It’s early April and conditions in the hills continue to improve. The skiing/boarding has been excellent of late with nice corn on western aspects and wind packed powder on the southern sides of some peaks. Crevasses are mostly well filled with the normal route on Huayna Potosi not crossing anything open, making current conditions perfect for fast and safe solo ascents. The snow pack is for the most part stable, the exception being eastern aspects by mid afternoon, where there have been several small point releases ( size 1) that have run 50m on steep terrain above 5500m.
The weather is slowly becoming more stable with, per week, a couple very good days and a couple wet days with the rest generally fine in the morning with increasing cloud through to a mid afternoon shower.
A few recent pics of the Huayna Potosi area:
South side of Huayna Potosi and Pico Milluni
Plenty of snow but not a lot of ice formation on the south face of Pico Milluni. Another month or two and hopefully the gullies will be on.
East side of Pico Milluni April 2014
The rock on the east side of Pico Milluni is mostly snow free.
On Huayna Potosi normal route with Pico Milluni and the Pico Italiano behind
As seen above the big rock buttresses on Pico Italiano are mostly snow free. The normal route of Huayna Potosi is in great condition and the surrounding slopes are begging to be skied.
Summit ridge of Huayna Potosi with west face on left
Another pic of the normal route with the west face falling away on the left with loads of snow, boding well for May/June/July ascents. Currently at least the top part of the face is soft but will ice up later in the season with more sun and melt freeze action. Note the early afternoon cloud rising from the Yungas below.
Over all things are looking good for plenty of snow/ice routes coming into condition in May and June. For now the normal routes, some snow free east facing rock faces and skiing and boarding on most aspects are on but weather conditions will continue to dictate the time of day that is best for any high mountain fun.
Conditions for climbing are currently excellent on Mururata and surrounding peaks on their western aspects. Snow is frozen from 4900m to 5800m untill midday when it softens perfectly for ski descent.
On the lower Mururata Glacier
Mid section of Mururata Glacier
By 12.30 cloud from the Yungas is starting to cover most of the peaks with some light snow falling mid afternoon.
On the 18th a bit more snow will have fallen as a late afternoon storm hit parts of the cordillera.
There hasn’t been a huge amount of snow in the hills for a while until last week when 10cm fell at 4800m, 15cm at 5000m and 20cm at 5500m. This new snow has bonded pretty well with older snow under it as after the storm that dumped it we had a couple fine sunny days. There will be a fair amount of point release activity on steep solar aspects for the next few days.
Huayna Potosi from Charquini 8 March
As can be seen from the above pic most of the snow has melted from eastern aspects to just under 5000m after 1 sunny day.
Closer view of the conditions on the SE side of Huayna Potosi
Weather wise, conditions have been slowly improving with most mornings fine with the afternoons having a chance of cloud. Temperatures have been mild so it is fairly warm even up high by mid morning.
The rainy season is in full swing here with few fine days (although we had 3 this week and great snow conditions for climbing). The good part is that pretty soon there will be epic fun to be had sliding down Andean peaks on planks. Generally by March but particularly in April and May conditions get pretty good for skiing or boarding.
Sitting on the summit of Huayna Potosi, preparing to descend the east face to the normal route. March conditions.
Many of the normal routes on the big peaks are ski-able and there are some lower peaks with good runs on as well. Here’s a quick bit of info on a couple possibilities close to La Paz.
The northern and southern sides of Charquini have easy glacier runs with quick access and minimal crevasses. Good for acclimatisation and getting used to the snow conditions.
The normal route of Huayna Potosi is a classic moderate descent of about 900m. It is best to ski the east face from the summit rather than the very exposed and often icy summit ridge (see below).
The summit ridge of Huayna Potosi in March conditions.
The east face is not too steep but does have rocky bluffs below the line of descent so care is needed to hit one of 2 small snow gullies that break through them. Waiting till mid – late morning is also a good idea as the face will usually be icy early but soften in the sun fairly quickly to whatever consistency you want as the day goes on. A French skier died on this line in 2013 when they got on top too early and then tried to ski the face in very icy first light conditions and fell over the rocks after apparently catching an edge (they were also not wearing a helmet). Climbing up the line rather than the normal, summit ridge, route is also not a bad idea, mainly to figure out exactly where the snow gullies are.
East face and ski descent routes
Summit of Huayna Potosi from the south showing the east face falling away on the right.
After the east face descent you can ski next to the normal route track taking whatever interesting looking variations you saw on the way up.
Mid part of Huayna Potosi normal route (red) with possible ski descent variations (green)