A bit of a delay on these routes as the team has been out exploring.

It has been fairly warm recently meaning the rock has been pleasant in the mornings, with the weather regularly closing in mid day. This is not so good for ice though with most of the lower to mid altitude stuff falling of over the last few weeks. Some new route action took place in the Huayna area over the last couple months, the ice and mixed routes done before the ice disappeared.

Early November Artem Bylinskii and Gregg Beisly climbed a 6 pitch line on the SW face of Charquini. It goes at about WI3 M5 and would be a great warm up for some of the bigger technical routes in the range. Artem’s report is here.

Artem pulling through the top of the first pitch.

A week later Chris Clarke and Robert Roach teamed with Beisly to climb a line on the left of the face. At WI4 M4 it is shorter, being 4 pitches + a little simulclimbing. It has been named Hit and Run after Robert was hit by a car and his lower leg run over the day before in La Paz. Fortunately he was wearing his high climbing boots which saved his foot and he escaped with bruising. Robert is obviously not easily broken.

Roberto nearing the top of Hit and Run.

Reynaldo Choque Ramos and Daniel Flores climbed two very nice pitches on good rock to reach the south ridge of the South Peak of Pico Milluni.

Reynaldo and Daniel on their new route.

Here’s a compilation of some of the october and november action on video.

Wara Warani (or Warawarani: Aymara  “the one with a star”) is a seldom climbed but striking peak that is accessed from the altiplano town of Peñas. 2 weeks ago Davide Vitale, Juvenal Condori Vallejo, Artem Bylinskii and Rodrigo Villaroel climbed a new route on the south west face, descending one of the east face couloirs before circling the peak by ascending NW to a col and then descending SW via a glacier back to their camp at Laguna Wara Warani. They found conditions to be mostly crust over soft snow, worsening as the day went on, and highly questionable rock. They have graded the route D+ 65° 5.6 M4 R 600m and called it Alaxpacha Warawara Thaki, meaning roughly “attain the sky, by the route of stars”.

Red line is that taken by Bylinskii and Vitale with the green being variations by Condori and Villaroel. Photo: Artem Bylinskii.

Descent route via east face

Davide Vitale on lead. Photo: Artem Bylinskii.

On the descent. Photo: Artem Bylinskii.

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.