Payachatas, Northern Chile. An expedition of the Club Andino de Chile, Santiago Section, traveled in October to Africa and then to the mountain towns of Putre and Murmuntane. From a 14,500-foot Base Camp on the northeastern shores of the great lake of Chúngara the expedition split into two groups and set out to climb the twin Payachatas volcanoes which rise on the Bolivian frontier. The first group, Bión and Oscar González and Claudio Lucero, placed two camps at 16,000 and 17,400 feet on the southern Payachata, which the maps call Parinacota, and ascended on October 11 to the top, finding an impressive crater, a mile wide. At the same time, the second group, Sergio Kunstmann and Claudio Maier, set out for the second Payachata, which the maps name Pomerape and the

Indians on the Bolivian side Pomaratu. They climbed to its top on October 12, placing only one camp at 17,000 feet. As far as is known, Parinacota (20,768 feet) had been climbed twice before. Pomarata, which seems to be the correct name (20,473 feet) was claimed as a first ascent by Bolivians in 1946, but there is no certainty of this climb. The top of Pomarata is heavily glaciated.

Oscar González Ferrán, Club Andino de Chile