Cordillera Apolobamba and Illampu and Pico del Norte, Cordillera Real. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sektion Berlin of the Deutscher Alpenverein, an expedition was sent to Bolivia. The members were Klaus Dörschel, Werner Fiala, Jürgen Gorter, Dietrich Hasse, Wolfgang Helbig, Jürgen Lindenburger, Walter Schiemann and I. We left Berlin on May 11 and arrived at La Paz on May 14. One week later we hired a truck which took us to the Cordillera Apolobamba on the frontier between Bolivia and Peru. We camped at the head of the Pelechuco valley on the highest flat and dry place at 14,750 feet. West of camp and south of Pelechuco Huaracha is an icy peak of 5300 meters (17,389 feet), which was ascended on May 24 by all of us except for Fiala. Hasse, Schiemann and I went along the ridge to a 5350-meter (17,553-foot) neighboring peak to the south. After two days of reconnaissance, on May 27 four of us climbed from the north to a saddle in the ridge between Huayna Cuni and the Pelechuco Pass, between the two westernmost peaks of the ridge. (This ridge lies south of Pelechuco Pass.) Schiemann and Hasse climbed west to P 5450(17,881 feet) while Dörschel and I ascended east to P 5400 (17,717 feet). Our main objective in this region was the south ice face of P 5630 (18,471 feet; 1-1/4 miles east of Pelechuco Huaracacha; see map opposite p. 38 in A.A.J., 1960, 12:1; first ascent by Germans in 1968 as described in A.A.J., 1969, 16:2, p. 443). On May 29 a small camp was carried to 16,750 feet. The next day Dörschel, Gorter, Hasse, Helbig, Schiemann and I reached the top. On May 31 Fiala climbed P 5050 (16,568 feet), north of the pass, while on June 2 Schiemann, Helbig, Dörschel and I climbed a snow dome (about 5450 meters or 17,881 feet) between Huayna Cuni and the still higher neighboring peak to the east. After a few days of rest in La Paz we went to the Candelaria mine above Coocó in the Cordillera Real. Our Base Camp was still higher at 14,750 feet. We placed Camp I at 16,500 feet and Camp II just underneath the south ridge of Illampu at 19,500 feet. From that camp we attacked the steep cliff east of the south ridge, which had turned back several previous parties. After preparing the route, on June 23 Dörschel, Hasse, Schiemann and I set out along the south ridge and reached the summit of Illampu (20,873 feet) the next day after a bivouac at 20,350 feet. As a last big climb, Dörschel and Gorter succeeded in climbing the Pico del Norte (19,784 feet) from the south via the east col and the east ridge. That same day Hasse, Helbig and Fiala ascended the south ridge of its small southeastern neighbor of about 5700 Meters (18,701 feet), which we called “Gorra de Hielo”.

Gerhard Schutte, Deutscher Alpenverein