South America, Colombia, Pico Sintana (Simmons), Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, North Face

Publication Year: 1979.

Pico Sintana (Simmons), Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, North Face. Paul Thomas, Brian Wood, Tom Simpson, and I entered the range from the west side (San Pedro de la Sierra) and followed the same route that Tom Simpson and I took a year ago in our traverse, (see A.A.J., 1976, p. 477). We made our final camp on our approach on the western slopes of the Sintana Glacier. From there, Paul Thomas and Brian Wood climbed Sintana via the southwest ridge and Tom Simpson and I climbed the same peak via the north face. The north face involves about 1000 feet of 50° to 70° continual ice climbing. (Note: some caution is wise in dealing with the glazed and melting ice—particularly on first pitch—and a worthy suggestion might be helmets. Tom Simpson was knocked down and stunned by falling ice while belaying; also we saw some rock both in the air and embedded in the snow. ) There is a rock band on the top pitch, which like many of the rock sections on the high peaks in the area, is highly fractured and fragmented. It was late in the afternoon of December 29, 1976 when Tom Simpson and I reached the summit. This seems to be about the end of the best season to climb because from the end of December on into the rest of the dry season, the high winds blow much harder.

Philip de Gruyter