Santander, Southeast Face, and Other Peaks, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 1974. Between January 14 and February 5, 1974, a 17-man Royal Air Force expedition led by Wing Commander N.M. Ridley was active in the western and northern sections of this range. Besides several ascents by known routes to the main peaks (Colón, Bolívar, Simons or Sintana, La Reina, E1 Guardián and Tairona) the following other climbs were accomplished: Santander, c. 18,000 feet, southeast face, by J. Banks and T. Rogers, on January 22; Ojeda (5440 meters, 17,848 feet) southeast face, rock, B. Skelson and N. Taylor, January 28; “Bienvenido” (5140 meters, 16,864 feet), ascended five times; “Base Camp Peak” (5080 meters, 16,667 feet), Rogers on January 31 and D. Drew and J. Dumbill, February 3; “Pico Naboba” (4820 meters, 15,814 feet) by Banks, Dumbill, B. Pearce and the leader, on January 16 (the last three peaks are located north of the Ati-Naboba lake and south of the Chirigua saddle) ; Ojeda N-II (5240 meters, 17,192 feet) and “Tulio Ospina” (5270 meters, 17,290 feet) on January 28 by Skelson and Taylor; S. Blyth and Rogers climbed Ojeda N-I (5240 meters, 17,192 feet) and “Pico Coddazzi” (5260 meters, 17,257 feet) also on January 28 and the following day they ascended Ojeda S-I (5220 meters, 17,126 feet) and Ojeda S-II (same height), Ojeda S-III (4990 meters, 16,372 feet) and Ojeda S-IV (4960 meters, 16,273 feet). “The Pap” (c. 17,000 feet), a sharp peak located east of La Reina, received its second and third ascents (it had been ascended by Italians in 1958); “Southeast Ridge,” c. 17,000 feet, was ascended by Drew and Dumbill on January 27 (Information from report by N.M. Ridley, Royal Air Force Expedition to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia).1

Evelio Echevarría

1 The expedition used a map 1:50,000 entitled Pico Bolívar, Edition 1-AMS, Sheet 21921 (Series E772), prepared by the U.S. Army Map Service in cooperation with the Instituto Geográfico “Agustín Coddazzi” of Bogotá. It shows new heights, which seem to average some 60 meters lower than previous surveys (Cabot 1939, Instituto Foto-Geológico 1955 and Cunningham 1957). Thus, “Pico Coddazzi” seems to correspond to P. 5336, and “Tulio Ospina” to Pico Oriental in the old surveys. Ojeda S-I and Ojeda S-II are the same as the twin peaks of Chirigua (also called “Panamericano,” unofficial name), located southeast of Ojeda. Ojeda N-IV is P 5273 and Ojeda N-II is P 5368 of Cunningham’s map. “Southeast Ridge” may be the same as Pico Juanita. E. Echevarría.