South America, Bolivia—Cordillera Apolobamba, Acamani Sur

Publication Year: 1979.

Acamani Sur. Our objective had been to reach the summit of Aca- mani (18,590 feet) via its south ridge. Unfortunately the ridge comes to a high point (17,455 feet) detached from the main peak, which could not be seen from the distance with binoculars nor from the foot of the mountain. My French wife Mireille, Frenchman Henri Roussilhe and I, who am English, reached this as our high point of July 31. We travelled by truck from La Paz to Charazani, walked from there to Canisaya and beyond to Base Camp by a lake at the foot of the south glacier of Acamani. The weather was sunny in the morning but drizzle and low clouds settled in around one o’clock. After spending the first day getting up the rotten- rock part of the ridge and camping in poor visibility at the foot of the snow, on the second day we moved up 800 feet over very steep snow (over 60°). We camped because of poor visibility on a windy platform facing another steep slope barred by a bergschrund. On the third day we gained another 800 feet, going over the schrund and up the 65° slope to arrive at a half-filled crevasse. On the fourth day, as we were now over 16,750 feet, we decided to leave most of our material in the crevasse and make a last attempt to get to the summit. After a knife-edged snow ridge, which had its south face covered with unstable powder snow but had hard snow on its north side, winding through crevasses and crossing two schrunds, we finally got to the top of Acamani Sur or P 5320. There we found the deep depression between where we were and the main peak. The ridge dipped much lower and led to a 650-foot ice slope below the main summit. We obviously could not go on. On the sixth day we were back in Base Camp. There are good opportunities for light expeditions in this region.

William L. Marks, Club Alpin Français