Pico Los Portones and Púlpito Negro, Sierra Nevada de Cocuy. The most impressive mountain in this range, Pico Los Portones (also called Picacho and San Pablín Norte), had been ascended for the first and only time in 1959 by two Cambridge University students (A.A.J., 1960, pp. 139-40). On December 27, 1978, Sergio Gaviria, Jaime Maldonado, Ernesto Murillo (Colombians) and Hubert Frank and Lorenz Salomons (Germans) reached the top of the low (southwest peak (5222 meters, 17,133 feet), a first ascent. Salomons remained there, filming the climb, while the rest traversed to the main summit (5266 meters, 17,293 feet).

The climb was reported as exposed, but not difficult. A day later the group made the fourth (?) ascent of Púlpito Negro (4929 meters, 16,172 feet).

Evelio Echevarría