Illimani Traverse, Pomarata, Sajama. Our Regensburg expedition was composed of Ria Putz, Heidi Hildebrandt, Roman Schönbuchner and me as leader. We were in the field from July 29 to September 15. It took four days for my wife Ria, Heidi Hildebrandt and me to climb Pomarata (20,473 feet). This lies on the Chilean-Bolivian frontier, just west of Sajama. We four, plus the Bolivian Jorge Morato, next climbed Sajama (21,391 feet). The chief objective of the expedition was the traverse of the whole Illimani group. Hildebrandt and Schönbuchner climbed the normal route to the main summit from the west. My wife and I set out from Atahuallani at 12,150 feet at the southern foot of the range. We climbed in steep ice couloirs to the glacial plateau which spills off to the south, which we believe was a new route. We traversed the plateau past crevasses to Pico Layca Kkollu (20,230 feet) in knee-deep soft snow. The route to the summit was along an exposed steep snow ridge. The way to the col between the main and central peaks was hard work thanks to deep snow. The traverse from the central to the north peak and the Pico del Indio has often been done, but we were the first to do the whole traverse. The whole traverse including the approach took five days, August 19 to 23.

Anton Putz, Deutscher Alpenverein