South America, Argentina, Cerro La Mano and Other Peaks, Cordón de los Penitentes

Publication Year: 1980.

Cerro La Mano and Other Peaks, Cordón de los Penitentes. Our expedition was composed of Pablo Hülskamp, Alejandro Robert, Guido Iglesias, Gustavo Glickman, Daniel Sagalovsky and me as leader. Our chief objective was the south face of Cerro La Mano (18,373 feet), which had been climbed in 1953 by Gerardo Watzl and in 1971 by Guillermo Vieiro. On January 27 Hülskamp, Glickman, Sagalovsky and I climbed Cerro Zurbriggen (18,209 feet). Also on January 27 Hülskamp and Glickman made the first ascent of P 5100 (16,733 feet), which we named “Cerro Link” in honor of Jorge Link, who died with his wife on Aconcagua in 1944. It lies a kilometer east of Zurbriggen. On January 29 Robert, Iglesias, Hülskamp and I climbed the steep south face of Cerro Reichert (16,897 feet). We climbed Cerro La Mano’s south face by three routes: Iglesias and Sagalovsky repeated the direct route, Hülskamp and I climbed a route farther west which emerged on the west ridge not far from the top, and Glickman and Robert climbed a third route still farther west, which was half on the south face and half on the west ridge. We all reached the summit on February 2 within an hour of each other. On February 6 Hülskamp, Robert Sagalovsky and Iglesias climbed Cerro Tolosa (17,618 feet) by the Glaciar del Hombre Cojo.

Alberto Mario Serrano, M.D., Club Andino Bariloche