Nevada de Chañi, South Face, Northern Andes. Nevado de Chañi is Argentina’s northernmost high peak and a remarkable rock pyramid of 6060 meters (19,881 feet). A. Gantov, J. González and O. di Pietro (of the Centro Andino Buenos Aires) reached the base of the mountain in three stages and placed Base Camp at 15,800 feet near an unnamed lake. They tried first the south-southwest buttress, rotten rock covered with glassy ice, which they had to abandon at 19,000 feet. They chose then a direct route on the south face. On April 30 they climbed this route in nine hours from a bivouac at 17,800 feet, finding in the last 400 feet unstable rock with verglas.

Evelio Echevarría