South America, Bolivia, Cordillera Real and Cordillera Occidental
Cordillera Real and Cordillera Occidental. My wife Ria and I were in the field from August 3 to September 14. We first climbed in the Cordillera Real from the valley of Río Palcoco and Laguna Khunu Kkota. Base Camp was at 4800 meters at the tongue of the glacier northeast of the lake. We made the following climbs: P 5342 (17,526 feet) by the northwest rock ridge and Pura- purani Thojo (5416 meters, 17,770 feet) by the northeast ridge connecting it to P5342, both on August 11; P 5396 (17,704 feet; north of P 5396) by the south snow ridge on August 12; P 5398 (17,711 feet; north of P 5396) by the northeast ridge on August 13; and Catanani (5468 meters, 17,940 feet) by the rotten-rock south rib to the snow south ridge on August 14. Some of these may have been climbed by the Bavarian Naturfreunde in 1969. The weather was usually bad. It snowed every day and we had deep new snow. We then jeeped to the Cordillera Occidental in the south near the Salar de Uyuni. From San Pedro de Quemes on August 22 we climbed Cerro Caltama (5385 meters, 17,667 feet) from the south to the high points on the east and west crater rims. From Laguna Cañapa on August 25 we climbed 6000 vertical feet to Cerro Caquella (5950 meters, 19,521 feet) from the west up steep snow to the summit on the southern crater rim. On August 27 we ascended also 6000 vertical feet from Chiguana by the southeast slopes and south ridge to the summit of Cerro Luxsar (5510 meters, 18,078 feet). On August 31 we climbed Cerro Chiguana (5278 meters, 17,317 feet) up the northwest slopes. The climbing is wearying with great distances and differences in altitude. We returned to the Cordillera Real and made a final climb of Condoriri (5648 meters, 18,531 feet) by its south ridge on September 9.
Anton Putz, Deutscher Alpenverein