Nevado de las Virgenes, First Ascent, and Other Activity in La Choco Cota. Although previously reported as ascended, Nevado de las Virgenes, so christened by Theodor Herzog in 1911, remained unclimbed until June, when our Spanish expedition (Adolfo Díaz, Isidro Gónzalez, Miguel A. Yagüe and I) arrived. We established base camp near Choca Cota Lake. The Bolivian Juan Alaña accompanied us to the summit of our third peak. From the head of the Choco Cota valley we first climbed P.5500m on June 28, southernmost within the basin. We named it Jaya Cuno (Aimara: “Distant Peak”). Two days later we made the first actual ascent of Nevado de las Virgenes (5500m) by its west face, which averages 50-55° (Dakin Cook believed he had climbed Nevado de las Virgenes some years before, but now says that his was an ascent of Corichuma). On July 2, we climbed P.5450m, south of the former. We christened it Chiara Janco Cuno (Aimara: “Black and White Peak” ). After these three first ascents we moved to the southern Cordillera Real, where we ascended Tarija, Fabulosa and Huayna Potosi.

Javier Sanchez, Spain