Khuchu Mocoya Valley, ascents and exploration. In early July, Hal Watts, Markus Roggen, Bernard Lam, Ben Withers, and I spent 23 days in the Khuchu Mocoya Valley in the northern Araca Group of the Cordillera Quimsa Cruz, where we climbed 11 routes, 10 of which we believe to be new. There is some confusion over peak names in the area; different maps have different names, and some peaks are known only by colloquial names. There are a few “well- known” landmarks, such as Pico Penis (a.k.a. El Obelisco), Cuernos del Diablo, and Nevada Saturno. These landmarks are generally consistently named, so routes can be located by their relative positions.

Our base camp was on the banks of the Rio Khuchu Mocoya, west of Laguna Blanca, and we spent several days looking for good lines on the faces to the east. We had come to the area hearing that it was a granite paradise, and there was certainly a lot of granite; however, most faces were shorter than we had expected, generally 150-300m high.

We climbed our first route, E-dirt (140m, E3 5c), on the slabs to the southwest of Nevada Saturno. The rock was good, but with a lot of vegetation in the cracks. We had bought a garden trowel in La Paz, which was useful for clearing dirt. Next we climbed a striking crack line on the slabs to the northeast of Laguna Blanca, a four-pitch E1 5b. We found evidence—two stuck nuts and a bolt—that this route had been previously climbed.

We then visited the next valley to the north (the Turaj Umana River Valley, which some locals call the Torrini Valley) in search of more north, sunny faces (though the north side of the valley had numerous faces around 200-300m high, some with uninterrupted crack lines for their duration). This valley is home to an impressive northwest-facing formation, on the south side of the valley, that local climber and guide Gonzalo Jaimes had called Torrini (not to be confused with the Cerro Torrini on the HOJA maps, which is about 2.5km north of the Turaj Umaña Valley—outside the valley but close enough to confuse things). We later learned that this peak is Gross Mauer, at least as named by the German FA team. Gross Mauer means “Great/Big Wall” and is the formation where Lynnea Anderson and Donny Alexander established the AA Crack, up one of the most striking features on the peak, in 2002 [AAJ 2003, pp. 315-316]. We climbed on the peak briefly, but it was basically a bolted crag with almost no potential for new routes.

On this same south side of the valley we found excellent sunny rock faces, 100-250m long. We climbed several routes in this area: three along the western end of the north faces framing the valley and two in an area to the east. In the western area, the routes were La Cueva Comoda (230m, E1 5b), Motivationsriss (120m, HVS 4c), and a 200m VS 4c. In the eastern area we climbed La Manera Dura (150m, E5 6b) and Lalilu (120m, E2 5c). We climbed all routes onsight except La Manera Dura.

During a snowy period Bernard and Ben climbed a mixed route (grade III/4) on the slabs near the col that leads to the next valley northwest of base camp.

Other new routes included a three-pitch 100m VS 4c in the Diablos area by Bernard and Markus; a long scramble to the northwest of Saturno (250m, AD-) by Bernard and Ben, and a long ridge traverse (PD+) by Ben, Bernard, and Markus.

We found one larger face (400-500m), which we nicknamed the “Big Wall,” about 2km northwest of Laguna Blanca. [Not to be confused with the other “Big Wall,” Gross Mauer, a.k.a. Torrini, albeit not the “real” Cerro Torrini on HOJA maps; according to Bolivian climber, guide, and guidebook author Denys Sanjines, this face that Scott is referring to is called La Gran Muralla, which, in English, means “The Great Wall,” but, again, not to be confused with Gross Mauer, either Torrini, or other big and great walls—extremely confused Ed.] It was probably the most spectacular face we saw in the area, but unfortunately it was loose and steep. We spent four days attempting to climb it and made only 50m of progress. As far as we know this face has no routes, which Jaimes confirms. This seemed like one of the few, if not the only, unclimbed face of this size in the area and would make a great objective for a team that doesn’t mind the cold and is willing to aid.

During our time in the Quimsa Cruz we found a lot more evidence of climbing than we had expected. For more information, see www.quimsacruz2007.co.uk.

Virgil Scott, U.K.