In April, the Perros Alpinos mountain group traveled to the Nieves Negras, located near the border of Chile and Argentina on the south side of San José Volcano. Our objective was Cerro Panamericano (4,501m), which we had tried in 2005 and 2007 unsuccessfully, and which has had few ascents with very little information.

Jaime Wastavino, Juan Carlos Caro, and I approached via the beautiful Valle del Río Volcán to install a base camp at ca 3,000m. We began our ascent at 4 a.m. by a full moon, and progressed rapidly to the base of a hanging glacier. With less snow on the mountain than expected, we quickly gained the summit ridge, which contained the greatest difficulties. The ridge required climbing up to UIAA IV, with very high exposure. A tower about 6m tall with good rock crowns the summit. The route was climbed free, without technical equipment (1,500m, UIAA IV).