In early August, Mexican climbers Franco Gualdi and Daniel Navarro climbed a possible new route on east face of Vallunaraju (5,686m). They began climbing on August 5, at 2 a.m, from a camp on the moraine between Ocshapalca and Vallunaraju. Gualdi and Navarro first climbing an easy ramp of rock and névé without a rope. Above, they climbed harder mixed terrain, often run-out, for a few hundred meters. Midway up the face they were hit by a large storm, and they climbed the remainder of the day under significant snowfall. They found a bivy about four pitches below the summit, where they spent a cold night. They set off the following morning up steep rock (55m, 5.10), which was followed by one pitch of ice and two pitches of soft snow leading to the main summit (500m, MD 5.10a 60-70º). They descended by the normal route down the north ridge. [Editor’s note: It’s unknown if this route is completely independent from previous lines on the face (see AAJ 1983 and AAJ 1988). In 2020, Kent McClannan reported to the AAJ that he climbed this general line in July 1999, when ice, not rock, features dictated the line (III 5.5 AI3). Such is the nature of changing conditions in this tropical range.]