Nevado Quillujirca (5,040m) is located in the Rurec Valley—sometimes called the “Little Yosemite” of the Andes. 

On July 15, Rafael Cáceres, Esteban MenaYañez, Nicolás Navarrete, and Carla Perez (Ecuador) climbed a new 250m start to the Italian route El Sueño De Los Excluidos (Iannilli-DiDonato, AAJ 2011) on the southeast face of Nevado Quillujirca. The variation joins the existing route at a prominent vegetated shelf, from which the Ecuadorians continued for 500m to the top; it appears they climbed new terrain on the final third of the route. [Editor’s note: The Italians noted their route was over 1,300m in length, which appears to be an overestimate. Additonally, the upper part of the Italian route, on the upper southeast face, was first climbed by Americans Kent McClannan and Cameron Tague and called Mission Control (IV 5.11+ A2+, AAJ 2000); their route was the first known technical ascent of the peak and climbs the right side of the southeast face.]

It took the team two days to bring their gear up to the wall, and over the next three days they established five pitches on the lower wall (5.11d, 5.7, 5.11a, 5.10, 5.10). Some belays have bolts or pitons (where necessary), and the second pitch has three protection bolts due to continuous face climbing. On their fourth day they started climbing at 5 a.m. from a bivouac on the vegetated shelf and reached the summit by 2 p.m. The team simul-climbed the entire upper part, which has maximum difficulties of 5.10. A GPS reading indicated about 800m of elevation gain from base to summit. The Ecuadorians descended a ridge to the west, reaching the vegetated ledge in about 40 minutes, followed by another two hours of rappelling to the base.

The team also attempted a route on the upper south face of the mountain, consisting of 5.11+/5.12- crack climbing with face climbing cruxes between the cracks. Overall, the Ecuadorian team said the valley offers good potential for new-routing on great rock; the only problem is the cracks are often filled with vegetation.

– Sergio Ramírez Carrascal, Peru, with information from Esteban Mena Yañez and Sevi Bohórquez, Peru