Picacho Kasiri, South Face, Supay Pach

Bolivia, Cordillera Real
Author: Alexander von Ungern. Climb Year: 2019. Publication Year: 2020.

After the successful first ascent of Picacho Kasiri's south face with Juan Gabriel Estellano (see AAJ 2019), I went back several times in early 2019 to explore the south face of its neighboring peak. Picacho Kasiri, as defined by the IMG map 5945-II, is comprised of twin peaks with summits reaching more or less the same altitude; this time I wanted to climb the more easterly peak.

My first three attempts failed due to bad weather or a tired climbing partner, but during that time I dialed down the best approach. On April 6, the day I finally succeeded, Marcelo Gomez and I parked his car at the narcotráfico control post, on Ruta Nacional 3, and hiked two hours to the base of the face at close to 4,700m.

We first climbed three pitches to a big terrace, along which we walked left (west) to reach the foot of an obvious dihedral. With Marcelo in front, we first simul-climbed to more serious ground, above which I took the lead over steeper terrain and, unfortunately, areas of quite loose rock. While physically this was not too demanding, mentally it was very hard. On the sixth pitch I was confronted with a slightly overhanging thin seam, where I used aid for around 10–15m. As we climbed out of the dihedral into the sun, we had to negotiate two pitches up a slab that offered little protection. Due to the exposure, these were also mentally challenging.

Once we reached the summit ridge, at around 5,050m, we decided to end the climb there. (The eastern summit height is approximately 5,160m.) We had climbed eight pitches, and to continue would have resulted in finishing at night. The estimated difficulties of 6a+ felt harder due to suboptimal conditions, including the lack of good protection and humidity that allowed much moss to grow on the surface. Luckily, we were able to walk down the other side without any rappels.

As we climbed approximately half the route in shadow, in humid conditions, we called the route Supay Pacha (the underground world). The previous year, I had called the route on the westerly summit Araj Pacha (the world from above), as it felt quite aerial.

– Alexander von Ungern, Andean Ascents, Bolivia



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