On July 15, before completing a new route on Illampu (see report here), Brad Ward and I climbed what may have been a new route on a subpeak of Cerro Charquini. This summit of approximately 5,200m lies on the west ridge of Charquini at (16°17’46”S, 68°06’47”W). Our south- facing route rose from the cirque west of Laguna Charquini.

The first two pitches were fun climbing on good rock at M5. Two snow pitches followed. On the fifth pitch, we found very old ring pitons that appeared to be a bail anchor. They were just before a very steep section of difficult climbing through loose terrain, and there was no evidence of previous passage above. We climbed onto the ridge about 30m below the subpeak, and instead of going to the top, descended to the valley northwest of Charquini and climbed to its summit via the normal route.

Two days later, Brad, Natalie Afonina, and I made the second ascent of The Wormhole (500m, TD/TD+, Beisly-Clarke-Rauch, 2014) on the south face of Pico Triangular (5,600m; see AAJ 2015). The route has less ice than when it was first climbed; nonetheless, we found very good climbing, especially on the thin, steep ice of the final pitch. We descended the west ridge—scary and slow through endless loose blocks. Future parties might prefer to rappel the route from Abalakov anchors, as there was certainly enough ice to do so.

— Matt Ward, USA

Editor’s Note: It’s possible the pegs found in 2021 were placed by Stanley Shepard (USA), who climbed countless new routes, solo or with partners, in the Bolivian Andes from the late 1960s to his tragic death in the early ’90s, many in the easily accessible Charquini massif. During that era, there would have been much more snow on this face.