In October, Federico Caballero, Rafael Reinoso, and I made the first known ascent of Pico Colina Sur (4,620m; 33°53'54.9"S, 69°51'45.6"W) in the Central Andes. This peak is the highest of the Picos Colina group, on the border between Chile and Argentina, which includes [from north to south] Pico Colina Norte (4,296m), an unnamed 4,448m summit, Pico Colina Oriente (4,490m), and Pico Colina Sur. Despite their proximity to Santiago, the mountains in this area have few ascents.

Starting from a camp at 4,000m below the northeast side of the mountain, we climbed an indirect route up steep slopes and gullies comprised of snow and rock for 600m. Eventually, we reached a 20m section of technical rock (5.8) on the north face of the final summit pyramid. We accidentally dropped Federico's backpack before the final pitch, watching it fall down the steep west-side gullies, but he finished the climb anyway. On the summit, we didn't find any signs of previous attempts.

Our route is Indirettissima (600m, PD+). To descend, we followed a more direct couloir on the northeast face, which would make for a better “normal” route.

— Damir Mandakovic, Chile