In June 2025, Wilder Alva Chinchay (Peru) and I (Panama) established a new route on the northeast face of Huandoy Este (ca 6,000m, -9.0189, -77.6561), the lowest of the four main summits of the Huandoy massif. We are both students at the Centro de Estudios de Alta Montaña (Center for High Mountain Studies) in Huaraz and are aspiring IFMGA guides. 

We had attempted the northeast face in 2024 but had to retreat 200 meters from the summit due to poor snow conditions. On June 13, 2025, we left Huaraz with the same goal. That night, we camped at Refugio Perú-Pisco (4,670m). At 8 a.m. the following day, we approached the peak, arriving in 4.5 hours. We set up a camp and rested there, at 5,200 meters, until 6:30 p.m., when we began the climb. 

The first pitches were through a 75° snowfield, traversing up and to the left to reach rock and mixed. This middle section was exposed with very loose rock; the angle was between 80° and 90°. The final pitch before the ridge was the crux, with a very exposed mixed traverse. Upon reaching the broad north ridge, we found a glacier with wide crevasses and dangerous ice bridges. Climbing in the dark, we carefully followed the ridge to the summit, reaching the top at 5:40 a.m. on June 15 after an 11-hour ascent.  

On the summit, the wind and cold were intense, but the excitement of achieving our goal was even greater. I became the first Panamanian to summit any of the Huandoy peaks, and Wilder completed his project of climbing all four Huandoy summits—likely the first person to do so. 

To descend, we chose a direct rappel line leaving the ridge farther down to the north than our ascent route, and we made it back to our high camp at noon. We called our route Sudor Peruano (480m, MD+ M4/5). 

—Diomedes Mojica, Panama

HISTORICAL NOTES ON HUANDOY ESTE: The northeast face of Huandoy Este was first climbed during the first ascent of the peak, in 1952, by Americans William Siri and Allen Steck. They climbed a buttress toward the right side of the face to reach the north ridge, which they followed to the summit. (Fletcher Hoyt and Peter Hoessly, from the same expedition, climbed the complete north ridge on the same day.) Various later ascents of the northeast face likely shared some ground with the Siri-Steck route. In 2019, a Chilean-Italian team climbed a new route in the center of the face to the ridgeline but did not continue to the summit (see AAJ 2020). The 2025 team ascended terrain to the left of all prior routes.