Climbing Charquini

Wednesday, June 10th I left at 4.19 am and drove 1 hour 40 minutes to get close to the base of Charquini. It is a 5389 meters high mountain just opposite Huayna Potosi, and I was pretty close to HP basecamp. I chose to climb from the south because the north side looked a little bit too easy based on internet research and Google Earth.
From where I parked it took only 45 minutes to walk to the bottom of the glacier, and then 25 minutes to walk the not-very-steep first slope. I'm glad I didn't take the steep slope that's on the right in the picture because on the other, sunny side there is almost no snow there.

Then, I had the choice to go left and up, or go right and down a little bit and take the steep slope. Maybe there would have been enough snow all the way up on the left hand route, but the option on the right looked like more fun. The low area in the middle of this picture would have been perfect for camping.

The morning light made the views look really nice as I was heading 70 vertical meters down.

The steep face had a crack (called bergschrund) that seemed to extend laterally from one side of the slope all the way to the other. It was about 1 or 1,5 meters wide and parts of it were covered but still obvious. However the snow covering the crack was soft so it was not possible to walk over, and above the crack there was some soft snow too.

The slope is about 100 meters wide and I walked below the bergschrund covering it almost two times, until I eventually found out that at the very left side of the slope the crack was very narrow and easy to cross. It was quite steep climbing. About 55 degrees for 100 vertical meters and I passed an interesting ice cliff on the way up.

On the top there was a little flat area 10m. wide under a rock wall, which then turned into a ridge leading to a subpeak. I think the subpeak was 5350 meters high. I took in the views, took pictures, and then headed down the other side a little bit. It really surprised me how large the glacier on the other side was. The whole mountain and the climb were a real positive surprise. The day was sunny, not cold, and there was no wind. The views of Huayna Potosi, Tiquimani, and other mountains were great.
So I went down and then back up to the highest summit that's 5389m. Close to the summit there was almost as much rock as snow but the angle was easy. It was 9.46 am when I started going back down. I didn't want to take the same way back because going down the steep slope would have been slow and I also wanted to make a full circle and see all of the other side too. I ran down the easy clacier and then continued fast on a good path. Unlike many other mountains, this one was easy to descent. It was not too rocky or slippery. After a while I reached an aqueduct that was almost flat and easy to follow almost until a lake between Charquini and Huayna Potosi, where there is a dirt road. I jogged part of the way back to my car, and after 14,6km or 9miles in total, I started the drive back to La Paz at 12.