Another trip to Hampaturi to Climb Serkhe Negra

January 10th: rolled out at 5.08am and again went over Pampahasi and again it was raining. In Palcoma I turned right and went over the bridge. I took the small road that goes towards Hati Khollu that I climbed last May, to climb another peak. Soon there was a hill that was so muddy that I couldn't drive up anymore. Maybe I could have cleared it using the 4x4 but my tires are quite slick and the road was so slippery that I didn't even try. And maybe there were similar slippery places further up the road. An old man told me there is another way around that later joins the upper part of the road. So I went back to Palcoma and tried to find the road the old man was talking about but I couldn't find it. Instead, I took a tiny and terrible road for a while but turned back because it was so bad. I was sure that the road up to the lakes was better so I decided to cross the river again and kept going up that way to climb Serkhe Negra.
   I left my car at the Laguna Aiun Khota at 4450 meters and started moving on foot at 7.18am. I had lost 30 minutes in Palcoma. I didn't want to try to drive to Laguna Serkhe Khota at 4800m because I was worried about the road conditions and didn't want to get stuck. That meant I had 3,4 km or over 2 miles more to walk but it was ok. During that walk the sky cleared up and it was sunny but in 30 minutes it would be all cloudy and at times foggy too.  I saw a very easy walk up to the northwestern base of Serkhe Negra and decided to take advantage of it because I had seen one week earlier that the south face of Serkhe Negra doesn't have any snow. It was pretty muddy everywhere that day. I discovered that the north side of the mountain has a wonderful corridor that goes up, first the angle is very easy, but later all four limbs were needed. When this part of the mountain is covered in snow, this could be a nice climb but now only the last 150 vertical meters had snow.

There was a cross at the top (5460m 17,913ft) and I spent at least 20 minutes on the top part of the peak, walking around and looking. Going back it was raining really hard and I hurried to the car knowing that the road gets worse and worse. And it really was a muddy and wet drive for the first 15 minutes and I felt lucky having made it back.

Climbing in the Hampaturi in January.

January 3rd: I left home at 5.01am and drove over Pampahasi, descending toward Irpavi a little bit, and then to Lorocota and Carpani and Palcoma. I drove very slowly because the road is bad, but the funny thing is that as soon as there are no more houses along the road, the road turns really good for most sections (still a dirt road). I believe that must be because there is a mine further up the road and also the local water company uses the road at least sometimes I think. It would have been much shorter for me to drive up the paved road toward La Cumbre for 10km and the take a dirt road that climbs up and descends into the next valley by the Hampaturi dam, but that road is quite dangerous in the dark and it was raining a little bit too so I took the safer option. But most of all I wanted to avoid the parts of the road that have rocks that hit the bottom of the car.
   So I stopped at about halfway between the first two big lakes. I think their names are represa Hampaturi and Laguna Aiun Khota. The elevation was 4330 meters and it was 6.35 am when I started on foot heading up. In the beginning there was a short flat area, and it took me a while to find a place to cross the river. Then the terrain was amazing for walking and quite steep. I gained 560 meters in the first hour and crossed an old mining road; there is another, abandoned mine high on the mountain and on other parts of the mountain there are plenty of similar old roads. Abandoned mines and abandoned roads have their creepy charm. I like to imagine mining trucks on those narrow tracks.
   From about 5050m on there was a rocky ridge that slowed me down a lot but it was still quite easy if you think about rock climbing. Finally there was an easy walk on sand leading close to a peak that only had a little bit of snow at just over 5200m. I don't know if that peak has a name. From the peak I saw another peak that was snow capped and headed toward it. I descended an easy sand ridge a little bit heading east. Then there was a rocky section with a drop and I tried to find a direct way down to be able to continue on the ridge, but the drop proved too high. The rock there was really weird; I could grab a handful of the spiky rock and throw it away. On the other side I found an easy sand slope and went down. There was a slope that led to the top at quite nice angle, around 35 to 40 degree. From where I was putting on my boots and crampons at about 5050m there were first patches and lines of snow, and higher up it was all snow. The snow was really thin, only about 10cm or less and it was already quite warm, but the snow had a very nice crust. I was delighted because on Parinacota in November and on a trip to a Huayna Potosi subpeak (failed to summit) in December there was no good snow at all to climb on so this was the best climbing since June. It was also very safe and worry free. Low part of the slope in the picture:

At 10.30am I reached the top of the peak and my gps read 5316 meters 17,440ft. I don't know the name of this peak either, if it has one. Almost on the top there was a low area that could be nicely wind- protected if somebody wants to camp at a high altitude. I saw the next peak that was even higher and had a quite impressive northwest face that looked fun to climb:

Again, I had to go down quite a bit on a steep sand slope, over 200 vertical meters to reach the bottom of the face. This one too had a nice angle 40- 45 degrees. The snow was softer and a little bit deeper. Close to the top it snowed pretty hard for maybe 10-15 minutes. At the top I read 5391 meters 17,686ft. Went down the slope and from there took a different route back to my car, just so that I could get a better idea of this area. I'm not entirely sure, but based on my previous 3 trips to these mountains last May it looks like this part of the range is in it's best condition during the wet season in December- March unless you just want snow- free hiking. It was fun to be back home at 4.20pm because it was warm and sunny in the city.