The snow was firm at some spots, but all soft in other spots. I have a lot of experience on snow, but still I could not really understand why it was like that. The first slopes were gentle, finally rising at 30 degrees. Then I got onto a low ridge from which the views were really nice. The peak that I climbed is not in this picture, it's more to the left.
In fact, I climbed to both of these, kind of indistinct peaks:
Quite nice slopes.
The other peak in the background.
Once I got to the top at 5508 meters, Pico Italiano seemed to be quite close. I mean truly close. So I was curious about whether it would be possible to go down on the opposite side of the peak I had just climbed, and then get onto the western glacier of Pico Italiano. I took a break and considered my possibilities. It was already 11 am.
In general I think it's curiosity that makes me climb: I want to know what the mountain or route is like.
So I went down about 180 meters. As this was the sunny side, there was no snow. Luckily I didn't need to go any lower, and at 5330 meters I traversed for a while before getting on the snow again at noon. I thought 2 hours or in worst case 3 hours would be enough to get to the top at over 5700 meters. I didn't know exactly how high the peak was.
The route:
Boliviaclimbinginfo.org is a site with plenty of information on mountains and routes climbed in Bolivia. Not all routes that have been climbed in the past are recorded there, but mostly they are. According to their information the west side of Pico Italiano had not been climbed previously. It certainly is a remote corner of the area, and I'm sure that even the "normal" route to Pico Italiano sees very few ascents each year despite its relative proximity to the very popular and even touristy Huayna Potosi normal route.
Unlike the route I had climbed in the morning that was snow that's normally not there, this was all glacier. First it was quite easy-angled, but soon I worked with both ice axes. There was what looked like a hidden bergschrund, but at least where I crossed it, it was full of ice and easy to get over. From there the angle was first 50 degrees and then I think up to 55 degrees. Quite steep. Because this is a slope that gets all the afternoon sunlight, the snow had pretty much melted. So there was not much more left than the ice, but luckily the surface had a nice crust. I was able to kick front points in enough to feel secure and ice axes went in nicely, but if the ice had been harder I would have been in for trouble. On my right there would have been an easier (not so steep) option... low part of the slope in the picture.
It took 40 minutes to get up that face onto easier ground at 5640 meters. The final, south face is quite steep but not too high. From the bergschrund it was 80 elevation meters to the top. The bergschrund seemed like trouble from distance, and I thought it was really big and covered in soft snow. I was fully aware of the option that I might not be able to cross it. But once I got there I discovered that it was in fact full of firm snow. Easy, no problem at all. Immediately after that the steep south face began. The snow was quite perfect for steep climbing, firm enough so that I could kick good steps, but soft enough to minimize the risk of falling because my feet went in pretty deep. I used ice axes by sticking them in bottom first. This part took about 25 minutes and the angle was 60 degrees.
It was a relief to get to the top at 2.15pm, but I really hoped that I wouldn't have to climb down the south face. It turned out that there was an easy way down on firm snow. I was super happy and made it back down the whole route in just over 20 minutes, almost running. So I went back to 5330 meters and then up to 5500 meters and further down super quickly to my car.
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