Region: America - South and Antarctica

Ms Sarah Griffin with Jingwen Chen, Matthew Freear, Tim Moss, Ted Saunders and John Tomlinson. (June-July 2004)

Although the southern part of the Cordillera Quimsa Cruz has become popular with climbers in recent years, information about their ascents is very confused: it is thought that several 'first ascents' may have been claimed for the same peaks, but under different names. This team was very keen to clarify the true position, as well as climbing new and existing routes themselves. Although the snow and ice were in excellent condition, they were disappointed to find that the metamorphic rock was very loose, making some of the climbing frightening. Nevertheless, they climbed a number of routes on peaks from 5380m to 5740m, of which they think that six or seven were first ascents. Collating previous data is proving to be a far bigger task than anticipated, and so the team is appealing for assistance from earlier visitors, results being detailed on the website: www.quimsacruz.info