Illimani Traverse, Pomarata, Sajama. Our Regensburg expedition ...

Illim ani Traverse, Pomarata, Sajama. O ur Regensburg expedition was com posed of Ria Putz, H eidi H ildebrandt, R om an Schönbuchner and me as leader. We were in the field from July 29 to Septem ber 15. It took four days for my wife Ria, H eidi H ildebrandt and me to climb Pom arata (20,473 feet). This lies on the Chilean-Bolivian frontier, just west of Sajama. W e four, plus the Bolivian Jorge M orato, next climbed Sajama (21,391 feet). T he chief objective of the expedition was the traverse of the whole Illim ani group. H ildebrandt and Schönbuchner climbed the norm al route to the m ain sum m it from the west. My wife and I set out from A tahuallani at 12,150 feet at the southern foot of the range. W e climbed in steep ice couloirs to the glacial plateau which spills off to the south, which we believe was a new route. W e traversed the plateau past crevasses to Pico Layca K kollu (20,230 feet) in knee-deep soft snow. The route to the summ it was along an exposed steep snow ridge. T he way to the col between the m ain and central peaks was h ard w ork thanks to deep snow. The traverse from the central to the north peak and the Pico del Indio has often been done, but we w ere the first to do the whole traverse. The whole traverse including the approach took five days, A ugust 19 to 23. A n t o n P u t z , D eutscher Alpenverein