How to get there:
This nice Ribu is located near the town of Salinas in Bolivia.
Take the paved road out of town and exit left at location
S19.60203, W67.56886. Go left again and follow the dirt road that
continues into the valley, staying high on the left side in the beginning.
A 4WD vehicle can make it all the way to the end of this road, to elevation
near 4280 meter. We parked at a nice flat area just below a single building
near location S19.57715, W67.62931, elevation near 4052 meter.
Route:
First, follow the main road until it ends (in case you parked lower). The road
ends with some old stone walls. Next, walk up the valley all the way to the
col below the north ridge of the peak. Ascend this ridge. Higher up, it is best
to stay a bit on the right side where there is more sand and scree. A track is
posted on Peakbagger. In order to get directly to the two twin summits, gradually
traverse a bit right as you get higher. You should enter
a distinct, but small gully
(or perhaps better described as a chimmney). Climb directly up, the rock is good with
many foot and handholds. Follow ledges and signs of previous climbers on an ascending
traverse (climbers right). This will get you to the east summit marked with a metal
pole. The west summit
is a short scramble away. The two summits are quite
close in elevation. One would assume that the people that cemented the metal pole
checked out that the east summit perhaps is the highest. In any way, it is a very
short detour to visit both.
Very good views all around. The big flat salt dominates the view.
Cerro Tunupa
stands out as the closest high peak.
Comments:
Adam and I stayed in Salinas
after our nice climb of Toroni.
The town has a nice little hotel with a very friendly owner, located next to a corner
of the village square.
This Friday, we had planned to drive to Oruro, but that would be an easy day. This Ribu was
discovered and we immediately decided to try climbing it the next morning.
We had breakfast at 0730, then drove to the turnoff and up the dirt road. It was a nice
and sunny day, the big flat parking area just below the lone building looked like
a nice trailhead making the climb about an eight hundred meter ascent.
We started hiking around 0920. It was a nice day and the view improved
as we moved higher up this little valley.
We ascended left, towards the
north ridge
perhaps a little early. After some
tall grass, we continued up the north ridge
and ran into talus. This slowed us
a little, but pretty soon we reached the first little hump. Crossing over, the ridge
ahead was just a notch more than we liked. However, one may descend a little left
than traverse below and climb directly towards the east summit.
I was there around 1205, so 2:45 up.
I continued to the west summit and measured essentially the same elevation.
From here, I had a good view back to the east summit.
Adam appeared on the first summit and I headed back while he scrambled to the
west summit point. Soon, we were standing on the two summits, I decided thia
was a good time to shoot a small summit panorama video.
A very nice day with great views.
We left around 1230. Adam had left his backpack
on the first hump, thus needed to reverse his route, while I decided to
explore a more direct descent from the east summit directly down towards the
north ridge. This turned out to be a fun scramble route on good rock. We met up
again lower on the north ridge. The rest of the return was straightforward, but
we did go all the way down the ridge before turning right towards our valley.
Back at the car around 1415, so around 1:45 for the descent.
