How to get there:
A location from where to start may be the city
San Miguel de Tucumán.
Locate and drive to the small village of Rincon.
This village is located at S28.22137, W066.14272, elevation about 1530 meter.
Route:
The route begins at the uppermost end of a road running uphill from the village.
This location is near S28.22721, W66.12772, elevation about 1690 meter.
There is a house located here on the right hand side of the road. A friendly person
there may advise on where to park the car.
For route details, see my track posted on Peakbagger.
What follows here is a rough description/outline of the actual climb.
Continue left from the last house, then walk uphill on the rough forest road.
This road passes a (small) water storage dam, shortly after the route leaves the
road (left) and continues uphill as a pretty big (many smaller rocks) trail.
Follow this trail until you reach a sort of flat, open dirt area. There is a trail
fork here. The correct trail runs directly uphill towards the highest nearby hill,
do not traverse left.
The route now continues along the top of the ridge until this ridge again
has a new, distinct uphill section. Here, the trail leaves the ridge going
right on a short traverse. Next, you will pass some old ruins on your right.
From here, stay on the main trail as it gradually descends and traverses into
the bottom of the valley.
When reaching the valley floor, there is an immediate spot for camping. The creek
had good water in November 2024 as well as in January 2023.
The trail continues up this narrow valley until it steepens and exits up a
big gully (going right) with several zig-zags. The route continues uphill, the
trail is pretty easy to follow as it stays on the ridge, but also sometimes
runs in the hillside. The route gradually becomes somewhat more rocky as
it gains elevation. It is generally quite well marked with small cairns, look
around if the continuation looks unclear. After getting back onto the main ridge
near 3600 m of elevation, it traverses left near 3700m, in order to reach a nice,
small campsite
next to a big boulder just short of 3800 meter.
From this campsite, the route follows the ridge.
There is a short, steeper section
with 2-3 alternative paths (YDS class 3), generally loose and some care should be exercised.
There are cairns indicating the best way uphill, sometimes on the left and sometimes on the
right of the main crest. Finally, you reach the top of the ridge, near 4100 mwter.
Descend about 50 meter and curve right, staying left of some local rock features. You will
merge with the main trail serving this peak that runs along the main crest of this mountain.
The rest of the ascent to about 4540 meter is quite obvious. At this spot
near location S28.25499, W066.03576, there are various "summit symbols", some religious.
However, this is not the summit. Continue to follow the ridge, slightly on its right side.
This will get you to a fairly easy downclimb to a first local col. This is (YDS) class 3.
From here, scramble up the next ridge, then pass around on the right hand side.
You will then reach a second local col. Climb up this ridge and move right higher up, there
may be variations that stays at (YDS) class 3, but at least one very elegant route
will involve a couple of (YDS) class 4 moves. After this, the final ridge is pretty
horizontal, you pass a small bump with a
small cairn, then arrive at the summit.
The summit has a big white cross (tilted) as
well as a few plaques with various inscriptions.
Trip Report / Comments:
First attempt, January 7-9, 2023.
Somewhat optimistic (as it turned out) we had originally planned to climb this
peak in 2 (long) days. However, already before the start, I realized that 3 days
were likely a more sensible time. Thus, Franco (our driver) was warned that we might take an extra
day on this ascent.
We (Adam and me) started hiking in the early morning of January 7th. We resupplied with water at the creek in the
valley, then continued all the way to the 3800 meter camp. This was indeed a very hard push and I
was pretty tired when we finally arrived around 1500.
The next day, we started our summit push shortly after 0600.
The weather gradually got worse and soon it started to
snow. We carried on and reached
the "tourist summit" around 1100.
By then the visibility was quite limited
and snow accumulated quickly.
To our surprise, a more rugged ridge
continued to a location that was clearly
higher. We had read about a few guided trips to this peak, but nowhere seen any information about
a more technical final scramble.
I continued across the first (exposed) traverse,
then started to descend towards the first local
col. Care was absolutely needed, the snow would hide details of the rock and also make everything
more slippery. At this point, my partner refused to continue. I was looking down at a pretty vertical
step, also unable to judge how difficult a possible continuation would be. It was pretty obvious that a
solo continuation would exceed the safety considerations that one should follow in such a remote
area. Thus, we turned around. After a long
and tedious walk in pretty deep snow, we returned to
our tent in late afternoon.
However, after a few hours in camp, I sensed pain in my eyes. The fog and whiteout at high
elevation had caused damage to my eyes. I should of course have worn protective sun glasses.
A pretty stupid mistake, but my vision in white-out conditions is not good when I add
glasses that fog up. Still, inexcuseable.
In order to not take any chances, having to descend the next day with possibly severely limited
vision, we decided to do an immediate night descent. We started out around 2000, and reached
Rincon around 0300. My partner deserves a lot of kudos for this descent, leading the way
guided by a small torch light. The bad weather had caused rain in Rincon and the room we rented was
partially flooded and our few extra pieces of clothing were all soaked.
A memorable experience, a climb that turned out very differently than most. Cerro
Manchao simply did not want a visit this summer. I was already dreaming of a
possible return with more favorable conditions, but thought it very unlikely.
Second attempt, November 22-25, 2024.
Unlikely things sometimes happen. On November 22nd. I was back in Rincon
with my very good friend Helge. We had already climbed Cerro El Mela.
On that climb we discovered that many creeks with water in January were completely
dry in November. Thus, our biggest concern was our supply of water. Since the potential
difficulties of the final summit climb were still unknown to us, we carried a (thin) climbing
rope, a few pieces of protection and a harness each. I started out with 9 liter of
drinking water, while Helge carried the tent, the climbing gear and a few more liter of
water. Our backpacks were (a lot) heavier than what is comfortable these days.
I was hopeful to find water in the little valley, but this did not seem certain after
our experience from Cerro El Mela.
We had driven from Aimogasta after breakfast, thus it was already hot when we started.
The plan was to split the previous "hard day" in two and take two days to reach the
3800 meter camp. Despite the heavy load, we moved uphill reasonably fast. It helped to
drink a bit of the water, Helge also took a couple of my 0.6 bottles (I had 10
of them plus 2 bigger 1.5 liter units)
to make my load a bit lighter. We established camp in the small valley by 1500 and
were happy to find good running water in the small creek.
The next day, November 23rd., we continued up to the "eagle nest" high camp. Somewhat
to our surprise, Helge slowed down
considerably on the upper part of the route.
We believed that the Mela climb should have provided plenty of
acclimatization, perhaps he simply ran out of carbohydrates? In any case, we made
the camp after
more than 6 hours of hard work.
November 24th., summit day. We had an early breakfast and got going around 0620.
We decided to use a single backpack, some clothing, the rope and climbing gear,
a torch-light (just in case), 3 liter of water. This load was very manageable and
we decided that I should carry it, as we were a little uncertain about how Helge
would do, we were going almost to 4600 meter.
The ascent went well. Helge did seem fully recovered as he charged ahead of me up
the final long slope to the tourist summit.
We were there at 1045, about 4.5
hours.
Next, the exciting exploration of
the for us unknown final ridge. The scramble was
fun and not too difficult. What had looked like
a pretty steepish step down with
snow, turned out to provide a good intermediate foothold. Helge picked a route
that stayed pretty high. We had a few (YDS)
class 4 moves along the route. It is
quite possible that one can stay at class 3, perhaps turning some of the cliffs
a bit lower on our right hand side.
Very nice indeed to be back here at the true summit in perfect weather with
good dry rock to scramble. We never pulled out the rope. At the summit around
1200, noon. No need to rush.
Helge decided to work on his tan. I enjoyed the
scenery and the good feeling that this peak indeed permitted a second visit.
We eventually scrambled back the same way, to have a well deserved drink
of water at the tourist summit. The time was now close to 1300.
I suggested that Helge carry the
backpack on the return hike, a task that
turned out to be quite easy. What a difference from last time! We were certainly more thirsty,
but this was just such a very fine day.
We were back at our camp close to 1600, a 3 hour
descent.
We discussed the possibility of descending to the intermediate camp the same day.
In the end, we concluded that it was better to just spend a second night at our
"eagles nest" camp up at 3800 meter. We were very happy with the successful ascent
and had 0.6 liter of water left for our descent to the valley creek the next morning.
We descended after breakfast on November 25. The first stop was down by the creek where
we could fill a new water bottle and drink more water directly from the creek. We next
continued downhill, reaching the car around 1330.
We decided to drive back to Tucuman that afternoon.
This concluded our trip to climb of two very prominent peaks in Argentina. Many thanks to
my partner and good friend Helge for good company.
