Ascent of Cerro Wila Chanca on 2010-12-28| Others in Party: | Petter Bjørstad
Adam Helman
----Only Party on Mountain | | Date: | Tuesday, December 28, 2010 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | 4x4 Vehicle | | Peak: | Cerro Wila Chanca | | Location: | Bolivia | | Elevation: | 4700 m / 15423 ft |
Ascent Trip ReportTravelling S on Route 1, turn off L (E) at S18.38556, W66.97833, bypassing the village of Poopo then take a roughish dirt road which follows the bed of a small river, initially heading E then gradually bending S (or possibly take the dirt road which takes a higher line S of the river). In a few km take a (rougher) farm track off R (W) at S18.41286, W66.90160. This forks R in 700m just before the first buildings and it is possible to park above the houses at S18.42101, W66.91083, 3973m. This was our trailhead. The farmer came up and spoke to us. He seemed a bit bemused about our plans but had no problems with what we were doing.
From here the summit is up to the R but it is best to head straight uphill initially until the obvious ravine system can be more easily crossed near its top. From here we followed a GPS beeline for the S summit, finally scrambling (easy) up to the L to gain the (quite narrow) rocky ridge which led to the summit cairn. To our surprise (see below) this turned out to be the highest of the various summits along the ridge. It´s a nice multi-topped ridge. Views are fine, of the Altiplano and surounding summits.
We descended N (rough, rocky) to the saddle (4613m GPSr) and ascended the N summit (rocky ridge, cairn, S18.41566, W66.94122) which the map made out to be higher.
My GPSr recorded 4688-4694m at the S summit, P Bjorstad´s a steady 4701m over 10 minutes for this S summit. Bolivian 1:50,000 map has a 4640m contour for S summit and a 4659 spot height at N summit. Our GPSs agreed on 4691m for N summit which was clearly (visually) lower. Big discrepancy! (see Cerro Rico for a similar but opposite example). For the record, both summits have a tirnagulation station (or bench mark) so the mapping authority should have accurate elevations!
We descended to the saddle then made our way down. I fell a little way behind Petter and Adam and decided to take a slightly higher line to rejoin our upward route. Petter and Adam got back to the car an hour later, having taken a slightly lower line. However the reason for their delay was that they had spent an hour looking for me!! Very sorry guys :-(
An impressive thunderstorm had been building up and we abandoned our original camping plan, ending up in a very basic but nice and clean and rather "native" hostel at the town of Challapata (S18.90128, W66.77434) further S along Route 1.
NOTE: the GPX track extends to the main highway near Poopo.
Basic timings: TH 1107, Summit 1245, N summit 1331, TH 1525. We moved fairly steadily, resting at both summits and elsewhere - in acclimatisation mode.
This was climbed 2 days after Cerro Anacasi. We drove S to Potosi and climbed Cerro Rico the following day.
Cerro Wila Chanca photos
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| Summary Total Data | | Elevation Gain: | 799 m / 2627 ft | | Elevation Loss: | 799 m / 2627 ft | | Distance: | 8 km / 5 mi | | Grade/Class: | YDS 2+ | | Quality: | 8 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Unmaintained Trail, Open Country, Scramble | | Weather: | Pleasant, Breezy, Clear | | Ascent Statistics | | Elevation Gain: | 720 m / 2365 ft | | Distance: | 4.1 km / 2.5 mi | | Route: | From SE | | Trailhead: | S18.42101, W66.91083 3980 m / 13058 ft | | Time Up: | 1 Hours 40 Minutes | | Descent Statistics | | Elevation Loss: | 799 m / 2627 ft | | Extra Gain: | 79 m / 262 ft | | Distance: | 3.9 km / 2.4 mi | | Route: | SE | | Trailhead: | S18.42101, W66.91083 3980 m / 13058 ft | | Time Down: | 1 Hours 30 Minutes | GPS Data for Ascent/Trip
 GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks:  climbed and  unclimbed by Rob Woodall
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