I was accompanied for this round trip record by my friend, Eduardo. He has been climbing and guiding in Bolivia for 30 years. In addition to this being the first "recorded" attempt, according to Eduardo, this is also the first time this has been attempted in the Bolivian guiding in a single day other than when he did it in his early 20s. He did not carry any gear, food or water for me. He helped with navigation, as we were the team to open the route this season. He and I were roped up for the sketchy parts of the glacier for safety.
We arrived in the rain at basecamp at about 4pm, had dinner and took a nap. After waking up at midnight and peepawing around for an hour and a half, we left basecamp at about 1:30 for a scramble/ hike in the dark up to Campo Alto.
From Campo Alto, there is a mixed vertical pitch to get onto the glacier (~20m). Two ice axes would have been better for this portion but we went with what we had. As we were breaking trail the ascent was a little slow across the glacier with some back tracking and way finding. Now that the path is booted down, I think this can be done more quickly!
We headed northeast across the glacier toward the first false summit and approached from the south to climb. We had about 200m of French stepping to gain Sur. From there, it was nice, deep snow to hit Central and Norte (with some cornices, especially toward Norte, BE AWARE) We had initially intended to only hit Sur and come back down but we were both feeling good. "Poco mas?"
In daylight, it was clear the better path down was via Central.
Eduardo tweaked his knee a little bit so our descent was slow but safe <3
We arrived back at basecamp, had lunch, broke camp and hiked out. Please note this track does not include hiking in or out of basecamp. That is ~8.5k each way. The approach is super easy to navigate and gentle. Bring extra socks and pants as you will need to do some wading through the glacial plane. There is no food, water or facilities at any point after you pass through the pueblo of Chachacomani.
This is an absolutely GORGEOUS route and a fantastic day!