Cerro Azara (ca. 1850m).

General description and climbing history.

Cerro Azara is located just north of Paso del Viento.

Swiss-Argentine Alfredo Kolliker and Lutz Witte christened and climbed this peak in March of 1916 as part of the Buenos Aires “Sociedad Cientifica Alemana” expedition. They climbed it in order to get a good view of the icecap for a traverse to the continental divide, which they reached a few days later.

Their exploration of the Icecap was very significant as they were the first to reach the “divortium glaciarum” just north of Córdon Mariano Moreno (christen also by this expedition) after crossing over Paso del Viento. Pablo Silbermann, Adam Diener, Augusto Tannert, Lutz Witte and Kölliker himself completed this traverse. The remaining members of this expedition were: Hans Jorgensen, Dr. Kühn and Tobías Buechele.

The expedition was conceived and supported by the tireless explorer Federico Reichert, and was the first to explore and survey this area closely, visiting the southern and western flanks of the Chaltén massif and accomplishing the first ascent of Cerro Huemul. They had originally hoped to climb Cerro Fitz Roy, but it proved to be slightly more difficult than they had expected.

The only exploration and mapping of the area to that date had been done by the “Perito” Moreno and the members of the “Comisión de Limites”, who in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s had the task of surveying, mapping and delimitating the border between Argentina and Chile. However according to Kölliker their mapping and marking of the area was done from a distance, and they marked only the mountains of major importance.

In 2002 Spaniards José Fernández Arrieta and Raúl Lora del Cerro climbed a new route on the east face of Cerro Azara. The route leads a col north of the summit and involves 200m of mixed terrain to 60º-65º, with some short steeper sections, and some easy rock climbing (3). From the summit Arrieta and Lora moved north, along the ridge, to climb a secondary summit listed by Louis Lliboutry as Cerro Bravo. Unaware of the name Arrieta and Lora del Cerro proposed the name Punta Llanos. This involved an easy traverse to the base of the summit tower, a 20-meter tall pinnacle on rotten rock (4). They descended via the north flank, the first ascent route.

It is unclear who Cerro Azara is named after.

Bibliography.

Patagonia - Resultado de las expediciones realizadas en 1910-16; Colaboradores: Cristóbal Hicken, Alfredo Kölliker, Franz Kühn, Fritz Reichert, Adolfo Tomsen and Lutz Witte; Buenos Aires 1917 - Sociedad Científica Alemana.