Getting There

See the Mercedario Group page for details about the walk in up the Valle Colorado.

Route Description

Information from Corax:
There is a way to head from the Valle Colorado, which is the normal route in to Mercedario's south face and Ramada, to the north side of Mercedario and the normal (easiest) route for Mercedario.
When you have made it to Campo de los Polacos, in the end of Valle Colorado you cross the wide river bed and aim for Cerro Negros right side. There's a trail leading up the steep slopes and in the beginning there's no way to go wrong. When you have reached a flattish part of the path, look for the trail. It may be hard to find. The valley gets steeper and on your right you'll see ridges of different colors. The last one, the horizon ridge is black, the next is red and the one closest to where you stand is yellow in color. You can either follow the guanacos tracks straight up the yellow ridge or walk in between the red and the yellow ridge.

The latter alternative was the recommended one, but some Polish climbers I met said they had be very frightened by the fresh signs of rock avalanches and I'm happy I went on the guanacos trails instead. These trails are very steep and at times you're extremely exposed, considering you probably have a heavy back pack on your back. 200 m from Paso Ancho there's a nasty slide zone. Pass this one quickly! At 4750m you're at the pass and at the Ancho Plateau. It's an open valley where you can camp if tired, or want to climb Negro or Wanda. There are plenty of water up here, but very little in between Campo de los Polacos and this place.

Continue in between Negro and Wanda until you reach the end of the valley. Don't walk down to the lowest point in that valley, but follow the ridge on the left hand side until it starts go go up again. At a high point you'll see patches of grass far below and also an old mining road. There are guanacos tracks to follow down to the road.
From there you either walk down the road to the turn-off to the normal walk in to Mercedario or traverse the east ridge. If going all the way down to the normal route, you'll lose about 300 vertical meters.

The route over Paso Ancho is not to be taken lightly. It's a hard traverse if you carry all your gear, but it may be the only reasonable alternative to reach the north side of Mercedario.

Essential Gear

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External Links

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