Pico Los Portones and Púlpito Negro, Sierra Nevada de Cocuy. The most impressive mountain in this range, Pico Los Portones (also called Picacho and San Pablín N orte), had been ascended for the first and only time in 1959 by two Cambridge University students (A.A .J., 1960, pp. 139-40). On December 27, 1978, Sergio Gaviria, Jaime Maldonado, Ernesto Murillo (Colombians) and Hubert Frank and Lorenz Salomons (Germans) reached the top of the low (southwest peak (5222 meters, 17,133 feet), a first ascent. Salomons remained there, filming the climb, while the rest traversed to the main summit (5266 meters, 17,293 feet).

The climb was reported as exposed, but not difficult. A day later the group made the fourth (?) ascent of Púlpito Negro (4929 meters, 16,172 feet).

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