The first ascent of Sincholagua was made by Edward Whymper, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Louis Carrel on 23 February 1880. Whymper is best known for being the first to ascend Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland. Sincholagua lost all permanent glaciers on its peak decades ago, but before that had a glacier cover about 1.5 kilometers long. A river that runs around and on the mountain, the Río Pita, widened due to the last major eruption in 1877. When Whymper climbed Sincholagua, the Río Pita was 200 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and in 1892, after the eruption it was 1,100 feet wide and 50 feet deep at its widest and deepest. Currently it is considered a stream.