Trip Reports

Bolivian Climber and Bolivia Two Peaks - 6 to 23 Jul 2019

Written by Leader Ed Chard, July 2019

The Llama looked at me with a quizzical camel like expression. This sentence could be from Tibet or Nepal of course but in this case, the animal and I were looking at each other at 4000m in the Bolivian Andes. The slightly affronted beast moved on along with the rest of its heard, and we carried on our trek into Condoriri Base Camp; the thin dry air being tough to breathe in the mid-day sun.

We had been in Bolivia for a few days acclimatising around La Paz and Lake Titicaca. We’d trekked to 4000m and slept above 3500m most nights. It was now time to get into the mountains.

Condoriri is a beautiful place. The Base Camp is surrounded by snow-capped peaks with ‘Cabeza de Condor’ (Head of the Condor) sat in a central and commanding position. We would be here for 5 days training and climbing Baby Alpamayo (Pequeño Alpamayo), its bigger brother being in Peru.

The glacier has reduced (like so many around the world) over the years but still gives a great place for fixed rope practice ready for the steep ridge on Peq. Alpamayo. The ascent took around 6 hours the following day with everyone being on top for early morning. The whole group were greeted with fantastic views down to the Amazon basin and on to our next objective, Huayna Potosi, a 6000m mountain above La Paz.

That evening it started to snow!! Not lovely little flakes on atmospheric snow but big heavy lumps of snow, it ended around 15cm deep by morning.

We walked out of Base Camp with a nod to the Llamas and onto our awaiting bus. Pizza lunch in El Alto on the way to our Huayna Base Camp at Casa Blanca made a refreshing change to mess tent dinners. The huts have really improved over the years in Bolivia so a sheltered night away from a developing snowstorm was most welcome. We trekked up to the high hut (Alto Rocca) the following day and got good views of the summit slopes. They looked very snowy!

We got up and left the hut for the summit at 4 am the following morning. After a couple of hundred metres it was obvious that the snow was very unstable due to the high winds and was likely to be prone to avalanche. I did some basic tests and we discussed the findings as a group. We were back in the hut in 15 minutes!!

Turning around is always a difficult decision but safety always comes first. Mountains are always there for another attempt so after a day’s rest in La Paz we came back for round 2!

Our last objective was meant to be Illimani, a bigger mountain to the south of La Paz. High winds (95KPH) were forecast so we took the decision to lay siege to Huayna instead. The winds had dropped but deep snow was still evident across the Cordillera Real (Royal Range) as we walked in again.

Our local Guides and I talked through the conditions and we decided to give it a go. No one had summitted in 3 days, so the going was tough. Some tired legs made it to 5500m but only a small group made it to the summit. Mixed success but everyone made it back safely.

A classic trip and a game of 2 halves. We made some great friends and reconnected with some old ones along the way. Muchas gracias Bolivia, hasta luego (see you later).

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