Trip Reports

Bolivian Climber - 19 July to 9 August 2003

Written by Leader John Armstrong, August 2003

After a good start to the trip with excellent weather in Copacabana, the weather turned a little more unsettled as we made our way up from Tuni to Condorriri base camp. The next day, the weather was good enough to allow us to ascend Peak Austria (5,100m). The following day we spent on the glacier and then a rest day before Pequeno Alpamayo. However, heavy overnight snow delayed our ascent by a day. We managed to climb Pequeno Alpamayo, but re-scheduled our rest days so that we had a couple of days in La Paz before heading to Huayna Potosi. We went from La Paz direct to high camp the next day and all but one of the team summited. Conditions on Illimani had not improved and having spoken to Mungo Ross (another Jagged Globe leader), who had very positive comments to make about the Negruni area, we decided to head over there rather than go to Sajama (the other fall back option). Negruni base camp was reached after 4 hours drive from La Paz and was an idyllic spot surrounded by spectacular mountains. Overnight it snowed and continued the next day, but we did manage to climb Cerro Janqu Uyu (5,512m). Next day the plan to move to high camp was thwarted by the underfoot conditions being too icy for llamas, so we climbed a another peak named Cerro Wila Lluxita (5,244m), which proved to have a superb summit and spectacular views. We completed a traverse of the mountain and it was one of the best days we had on the trip. The final day in the mountains was spent ice climbing on the snout of the glacier and traveling back to La Paz. On Thursday, most of the group made the mountain bike descent to Coroico, far below La Paz before departing on Friday.« Previous report | Next report »

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