6-11
Today was day 1 of my 5 day trek through Bolivia's Cordillera Real (Royal Range), It was a two hour drive to the base of the range, where my guide, Tomas, and I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere on a crazy road. We trekked towards the Condiridi mountain group going past several pretty lakes, including Lago Tuni, lots and lots of llamas and alpacas, and a few isolated and scattered one family settlements made of rock. I am not even sure what they could subsist on other than a tiny bit of farming and selling llama wool (or feathers as Ling form Antarctica would say) to the people lower down. Bc of the elevation the altiplano and of course the foothills and mountains above have no trees and very little vegetation. It snowed the last hour of the trek until we arrived at Lago Chiarkota (4650m/15,250ft). Even though it was snowing and cloudy you could see some of the Condoridi mountain group rising up above the lake. There was another guy camping at the spot with a guide. He was from Australia and we laughed how we had both been promised llamas for the trek to carry our gear which of course didnt happen. I think it is just something the tour operators tell you, but rarely happens. When I asked my guide about where the llamas were, he just pointed up to the wandering llamas on the hillside. Tom, the aussie, was interesting. He had won about 50,000 bucks on the Australian Deal or No Deal game show. He had given half to his girlfriend so she would travel with him for a year from south america to the USA, but she left him (with half his money) after 3 months. The clouds parted at sunset and we got a great view of the whole Condoridi group including the picturesque Condoridi and the Alpamayo pequeno.
6-12
Said goodbye to Tom in the morning as he was going a different way and Tomas and I climbed above the lake and up a pass and then up to the top of Austria Peak (5350m/17,550ft). It was a gorgeous morning, and we had great views down to several small lakes and even out to giant lake Titicaca. And right at our nose were several large glaciated peaks of the cordillera real. We could see some of the huge peaks such as Llampu, illimani, and Huayna Potosi which I would be climbing. Up in the rocks we saw some of these cute little mammals called viscacha which are a mix between a rabbit (ears), squirrel (tail), and marmot (body). After we descended, I hiked to another lake, and then I spent the afternoon reading and napping in my tent as it was snowing pretty hard.
6-13
Today we trekked over two consecutive passes of about 5200m (17.050ft) as we got closer and closer the Huayno Potosi. The majority of the trek was in snow due to all the snow the previous night. It was a clear morning, so the views were nice. We passed several lakes and of course lots of llamas and alpacas just wandering aimlessly around the mountains. Eventually we did a big descent down a cool and deep canyon to arrive at the small village of Boltilaka. From here a car was waiting for me and it drove me to the base camp of Huayna Potosi at 4700m (15,400ft). Here I met back up with Tom and his friend Ed from the UK who had been driven in from La Paz. We also met Gabriel a PT from Quebec who was minus his girlfriend Sophie (I had met them earlier on the trek) because she was feeling sick. As it was cold and cloudy we just hung out in the base camp playing some board games and drinking hot cocoa. It was fun to hear the stories from Tom and Ed about La Paz as they are staying in one of the big party hostels. Apparently (as laura and I had heard from the little canadians in Iguazu), La Paz is a huge party place. There is actually a bar called Route 63 where you can go in and order different types of cocaine from a menu. The people here (and trekkers) chew a lot of coco leaves and have it in their tea. Although it is supposed to give you energy and help with altitude, I have been avoiding it bc of the possibility of drug tests with Antarctica. The amount of cocaine in coca leaves is really tiny, but you just never know.
6-14
We hiked up to high camp, a small refugio, known as rock camp, at 5130m (16,820ft). We had nice view of the mountain we were to climb and of the glaciers tumbling down from it. There wasnt much for people to do up at high camp other than to write on the walls of the refugio and complain about the cold. For me it wasnt too cold, and I went out for a few ski runs as I had rented some old 1970's skis (that lacked much of an edge and were less than shoulder height) and boots (that were at least 3 sizes to small). As we would be leaving in the middle of the night for the climb, we spent the afternoon napping and reading. We had an early dinner around 5pm and then everyone in the refugio went to bed. There were about 11 of us up in the attic of the refugio all sleeping or trying to sleep (an early bed time combined with altitude and cold can make it tough to sleep). One of the funny things of the night was what I described as a frog's chorus of farts. In the expanding air of higher altitudes, most people become much more gassy. That combined with bolivian camping food made it even more so. So all through the night everyone was farting a lot and it sounded like a chorus of frogs. And as Gabriel said, you could tell whose fart was whose by the sound and length. Anyways, it made for a good laugh
6-15
I woke up at 130am to leave by 230am for the summit. I dressed in lots of layers, loaded up my pack, laced into my plastic climbing boots and donned by crampons. I was one of the last to leave on purpose bc I remembered the last 6000m peak I climbed (Mera peak in Nepal) where my feet were so cold and I was so acclimated that I went up the peak so fast I arrived way before sunrise. This time I expected to be a bit slower because of the skis and boots. I had actually paid a few dollars for a porter as at high high altitudes you want to avoid taxing your body as much as possible to be successful, but there had been a miscommunication, and I was my own porter. We trudged through the snow and cold up the snowfields and glaciers in our crampons with our ice axes. I was tethered to my guide, Iban, as a safety measure in case one of us were to fall on a steep section or one of us fell in a crevasse. One by one I slowly passed the 30 or so climbers on the mountain. It was funny every time we passed someone bc the guide would say something to my guide in spanish about the gringo carrying the heavy skis (muchas pesas esos esquis). I think they were quite impressed by it. And my guide said much more than once, tu estas muy fuerte, no? (you are very strong no?) bc of the fast pace I was going and the gear I was carrying. We watched the moon slowly rise and I prayed the sun would soon follow as my feet were starting to get cold and I feared a repeat of the Nepal experience (it didnt happen though as the plastic boots were more insulated. In nepal the largest plastic boots they had were a couple sizes too small and cut of my circulation so I hiked up Mera peak in my lightly insulated day hiking low cut shoes). We eventually got high enough up to see La Paz's suburb, El Alto's lights shining brightly. La Paz is tucked down in a canyon, so you cant see its lights. At about 6000m I left my skis, boots, and poles as we were approaching the final summit push which was a very narrow and somewhat steep knife edge to the summit. I loved this knife edge bc you had to be very careful (tough for some people at altitude) and it made it feel much more like you were really climbing a peak. It was one person at a time on the ridge to get to the summit. We were the first to arrive to the summit (6088m/19,969ft) and we timed it perfect. The sky was aglow with light, but the sun had not risen yet. We sat on the summit for a while watching the sun rise and soaking up the views which included seeing El Alto, Lake Titicaca, looking down on the magnificent Cordillera Real range, seeing all the tallest peaks in Bolivia (which arent much higher than this one) including Illimani, Llampu, and Sajama (near the chile border and the highest in Bolivia around about 6500m I think), the moon, two super bright stars which must have been planets, and of course the sunrise. I took some pictures of the scenery and some photos with the Bolivian flag I had hauled up. The views were so stunning that I stayed up as long as I could (until the other 3 guys I had been hanging out with arrived), but then I had to go down as the summit knife ridge was kind of a one way street and you had to go down when you got the chance, and the summiot wasnt very big to fit everyone.
The sun was soon bright and strong at the altitude and I was sweating by the time I managed to squeeze my feet into the tiny boots and click into my old school skis. The ski down was fun, although a bit tiring at the alitude and bc of the varied terrain and poor equipment. The top actually had some nice powder from a recent snow, but the bottom was a bit icy mixed with just glacier ice. The terrain was really sweet as it went through all these huge snowfields and glacier fields. The view with the sun out of the mountain was breathtaking bc of the deep snows and hanging glaciers. It was definitely cool to ski from 19,700 feet down to 16,800. Made the going down quite fast. But my legs definitely felt the hardwork of skiing the difficult terrain and my lungs still felt the altitude. Once back at base camp I relaxed in the sun, drinking, and reading, and recovering from the altitude and enjoying all the guides of the people who didnt make it and the people in charge of the refugio coming to congratulate me on my ski (I learned later from the owner of the climbing agency back in La Paz that a french guy with his own fancy ski equipment had tried to ski it but had a lot of trouble so they were a bit worried about me back in la paz with my junky rental equipment). I waited several hours until Tom, Gabriel, and Ed made it back down. Tom and Ed were absolutely spent. It was all they could do to just crawl on top of their sleeping bags. They couldnt even get their boots off or their climbing harnesses.
My guide decided he didnt want to wait too much longer for them, so we headed down from high camp to base camp. On the way down, since I had the noticeable skis on my back, I got lots of congratulations by the climbers coming up as they could see my tracks (luckily it was mostly the nice powdery spots where my tracks looked good that were visible from below. and were impressed by the ski and then even more impressed when they saw my skis and boots. On the way down, one of the guys contratulating me asked me if I was from CO after he noticed by beaver creek hat. He looked vaguely familiar, and he said he was from Crested Butte. I told him my bro is an avalanche forecaster there and that maybe he knew him. Of course, he knew Zach, he (Jayson), worked at the Irwin snowcat tours as a guide as well. That is why he looked familiar bc he had been one of the guides the day Bro got me on for free on the snowcat tour. Small world!
I waited some more down at base campe before a van arrived to take me back down to La Paz.
Today was day 1 of my 5 day trek through Bolivia's Cordillera Real (Royal Range), It was a two hour drive to the base of the range, where my guide, Tomas, and I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere on a crazy road. We trekked towards the Condiridi mountain group going past several pretty lakes, including Lago Tuni, lots and lots of llamas and alpacas, and a few isolated and scattered one family settlements made of rock. I am not even sure what they could subsist on other than a tiny bit of farming and selling llama wool (or feathers as Ling form Antarctica would say) to the people lower down. Bc of the elevation the altiplano and of course the foothills and mountains above have no trees and very little vegetation. It snowed the last hour of the trek until we arrived at Lago Chiarkota (4650m/15,250ft). Even though it was snowing and cloudy you could see some of the Condoridi mountain group rising up above the lake. There was another guy camping at the spot with a guide. He was from Australia and we laughed how we had both been promised llamas for the trek to carry our gear which of course didnt happen. I think it is just something the tour operators tell you, but rarely happens. When I asked my guide about where the llamas were, he just pointed up to the wandering llamas on the hillside. Tom, the aussie, was interesting. He had won about 50,000 bucks on the Australian Deal or No Deal game show. He had given half to his girlfriend so she would travel with him for a year from south america to the USA, but she left him (with half his money) after 3 months. The clouds parted at sunset and we got a great view of the whole Condoridi group including the picturesque Condoridi and the Alpamayo pequeno.
6-12
Said goodbye to Tom in the morning as he was going a different way and Tomas and I climbed above the lake and up a pass and then up to the top of Austria Peak (5350m/17,550ft). It was a gorgeous morning, and we had great views down to several small lakes and even out to giant lake Titicaca. And right at our nose were several large glaciated peaks of the cordillera real. We could see some of the huge peaks such as Llampu, illimani, and Huayna Potosi which I would be climbing. Up in the rocks we saw some of these cute little mammals called viscacha which are a mix between a rabbit (ears), squirrel (tail), and marmot (body). After we descended, I hiked to another lake, and then I spent the afternoon reading and napping in my tent as it was snowing pretty hard.
6-13
Today we trekked over two consecutive passes of about 5200m (17.050ft) as we got closer and closer the Huayno Potosi. The majority of the trek was in snow due to all the snow the previous night. It was a clear morning, so the views were nice. We passed several lakes and of course lots of llamas and alpacas just wandering aimlessly around the mountains. Eventually we did a big descent down a cool and deep canyon to arrive at the small village of Boltilaka. From here a car was waiting for me and it drove me to the base camp of Huayna Potosi at 4700m (15,400ft). Here I met back up with Tom and his friend Ed from the UK who had been driven in from La Paz. We also met Gabriel a PT from Quebec who was minus his girlfriend Sophie (I had met them earlier on the trek) because she was feeling sick. As it was cold and cloudy we just hung out in the base camp playing some board games and drinking hot cocoa. It was fun to hear the stories from Tom and Ed about La Paz as they are staying in one of the big party hostels. Apparently (as laura and I had heard from the little canadians in Iguazu), La Paz is a huge party place. There is actually a bar called Route 63 where you can go in and order different types of cocaine from a menu. The people here (and trekkers) chew a lot of coco leaves and have it in their tea. Although it is supposed to give you energy and help with altitude, I have been avoiding it bc of the possibility of drug tests with Antarctica. The amount of cocaine in coca leaves is really tiny, but you just never know.
6-14
We hiked up to high camp, a small refugio, known as rock camp, at 5130m (16,820ft). We had nice view of the mountain we were to climb and of the glaciers tumbling down from it. There wasnt much for people to do up at high camp other than to write on the walls of the refugio and complain about the cold. For me it wasnt too cold, and I went out for a few ski runs as I had rented some old 1970's skis (that lacked much of an edge and were less than shoulder height) and boots (that were at least 3 sizes to small). As we would be leaving in the middle of the night for the climb, we spent the afternoon napping and reading. We had an early dinner around 5pm and then everyone in the refugio went to bed. There were about 11 of us up in the attic of the refugio all sleeping or trying to sleep (an early bed time combined with altitude and cold can make it tough to sleep). One of the funny things of the night was what I described as a frog's chorus of farts. In the expanding air of higher altitudes, most people become much more gassy. That combined with bolivian camping food made it even more so. So all through the night everyone was farting a lot and it sounded like a chorus of frogs. And as Gabriel said, you could tell whose fart was whose by the sound and length. Anyways, it made for a good laugh
6-15
I woke up at 130am to leave by 230am for the summit. I dressed in lots of layers, loaded up my pack, laced into my plastic climbing boots and donned by crampons. I was one of the last to leave on purpose bc I remembered the last 6000m peak I climbed (Mera peak in Nepal) where my feet were so cold and I was so acclimated that I went up the peak so fast I arrived way before sunrise. This time I expected to be a bit slower because of the skis and boots. I had actually paid a few dollars for a porter as at high high altitudes you want to avoid taxing your body as much as possible to be successful, but there had been a miscommunication, and I was my own porter. We trudged through the snow and cold up the snowfields and glaciers in our crampons with our ice axes. I was tethered to my guide, Iban, as a safety measure in case one of us were to fall on a steep section or one of us fell in a crevasse. One by one I slowly passed the 30 or so climbers on the mountain. It was funny every time we passed someone bc the guide would say something to my guide in spanish about the gringo carrying the heavy skis (muchas pesas esos esquis). I think they were quite impressed by it. And my guide said much more than once, tu estas muy fuerte, no? (you are very strong no?) bc of the fast pace I was going and the gear I was carrying. We watched the moon slowly rise and I prayed the sun would soon follow as my feet were starting to get cold and I feared a repeat of the Nepal experience (it didnt happen though as the plastic boots were more insulated. In nepal the largest plastic boots they had were a couple sizes too small and cut of my circulation so I hiked up Mera peak in my lightly insulated day hiking low cut shoes). We eventually got high enough up to see La Paz's suburb, El Alto's lights shining brightly. La Paz is tucked down in a canyon, so you cant see its lights. At about 6000m I left my skis, boots, and poles as we were approaching the final summit push which was a very narrow and somewhat steep knife edge to the summit. I loved this knife edge bc you had to be very careful (tough for some people at altitude) and it made it feel much more like you were really climbing a peak. It was one person at a time on the ridge to get to the summit. We were the first to arrive to the summit (6088m/19,969ft) and we timed it perfect. The sky was aglow with light, but the sun had not risen yet. We sat on the summit for a while watching the sun rise and soaking up the views which included seeing El Alto, Lake Titicaca, looking down on the magnificent Cordillera Real range, seeing all the tallest peaks in Bolivia (which arent much higher than this one) including Illimani, Llampu, and Sajama (near the chile border and the highest in Bolivia around about 6500m I think), the moon, two super bright stars which must have been planets, and of course the sunrise. I took some pictures of the scenery and some photos with the Bolivian flag I had hauled up. The views were so stunning that I stayed up as long as I could (until the other 3 guys I had been hanging out with arrived), but then I had to go down as the summit knife ridge was kind of a one way street and you had to go down when you got the chance, and the summiot wasnt very big to fit everyone.
The sun was soon bright and strong at the altitude and I was sweating by the time I managed to squeeze my feet into the tiny boots and click into my old school skis. The ski down was fun, although a bit tiring at the alitude and bc of the varied terrain and poor equipment. The top actually had some nice powder from a recent snow, but the bottom was a bit icy mixed with just glacier ice. The terrain was really sweet as it went through all these huge snowfields and glacier fields. The view with the sun out of the mountain was breathtaking bc of the deep snows and hanging glaciers. It was definitely cool to ski from 19,700 feet down to 16,800. Made the going down quite fast. But my legs definitely felt the hardwork of skiing the difficult terrain and my lungs still felt the altitude. Once back at base camp I relaxed in the sun, drinking, and reading, and recovering from the altitude and enjoying all the guides of the people who didnt make it and the people in charge of the refugio coming to congratulate me on my ski (I learned later from the owner of the climbing agency back in La Paz that a french guy with his own fancy ski equipment had tried to ski it but had a lot of trouble so they were a bit worried about me back in la paz with my junky rental equipment). I waited several hours until Tom, Gabriel, and Ed made it back down. Tom and Ed were absolutely spent. It was all they could do to just crawl on top of their sleeping bags. They couldnt even get their boots off or their climbing harnesses.
My guide decided he didnt want to wait too much longer for them, so we headed down from high camp to base camp. On the way down, since I had the noticeable skis on my back, I got lots of congratulations by the climbers coming up as they could see my tracks (luckily it was mostly the nice powdery spots where my tracks looked good that were visible from below. and were impressed by the ski and then even more impressed when they saw my skis and boots. On the way down, one of the guys contratulating me asked me if I was from CO after he noticed by beaver creek hat. He looked vaguely familiar, and he said he was from Crested Butte. I told him my bro is an avalanche forecaster there and that maybe he knew him. Of course, he knew Zach, he (Jayson), worked at the Irwin snowcat tours as a guide as well. That is why he looked familiar bc he had been one of the guides the day Bro got me on for free on the snowcat tour. Small world!
I waited some more down at base campe before a van arrived to take me back down to La Paz.
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