Jump to content

Bolivia - Condoriri & Huayna Potosi


Recommended Posts

Thought I'd finally post some pics of some Mntns. in the Cordillera Real of Bolivia. I did some climbing there in July/Aug of '04. It's a spectacular area with a lifetime of climbing, is ridiculously cheap, and has a fraction of the people of Peru's Cordillera Blanca. I recommend this area highly to anyone.

 

The first 5 pics are from the Condoriri area. All these peaks are accessible from the same base camp. With such a high concentration of peaks, it's an alpine playground for sure. The highest peak there, Condoriri (or Cabeza de Condor), is called so because combined with the peaks to the right and left (ala Derecha and ala Izquierda) it looks like a Condor about to take flight.

 

17CabezadeCondor.JPG

Cabeza de Condor - Head of the Condor. Spectacular climb, dotted line goes up a couloir out of view until you top out on the ridge.

 

17AlaIzquiedra.jpg

 

Ala Izquierda, taken from Condoriri. mneagle did a nice route up the snow/ice face in the shade.

 

17IzquiedraCondor.jpg

Ala Izquierda and Condoriri taken from the SW

 

17PBlancaSFaceSERidge.JPG

Piramide Blanca is the closest peak to basecamp and has a spectacular blue-ice glaciated face on the south side that leads to an awesome ridge to the top. This may have been my favorite climb in that area. Super! thumbs_up.gif

 

17PeqAlpamayoSFace.JPG

The mountain %95 of the climbers heading there go to do - Pequeno Alpamayo. It's a nice ridge and a very beautiful peak. The South Face Direct (yellow line) looks like an awesome route.

 

17HPotosi_EFace.jpg

This is the E Face of Huayna Potosi. The regular route goes past here and the French Route goes up the face at the upper right. This was taken from the normal route's high camp.

 

17HPotosi_WFace.JPG

Huayna Potosi - West Face Direct. 3000 feet of vert up to AI4/5, topping out just shy of 20,000'! 5 stars. thumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gif

 

17HPotosi_WFace2.jpg

Huayna Potosi's West Face taken on the hike out from the Condoriri, near the village of Tuni.

 

Bolivia rockband.gif Go there now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 10
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 1 month later...

This is an off topic question but kinda related - What kind of sleeping bag (ie down/synthetic, degree rating) will I need to trek in Bolivia and possibly do some climbing as well. Im def. trekking for a while and might have the opportunity to do some climbing so want a bag that will fit the bill for both. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I climbed the yellow line on Pequena Alpamyo, but we didn't traverse right. Instead we went straight up. The line traversing to the right was primarily composed of ice that was semi-detached from the rock and kind of scary.

 

I'd agree with Dalius, Bolivia is super fun and not very crowded. I'm going back next month!

 

Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I went to Peru last summer. We had thought about traveling down to Bolivia about halfway through, but time and political concerns (they were burning tires in the streets at the time) kept us in Peru.

 

But damn... I wanna go to Bolivia now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Great pics...I just came back from spending 3 weeks in Bolivia. Climbed Piramide Blanca, Pequeno, Huayna, and Illimani. All great climbs. I agree with you dalius, Bolivia is a great place to climb. Blue skies every day!! Very stable weather during their "winter" climbing season.

 

On Illimani, we had the entire mountain to ourselves on summit day! It was fantastic.

 

Bolivia is cheap and plenty of things to do. Only thing is its pretty cold around the city and colder in the mountains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Global Warming is Bad...

 

I'm currently in Bolivia but haven't been here for a couple years. The bottom of the glacier in the condoriri region has melted back twenty to thirty feet in two years. Numerous routes have changed significantly or don't exist anymore. Some have become more difficult, while others especially waterfall routes don't seem to come in as often anymore.

 

If you want to climb in South America, do it soon. I don't think the highest mountains will ever totally melt out, but the route selections are going to diminish a lot in the next ten to twenty years...

 

Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...