[TR] Two months in Boliva - Various routes 6/23/2010

[Jim]

Trip: Two months in Boliva - Various routes

 

Date: 6/23/2010

 

Trip Report:

I had climbed for a couple months in Chile and Argentina 15 years ago and had wanted to get back down to SA for some time. I had hoped to get down there again with my climbing partner and best friend, Dick Myers. Dick passed away last year with after 16 years with a slow growing brain tumor. I was feeling the need for a break from work and combined with a long -standing invitation from a friend who has been living in Bolivia for 6 years got things going. I told my work I was taking 2 months off – and would have quit if they said no – they gave me a promotion, said a sabbatical sounded great, and to be safe. My spouse came down for the second half for some trekking but passed on the high altitude stuff.

 

Not knowing how I would do with altitude I spent the first week in La Paz in Spanish lessons 5 hours a day and living with a La Paz family, which was total immersion. I then moved over to our friend’s house and used this as a base in between trips. I had a decent background in Spanish but the classes bumped me up a level. I’d strongly suggest some lessons if you are planning a trip to Bolivia as very few folks speak English, especially in the campo. In 24 days of travelling the first half I met no one who spoke English and with most folks the first language was Aymara or Quechua.

 

I tried meeting up with potential partners here and on line and had a few discussions, but nothing came of it. I wanted to get out and see some less visited parts of the country so my friend hooked me up with her climbing circle of friends. So basically I had friends of a friend who were guiding me and who set up the logistics. We were going to climb in the Apolobamba and Quimsa Cruz ranges, which are far more remote than Condoriri, which is very accessible from La Paz and Sorata, has transportation and gas, and a well-established packers waiting for you. In contrast there is no public transport the Apolobamba and Quimsa Cruz, the roads are, well, interesting; and there’s no petrol out there so you need to have a permit to carry extra. You need to get a local to get the permit because you need at least a carta, your Bolivian license, and insurance. Plus arranging for packers from the small pueblos that have no phone (and you need to do it in advance by a week) is a challenge without the knowing the connections. I did some acclimation hikes outside of La Paz and set a personal altitude record on the hills of the suburbs with Alka the wonder dog, the equivialent of hiking on Tiger Mt. for us.

 

 

 

Apolobamba

 

We decided on two peaks, Ascarani (18,307 ft) and Chaupi Orco (19,829 ft). We left La Paz with Amy’s truck and were weaving our way through the congested El Alto. In two months of chaotic traffic I never saw a traffic ding, except when we slightly clipped one of the thousands of mini-vans. So after a quick negotiation and 125 Bs we were off on the Altiplano. Our drive to Pelechuco was a good 8 hours, the latter half on steep dirt roads. There is a bus once a day to Pelechuco but it takes 14 hours. From here on there was no public transport.

 

 

 

In the morning we go to start the truck and nothing. Bad alternator!! So we did get it started but not know if it would last – onward anyway. Four hours later we park the truck on a hill so hopefully we can get it started and meet our mulers, who pack up our gear.

 

Once you decide to use packers out here things grow exponentially because we are responsible for feeding them as well. We walked up a series of beautiful valleys to our base camp, passing llama and alpaca herds. Even these remote valleys have a mud and thatch house with folks herding. The next day we moved to high camp at about 17,000 ft. I never got headaches but my appetite went down hill. At 4 am the next morning we got up to start and I promptly emptied my stomach contents. Ian, sipping some tea, said – well, we’ll see how this goes.

 

Ascarani

 

 

 

 

Ascarani summit

 

The glaciers in the Andes are changing very fast and guidebook routes are often not valid. For Ascarani you used to be able to wander up the middle of the glacier but that is not possible now. So we moved to the left on rock for the approach until the headwall. Ian was above soloing so he took a less exposed line while Pedro and I traversed right and got on the west face. After several steep pitches (for me!) where I wished I had a tool besides my ax, we topped out on the summit ridge. Very odd snow but good on the steep parts.

 

We got back down to base camp and had dinner.

The next day we packed out to the car and said good-bye to our mulers, push-started the truck and headed out further for 5 hours near the end of the road and Puina. This road was only a few years old and doesn’t show up on the latest maps. There are no reliable maps of the Apolobamba – the best military map available shows Chaupi Orco in the wrong valley, for instance. It was obvious we were going to have trouble getting the truck back to Pelechuco but there wasn’t much to be done for now, so we met our next mulers who packed us up and we were off to base camp 2.

 

Near Chorpi Orco basecamp

 

 

 

The next day the mulers came back with llamas, as the terrain to high camp was too rocky and steep for mules – gotta love hiking with llamas.

 

On moranine leading from basecamp

 

Chaupi Orco high camp with summit in background

 

Our high camp was in this amazing cirque. We started out at midnight but right from the start I was feeling like Pachamama was making me climb with one lung.

 

 

 

I was sluggy and got to 19,400 ft., about 400 ft from the summit but decided I just didn’t have it that day. Got up one steep step but there was another to tackle and it wasn’t my day. So we tromped back to high camp and packed up to base camp with llama assistance.

 

The next day we hiked out and got to the truck, which we had to push start and it sounded grim.

Truck stuck in road - had to wait for the mulers to come and help push back on road.

 

 

First we lost indicator lights, then the clock, and then it started backfiring and barely making it up the hills.

 

All on nasty roads. As we started the descent to Pelechuco we had to contend with the steep switchbacks and knew there would be tight turns we couldn’t make in one turn – so I would jump out while we slowed down to scout the turns for Ian, who blindly followed my advice and made the turn despite not being able to see the road edge because of the high hood on the truck. We had picked up a Cholita on the way and a herder (can’t bypass folks looking for a ride out here) so it was a bit amusing company. Everyone, including me, had a wad of coca in their cheek. Eventually our luck ran our, we couldn’t make a turn, the truck stalled, and that was that. Pedro and I hiked to Pelechuco, rousted Ricardo who found a fellow with a truck, and after some tea and the usual necessary chitchat, went off to swap batteries with our truck and get it to town. Next day we hopped to a couple villages and found a battery charger until we got stranded in Hararri – where Pedro and I hopped a mini bus full of Cholitas and potatoes while Ian stayed with the truck and we would send a rescue party from La Paz. It started to snow and as Ian said “Even the chickens went inside”.

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Quimsa Cruz

 

This is an Aymara phrase (Tres Cruces in Espanol) for the range south of La Paz and near Viloco – but requires a roundabout approach because of the lack of roads. We were planning several days of rock climbing in a portion of the range. Carlos and Pedro picked me up in town and I piled in my gear and jumped in. A young Cholita was in the truck and Pedro said he invited her, Sunovia, to join us as our cook – well ok.

 

After another 6 hours of driving (again the majority on 4x4, we stopped in a small pueblo and asked about the pass before Viloco because of the recent bad weather. The first old woman said that it was closed and then followed a variety of answers from folks. In Bolivia you average the answers and take your best guess. We went for it, as the detour would add 5 hours to the trip. We went through another abandoned mining town surrounded by beautiful peaks. When I asked about them the answer was – “…minor peaks, no one bothers with them”.

 

We got close to the pass but were stopped by snow. Luckily a backhoe was working its way down and we went up to talk with them. They said it would be an hour. True to Bolivia time we were still there 5 hours later taking the stone wall apart to fill in the ditch to help the backhoe get past us, followed by a huge honkin’ cargo truck that got stuck every 20 yards.

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After a lot of work we help it get past us and got over the pass. We stopped in the sad town of Viloco and found a place to sleep on the floor of an old meeting hall that was used in better times. Next day we were off to our campsite near a small miner’s village.

 

We top roped at a crag, as it was late morning already and then scoped our potential climbs. Unfortunately or primary objective – Quernos de Diablo –

Quernos

 

had quite a bit of snow on it so we picked something with a lot of sun and a SW exposure, Alpina. It wasn’t as good a peak but we wanted to tag a summit in our limited time and it wasn’t bad – a mix of 3rd, 4th, and low 5th class. We took our climbing shoes but just did it all in light hikers. Cold on top but a nice view. The base of the climbs is around 16,000 ft., so altitude is something to contend with even here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest

 

Then it was back to La Paz to meet my wife. We rounded out the trip with a hike the length of Isla del Sol, a visit to the Aymara agricultural pueblo of Santiago de Okola and a scramble to the summit of the Sleeping Dragon with 76-year-old Don Tomas (hey, wait up for me!), hikes around Sorata, and then a week in the Amazon in Madidi National Park. But this is another story. All in all a great trip.

 

Isla del Sol

 

Santiago de Okola

 

76 year old Don Tomas scrambling ahead

 

Posing in front of familar peak in Rurre in the Amazon after parade.

 

River Tuchi

 

Recommendations:

 

Learn some Spanish before you go – you’ll get a much better insight to how folks live.

 

Want to contribute to a good cause in Bolivia? This is a charity started by Amy in La Paz and Petra and Stephen in Sorata to get medical care for kids in Sorata. Now run by the locals with help from the gringos. http://www.prosorata.org/

 

Great bike trips from the Altiplano to the Amazon with Travis: http://andeanepics.com/index.php?accion=viewpa&s=132

 

Check out Ian’s blog for Bolivian adventures and climbing. Ian is a great source for logistics and will help plan logistics for a reasonable fee. http://wilderness-bolivia.info/

 

If you need a full service guide Jeff and his crew are very good and use local talent.

http://climbingsouthamerica.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Bring a bag of at least 0 deg for climbing

 

Bring snacks from the US, power bars, cliff shots, etc. as these are hard to find.

 

Get out there.

 

Approach Notes:

Apolobamba and Quimsa Cruz are out there. You can get there with some public transport to small villages but then you'll need mules the rest of the way. Quickest to get 4x4 transport unless you have a chunk of time. With 2 months I felt that I didn't have that much time.

[Dannible]

Awesome! Are they still taxing people from the US to get into Bolivia? Was food and water poisoning an issue or did staying with your friend help you avoid all that?

[Jim]

The politics are interesting. Yes, you have to pay a $135 visa fee if you are from the US. I asked for a 90 day visa at the airport and received it - otherwise they give out a 30 day one and you have to renew it to stay longer.

 

You can apply in advance if you have time or otherwise download the application and bring two passport photos with you. While Bolivia seems willing to have you fill out the paperwork when you arrive, the Miami (screwed up) airport will insist that you have the application filled out and photos in hand if you don't have a thru boarding pass. I had been checked thru to La Paz from Seattle but missed a connection and they would not give me a boarding pass until I filled out the application.

 

I had the "welcome to Bolivia" stomach thing for a day or two, likely from OJ I got on the street and noticed later how they wash the dishes in a tup on the street. Basically you cannot drink tap water in Bolivia unless you grew up with it. Several gringo friends who live there battle chronic stomach issues.

 

But after I had the initial issues - no problems. The main thing you need to deal with is altitude. I tossed cookies twice while above 16,000 ft.

[timmy_t]

Thanks for sharing. I may hit you up for some beta in the near future...

[Stefan]

ahhhh. the adventure of having 3rd world interesting challenges to figure out. great!

[Jim]

Thanks for sharing. I may hit you up for some beta in the near future...

 

Anytime. Don't forget about required yellow fever and other vaccnations. Though Bolivia says they require it for entry they never asked to see my vaccination card.

[jverschuyl]

Jim,

 

Great trip report... I got your email with the photos too... Can't wait to get down there someday myself. Let me know if you are up for a quick climb in the cascades somewhere before the snow flies.

 

Jake

 

[Nordique]

Jim, thanks for the very complete report! Say, are you climbing this Sunday?

[jmace]

well done, great photos and good on ya for making a two month vacation happen!!