Another day of brilliant blue skies greeted us this morning while we sipped coffee and ate a lazy breakfast. The objective for the day was to take a meandering walk along the terraced ridges and slopes of Isla del Sol, gaining some additional acclimatization and taking in the cultural landscape of a society that has changed very little in the last few hundred years.
The island doesn't have any roads, so the only traffic we had to contend with were braying donkeys, farmers moving from field to field and the occasional European tourist.
For lunch we were treated to a traditional Andean feast, Apthapi. To make Apthapi, the locals dig a hole and line it with square rocks. They then light a fire and heat the rocks and surrounding ground. After removing the embers and ash, layers of potatoes, beans and meat are placed in the hole and covered with dirt. They cook for several hours and eventually produce an extremely tasty combination.
Weary from four plus hours of walking, we returned to our Eco Lodge and spent the afternoon relaxing and taking in the view of distance mountains.
The sunset this evening, like most here, was spectacular. Shimmering rays bounced up off the surface of the lake multiplying the colors, and making for a dramatic closing to the day.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Just breathtaking
Never new to much about Bolivia but now know of its natural beauty
Thinking and sending good wishes to all
Julie kiss Stephen for us
Stephen kiss a Julie for us
Love you both
Go team Frank
Posted by: Tina and a John Zabinski on 5/28/2018 at 6:49 pm
It’s been so amazing to see all of this! Hi Dad (Mogens), i love you so much. I’m proud of you.
Our time in La Paz was short, as we awoke to another beautiful day here in Bolivia and made the three-hour drive to Lake Titicaca to take in the scenery and get acclimated to the 13,000’ altitude.
We walked amongst old Incan ruins and small farming villages surrounding the lake. The Bolivian Andes mountains on one side and Perú off in the distance across the lake to the north.
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. We took the opportunity to take a couple of ferry rides across the lake to different islands including driving through Copacabana. To get to our final destination for the night on Isla del Sol “Island of the Sun” we took a short boat shuttle to our eco lodge overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains.
The views are incredible as we got to watch the sunset light up the mountains across the lake. As we head to bed the near full moon is glistening on the water. We look forward to another day tomorrow walking around the island and all that it has to offer.
RMI Guide Andy Bond
The honking horns had subsided and the streets were nearly bare this morning at 5 am, when fellow guide And Bond and I got up to make the chilly trip up to El Alto Airport at 13,400' on the Bolivia Altiplano. Three out of our six climbers arrived on the same flight, and after clearing immigration had piled their duffel bags next to an airport coffee shop, awaiting our arrival.
After a quick round of hand shakes and high fives, we grabbed a cup of coffee each and headed outside to hail taxis into the city. The soft beds at Hotel Ritz provided a few hours of rest before we had a late morning meeting to discuss the plan for the day.
The point of today, along with the next few days, is to play tourist and allow our bodies time to acclimate. After leaving the hotel, we visited several neighborhoods by using the new citywide teleferiquo system, a series of gondola lines that crisscross the city. The views of Huayna Potosi and Illimani from the gondola cars were incredible.
On the walk back to the hotel we were serenaded by loud music from a passing parade. This weekend is the Fiesta del Gran Poder (festival of the great power) which is one of the largest festivals in Bolivia. We watched thousands upon thousands of dancers, marching bands and people in traditional costumes stream by.
Tomorrow morning we launch north toward Lake Titicaca and Isla de Sol.
RMI Guides Eric Frank, Andy Bond & Team
Since our last update a lot has happened. As we speak the last of the group is filtering back to our respective starting points or wrapping up they're time in Bolivia with a bit of personal exploration! But before we get ahead of ourselves, there's great news to be shared.
The entire team stuck it out for a 6 and a 1/2 hr ascent of Illimani! We were greeted with cold, clear climbing in perfect conditions up past 20,000 ft. Much of the climbing route faces west, so the morning sun was always tantalizingly close as we neared the glowing summit ridge. Our sunrise came as we finally broke off the west side and crested the ridge into the welcoming sun. With one last hour of breaking trail up the beautiful summit ridge the team could taste our hard work paying off. Before we knew it all three rope teams plopped down on the summit of Illimani to take a much needed food and water break and basque in our success.
The top of Illimani is a breathtaking ridge crest amongst the greater expanse of the Illimani Massif. From that point, the highest in the Cordierra Real, we could see all the way past La Paz and track our entire trip from the glimmering Lake Titicaca to the jagged peaks of the Condoriri and the huge perfect flanks of Huayna Potosi. Our team had a brief moment to relive the wonderful past couple weeks before the tight wind was nipping at our heels as we pushed off to begin our 8,000 ft decent back to Base Camp.
Our team's tired legs mustered one last push into camp and there we were! Happy, tired and feeling accomplished. I couldn't have asked for a better summit day and a better team to do it with!
At last we've got to give a big thanks to everyone who made this trip so successful. Thank you, thank you to everyone who helped us along the way and a special thanks to our amazing climbers who made this trip so special! Until next time over and out!!
RMI Guides Eric Frank & Caleb Ladue
June 1, 2017
Hello, this is Eric and Caleb with the team in Bolivia. We were hanging out up at the Condor's Nest at 18,000 feet, tucking ourselves in for the night. Down below us we can see all of La Paz and El Alto stretched out in the distance and even all the way to Lake Titicaca. Today, we meandered our way up a long ridge from our previous Base Camp. We were about fives hours on the ridge, beautiful views in each direction. The team did great and we are psyched for our summit bid tomorrow. We should check in from the summit in less than 12 hours, no less than 24 hours, yeah we'll call it that. Talk to you soon. Bye.
RMI Guides Eric Frank & Caleb Ladue
The RMI Bolivia Team checks in from 18,000 ft on Illimani.
I am so very, very happy that you are all off the mountain and that you all summited! You are amazing! Thank you to the guides for bringing everyone down safely. Just don’t think about climbing again anytime soon, okay? My hair is grey enough the
way it is! Congrats, Mattie! We can’t wait to hear all about it!
Mama
Posted by: Bird on 6/3/2017 at 4:54 pm
From Maddies crew at work. Good luck and good climbing. The blogs have been wonderful and you all are an inspiration to all of us mopes at sea level.
When horses eat grass, they shred and tear everything, even the roots. Llamas on the other hand chew to a perfect putting green height. Illimani Base Camp is a massive rolling field, home to dozens and dozens of llamas. So after arriving at base camp this afternoon we found ourselves on one of the largest perfectly manicured fields in Bolivia. And therefore decided that a round of lawn games was required. The only thing we were missing was proper equipment. Nothing a little creativity couldn't solve...
Two snow pickets, 18 tent stakes, a dozen moderately round rocks, plus our ice axes and Voilà!, a game of mountain croquette was the highlight of the afternoon. Styles varied, rocks broke in half, and every time a shot looked to go straight it would bounce sideways, but after almost two hours of play we had laughed and cheered our way to a winner.
RMI Guide Eric Frank & Team
Kim & Co. sorry the weather and conditions didn’t exactly cooperate. Still sounds like an AMAZING trip and I love the impromptu croquet…don’t be too concerned, but Lucky has found a suitor by the name of Hugo the Persian.
Xoxoxo Lora
May 30, 2017
Our unseasonal snowfall over the past two days set the team up for a wary summit bid in the wee hours of the morning. Leaving High Camp at 17,000 we found ourselves in boot high fresh snow. Yet, after two hours of uphill, we quickly came upon wind deposits well over a meter deep and made the tough but safe call to walk back to our refugio amongst the clouds. However, our morning wasn't quite over, for as we peeked back down through the cloud ceiling we were just in time to watch the entirety of an absolutely spectacular sunrise. The sun rose behind Huayna's sister to the east and lit three levels of clouds in hues of pink and gold. One rope team simply stopped in the middle of the boot pack and watched for 45 minutes as the valley below us slowly filled with light. Right as the sun finally crested the peak to our east, the valley clouds rose up around camp and engulfed us in a glowing mist. Despite not getting the chance to climb higher, I'm afraid we would have missed the sunrise being stuck in the high clouds and honestly it was all any of us could have asked for.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Sounds like a fabulous experience despite the disappointment of not summiting! As an aside, a predator fan was arrested at the game in Pittsburgh for throwing a weapon in the ice - a catfish!
May 29, 2017
Hello, this is Eric Frank calling from the Casa De Guilles here on Huayna Potosi in Bolivia. The last couple days have been pretty interesting, yesterday a fair amount of snow fell on Huayna Potosi and we weren't really sure what we would find this morning. When we woke up the weather was good and we were able to climb up to the high Refugio in fairly comfortable conditions. Once again things changed, and it started dumping a bunch of snow so we spent most of the afternoon watching the flakes fall and clearing off the roof of our little shelter. We are just getting tucked into bed now, hopefully things will turn around in the morning. There's a fair amount of snow on route so wish us luck, we're going to make conservative decisions and see how far we can go.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank checks in from High Camp on Huayna Potosi, Bolivia
Hi Mattie-
We think about you all day long, hope that the weather is in your favor, and that RMI and the guides do their thing and help you all to achieve your goal…a summit!!! Hang in there, sweetheart! We look forward to hearing all about your experiences through the blogs. Love you!
Mama, Jesse, Bud, Taira and Adryan
Posted by: Bird on 5/30/2017 at 5:20 pm
Justin,
Hope things are going well for you and the team. Just found the blog and will follow the rest of your trip. Enjoy the view. Dad
May 27, 2017
A well deserved sleep and sluggish morning let the team regain our feet. Yet, we managed to make the most of it. Our jaunt out of the Condoriri group wasn't quite complete until half the group had jumped into a snow fed reservoir and scrambled back to dry land as fast as our frozen limbs could manage. For all of us, 14,500ft was the highest we had ever swam.
A brief stint of skipping stones on clear glassy ponds, and passing the time with our new matted canine friend had the group back into the van and on our way to the city. Today happens to be mothers day down here in Bolivia, (Hi Mom!) and we were greeted with street parties, colorful attire, traffic zebras and a box of empanadas once we passed within city limits. To close out the night, we celebrated our first summit success with a feast of unrealistically large and delicious slabs of meat. And now we go to bed early amid the 'thick' 12,000ft city air, ready to skip right back into the mountains come sunrise.
Posted above are a few teaser photos from our ascent of pequeno Alpamayo.
RMI Guides Caleb Ladue, Eric Frank and Team Bolivia
Hey everyone out there in blog land, this is Eric checking in from base camp in the Condoriri Group. Most of the team is snuggled into their sleeping bags for an afternoon siesta, because we already put in a full day of work by summiting Pequeño Alpamayo!
After a 3am wake up call, we rolled out of camp in the darkness and made short work of the broad, rolling glacier that occupies the basin above our camp. By 7:30 we were at 17,500ft and the morning alpenglow turned all the peaks around us to a fiery orange. Words can't describe the immensity of the range. In every direction snow capped peaks roll out. The remainder of the route took us up steep snow ridges, over rocky towers and to a final summit that was smaller then a dinner table. The team crowded onto the small precipice and snapped a few photos before walking over the ridge to start the first lower. We are happy to report that everyone in the group made it.
All for now. We head to La Paz tomorrow for a well deserved shower and respite before heading on to our next objective.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Just breathtaking
Never new to much about Bolivia but now know of its natural beauty
Thinking and sending good wishes to all
Julie kiss Stephen for us
Stephen kiss a Julie for us
Love you both
Go team Frank
Posted by: Tina and a John Zabinski on 5/28/2018 at 6:49 pm
It’s been so amazing to see all of this! Hi Dad (Mogens), i love you so much. I’m proud of you.
Love Jules Mary Pono and Malia
Kids think you are pretty darn cool
Posted by: Mary on 5/28/2018 at 5:18 pm
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