Cabeza del Condor

I only knew my appointed climbing buddy Malcolm from a brief encounter in Quito and a few Facebook messages, but it felt like enough to entrust one another with our life's on high mountain ridges.

Malcolm arrived back in La Paz on the 15th June, desperate to climb Illimani having been unceremoniously ditched by his previous climbing partner the last time he was in La Paz. We immediately set about planning some acclimatisation climbs and after touring a few of the agencies booked ourselves an exciting 8 days in the mountains. First up was Pequeño Alpamayo (5340m) and Cabeza del Cóndor (5700m) in the Condirri range, swiftly followed by the big one, Illimani (6440m).

We had a few days in La Paz to prepare then set off for the Condirri base camp on Thursday 18 June. My paraglider came too, with the enticing prospect of flying down some of these big mountains.

The first day was fairly relaxed. A bit of food shopping in the morning, a 3 hour drive, then a short hike of only an hour or so got us to base camp. We had donkeys to carry most of our gear (I had to hire an extra one for my glider) so it really wasn't hard.

Our team consisted of myself, Malcolm, our guide Pedro and our chef, a cholita (she did have a name) with a great giggle. Base camp was in the valley, next to a lake, with our prospective climbs looking down upon us from up the valley and across the lake.

We arrived in the early afternoon so after setting up camp we went for a wander, coming across a large herd of llamas being herded down the valley. Energetic Malcolm helped out, but with the extra altitude I was happy to just take some photos.

Looking down at base camp

Llama herding

On the advice of our guide Pedro, we opted to tackle the higher Cabeza del Cóndor (Head of the Cóndor - it has mountain wings either side) first. We were up at 12 and left at 1.30, our morning prep taking a little longer as Malcolm was suffering from the tail end of some dodgy street food and the effects of running after llamas when not properly acclimatised (not good for the bowels apparently). We set out regardless.

Walking through the night always distorts your perspective of time and distance and as the night gave way to day we found ourselves near to the ridge after hiking up a quite steep snowy slope in the dark and cloud. It wasn't great weather and it was uncertain whether we would be able to reach the summit. It was hard work but the effects of the altitude didn't slow us down too much and I only really suffered from the occasional bouts of breathlessness.

The final 10m was up a near vertical icy chute we ascended to reach the ridge, which led away to the summit in the clouds.

Safe at the top of the ice climb

Pedro leads the way to the summit

The clouds started to break as we started along the ridge towards the summit and we were awarded a few fleeting glimpses of our surroundings as the day brightened.

 


It's a great ridge and 3 pitches of about 50m later, with Pedro leading the way, then Malcolm and myself bringing up the rear, we reached the summit at 7.30am.

The clouds continued to clear while we were on the summit, leaving an incredible view out to Lake Titicaca in the north west, Huayna Potosí to the south-east and the cloud covered amazon to the north.

Looking north

Looking south, Huayna Potosi on the left

I got to lead out on the way down and we descended quickly, getting back into the valley around midday. In the morning sunshine it was hard to imagine we'd ascended the almost vertical rock face we were now looking back upon.

we went where?

Had a very quick but super refreshing dip in the lake when we got back to camp. It was COLLLLLLD! And took me the rest of the afternoon to warm up again. Nice though.

We were in bed as soon as it got dark around 7 and asleep shortly after, ready to be up again at 2 for Pequeño Alpamayo.