XCountries: Pequeno Alpamayo (Climb and Fly)

We were off at 3 am, with Pedro carrying my glider so I could fly down later. We zig zagged our way up the glacier and arrived on the first peak Tarija (5340m) in the early morning light where we deposited my glider and had a little rest, before descending the saddle between Tarija and Pequeño Alpamayo and then up along the ridge to the main summit.

Up there?

After tackling cabeza del Cóndor the day before it was pretty straightforward. Quite a steep climb to the summit but not as long a ridge as the Cabeza. We reached the summit at 7.20am.

Looking back down the ridge

Back on Tarija, there was a nice gently sloping area on the glacier, just below the summit, to lay my glider out. Pedro got very excited to see me fly and with a gentle breeze to launch into I took off from 5300m at 8.30.

Had a struggle to get into my pod with my big plastic mountain boots on but once settled enjoyed a beautiful 10 min glide along the left wing of the Cóndor and down into the valley.

Back at base camp we decided to head back to La Paz that night, since we'd achieved everything we'd planned. After some lunch and once packed up I set off for another wee climb up Pico Austria to try and fly down the valley to our pick up point. The sky looked promising with a few good looking clouds popping up in the sky.

Cabeza del Condor on the left, Pequeno Alpamayo in the saddle in the middle and Base camp on the right of the lake

Found a reasonable place to take off about half way up the mountain, on a quite steep scree slope. Taking off proved a little tricky however with a light inconsistent breeze and my first few attempts lacked the confidence to properly go for it and run off the hillside. I was eventually smoothly off though but didn't find any lift and in the thin air I descended rapidly, skimming the mountain side in the faint hope of finding something and then landing well short of my target but still over half way back. Was saved a walk however as our taxi had gone for a little drive and picked me up on the way back to our meeting point.