Tag Archive for: Condoriri

Pequeño Alpamayo summit photo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

The climbing has come to it’s conclusion in Bolivia for the Madison Mountaineering expedition team after a successful summit on Pequeño Alpamayo! This expedition had it all, from cultural and culinary experiences to technical climbing on a Bolivian classic, which made for an epic combination.

Despite challenging route conditions, our team was able to safely persevere on their way towards the summit of Pequeño Alpamayo. After a short rest in La Paz, the team directed their attention towards their next objective: a climb up the French Route of Huayna Potosí’s East Face. This route involves navigating crevasses on the approach to the route, climbing up to 55 degrees, and possible cornices as you near the summit. After an early morning alpine start, our team made the difficult, but prudent decision to turn around after facing challenging conditions on the glacier.

Happy and satisfied with the expedition behind them, our team has returned to La Paz and gone their separate ways with plans to climb again in the future. Most importantly, everyone is back safe with memories to take home from a successful expedition and dreams of the future climbing to come!

Climber, Stephane Mayer and guide, Estalin Suárez after a successful summit of Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Climber, Stephane Mayer and guide, Estalin Suárez after a successful summit of Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Cordillera Real of Bolivia (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Cordillera Real of Bolivia (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Climber, Stephane Mayer rappelling down Pequeño Alpamayo after successfully reaching the summit! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Climber, Stephane Mayer rappelling down Pequeño Alpamayo after successfully reaching the summit! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Summit push on Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Summit push on Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Nearing the summit Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Nearing the summit Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Under the night sky in Bolivia's Cordillera Real. (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Under the night sky in Bolivia’s Cordillera Real. (Photo: Estalin Suárez)


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

Climber, Stephane Mayer on the summit of Pequeño Alpamayo! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

With one summit down and one to go, the Madison Mountaineering Bolivia expedition is going excellent so far! In the last few days, our team reached the summit of Pequeño Alpamayo under beautiful, clear-blue skies and with great climbing conditions! After returning to La Paz, the team is set to depart for their next objective, Huayna Potosí. Expedition leader, Estalin Suárez checks in with this dispatch from Bolivia:

Hello! This is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Bolivia expedition – today is September 23rd. Yesterday we summit Pequeño Alpamayo! After the night, we went back to La Paz. Just a great, great day – it was a beautiful day, clear skies! It was great climbing.

At the moment we are getting ready to go to Huayna Potosí! This is going to be our last climb.

I left you a couple of pictures of our days in the Kunturiri area with the summit of Pequeño Alpamayo. Stay tuned – bye!


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

The team hiking along with Lake Titicaca behind! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

The team enjoyed their last day of acclimatization and sight-seeing before they depart for the mountains tomorrow! Another magnificent lake day with views and tasty meals have the team feeling strong, relaxed, and ready to go. Expedition leader, Estalin Suárez, checks in with this dispatch from La Paz before tomorrows journey takes them into the the Kunturiri:

Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Bolivia expedition. Today is September 19th – another great day in Bolivia! Today we visited the Island of the Moon, did a short hike there and visited ruins on the island. After that we went back to Copacabana, which is the main town there, and had a great lunch!

After that, we drove back to La Paz. Now we are just resting. Tomorrow, we are going to the area of Kunturiri where there are a couple mountains that we are going to climb. Hopefully the weather will help us a little bit! We are motivated to climb those mountains, so tomorrow we are going to leave more or less, 9:00 AM and will be in the mountains for about five days.

We are not going to be in contact in the next days, but hope everything goes very well and to come back with great news and summits! Stay tuned… Bye!

The Island of the Moon (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

The Island of the Moon (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Visiting ruins on the Island of the Moon! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Visiting ruins on the Island of the Moon! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Climber, Stephane Mayer taking in views of lake Titicaca! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)

Climber, Stephane Mayer taking in views of lake Titicaca! (Photo: Estalin Suárez)


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram: