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)
Cordillera Real of Bolivia (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)
Nearing the summit Pequeño Alpamayo! (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:
