Bolivia Expedition Dispatch

June 27, 2008 – Team Success and High Winds on Sajama

It’s the 28th of June and it’s a beautiful sunny morning without wind. I am calling you from high camp on Sajama with a report that yesterday at about 6pm, the team did have success reaching the summit of Sajama 21,500 feet above sea level, the highest peak in Bolivia.

It was a beautiful sunset and the members of the team who were on top; Paul, Adam, Marco, Juancho, Osvaldo and I. When you look out from where I am calling you from at high camp, and certainly from the top of Sajama, what you see is a massive expanding barren landscape. This part of the southern altiplano is very different from the Condoriri area where we climbed earlier. It is much dryer and much less populated. When you climb to the summit of Sajama, you look out to a lot of beauty and a lot of nothingness, you feel like you are in a very lost part of the world.

Our summit was delayed because of high winds. At about 1:00 am, on the 27th I woke up and I heard nothing but a constant strong roar high up on Sajama, which indicated to me there were certainly 100km plus winds up there. The tents down here at base camp were being buffeted by strong winds as well. We checked in with the team to make sure everyone was OK and that the tents were in place, but we knew it was no time to start for the summit. Later in the morning, with the winds still blowing; Leila, Bonnie, Karen and Armando along with some of the guides and porters who came up to help with gear, decided to descend to base camp. The team who reached the summit along with Stacy, decided to try later in the day and hope for a window of better weather. A little ways up the route Stacy realized she didn’t have the strength for it; she inspired us with her “Soldier On” ethic. In this particular case, at this altitude, Stacy new she was not going to be up for the long day. In fact, it was 14 hours from when we started climbing this morning until we got to summit (lost transmission).

Everyone is safely back down and we are about to head back to base camp and meet up with Leila and the rest of the team for lunch. Afterwards we will make our way across the Altiplano to the wonderful hot springs at 15,000 feet. This is where the group will have a well deserved soak and look at the majesty of Sajama and reflect back to their success on this 2008 BAI Bolivia Expedition.