Bolivia Expedition Dispatch

June 17, 2011 – Preparing for Pequeňo Alpamayo Summit Day

Leila Silveira reporting from Condoriri base camp. Today we woke up in our cozy base camp with a layer of snow on our camp. The weather is still good, but the clouds are different and there is definitely a change in patterns. Nate woke up feeling better and joined the team for a hike on a glacier nearby where the team praticed some skills and techniques for our summit attempt tomorrow.

We will have four guides for our ascent of Pequeno Alpamayo tomorrow, though it is almost like we have five. We are really fortunate to have Bart on our team. Bart was born in Holland, though he now lives in Houston with his family, and he worked as an assistant guide in Switzerland when he lived in Europe. Although he did not pursue a climbing career and he has not climbed in a while, his skills are coming back after only a week on the mountain.

The training today was short and fun. Jared came back eager to practice more ice climbing but disappointed by the limited opportunities in the flatlands of Chicago, his hometown. Nate promised to take him ice climbing when they get home. Mark is really enjoying traveling with his sons and their friends. At night after dinner it is really fun listening to Mark’s wild adventures which include exciting and life threatening stories that sometimes involved his children.

Luke, Mark’s daughter’s boyfriend has come along and is a pleasure to have in our team. Quiet and strong, he always seems happy even when Ryan tries to imitate his girlfriend’s voice.

Richard, a veteran of Berg Adventures climbs, also extremely strong and well prepared, had a unique experience today. His climbing boots, which had a lot of mileage, cracked and broke – both of them. That is an item which will not make it back to Houston, his hometown. Osvaldo and Nelson of our Bolivian team managed to put them back together with duct tape. Duct tape to the rescue again!

Bill from LA, also a veteran Berg Adventures climber, is full of stories. He works with rockets, the ones that go into space. We told him today that we would one day show up one day at his LA office to visit, I don’t know how the space program would feel about our visit, but he claims that we can. Bill and the whole team are very excited to climb Pequeňo Alpamayo tonight. We spent a little bit of time practicing pressure breathing.

Climbing in Bolivia is fun and always full of surprises. Today we learned that Monday, the day we are supposed to go to Sajama, the truck drivers are planning to strike which will block all of the roads in the country. Nevertheless, we quickly adjusted our plans to avoid getting stuck in La Paz. Tomorrow after our summit attempt of Pequeňo Alpamayo, we will drive back to La Paz. After a short night, we will move our trip to Sajama to a day earlier. We will leave Sunday instead of Monday - that would allow the team to avoid the traffic craziness that is expected in Bolivia next week.

Right now all I have to say is fingers crossed. Climbing won’t be the only challenge ahead of us.