Bolivia - Dispatch #12

Bolivia Trek and Climbing Program May 29-June 19, 2010

Guides: Danny Uhlmann, Alasdair Turner, and Juan Churra

Climbers: Danny Griffith (Bellingham, WA), Alfred Kwok (Claremont, CA), Diccon Westworth (Sacramento, CA), Jim Bonadonna (Poughkeepsie, NY), Raymond Gregory (Marquette, MI), Nancy Burke (Dallas, TX), and Margen Burke-Karr (Missouri City, TX)

Danny called at 12:15pm Pacific time with the following dispatch:


Today, we all went waterfall ice climbing on a a nice flow near camp with multiple lines of WI 3 and 4.

We ate fresh trout from the lake and homemade fries for dinner earlier tonight. Everyone is resting right now for our big day tomorrow where we will attempt Pequeno Alpamayo. It’s typical for us to be curled up in our sleeping bags by 8pm, as the moon is almost completely gone. Because we are so close to the equator, the sun rises at 7 am and sets at 6pm, so there is not much light.

Yesterday, Diccon and I did six 200-foot pitches of alpine ice (up to grade 4). It was long and very sustained. We radioed Alasdair back at camp in the afternoon and they could see us from where they were. We asked the camp if they could see how much longer we had to go. It turns out we did not have enough time to make the climb, so we didn’t end up finishing.

[Unfortunately, the sat phone cut out here.]

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