Adventure is guaranteed on the roof of the Andes

WORDS • Ben Hoiness | PHOTOS • Fredrik Marmaster

We started planning this trip a year ago after seeing some photos in the American Alpine Journal. We were hoping to explore Bolivia’s Cordillera Real range—a 125-kilometer-long stretch of densely glaciated granite peaks largely unexplored by skiers. Our group of three knew skiing in Bolivia would be challenging because of the weather, the complicated and glaciated terrain and the lack of beta. The scale, remoteness and subsequent mystery of these mountains are what keep most people away. But it’s also what draws people like us in to explore.

Zahan “Z” Billimoria, Fred Marmsater and I arrived in Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz late on a Thursday night. The city, which sits at 3,640 meters and is home to 3 million people, was bustling and even at that late hour, its cobblestone streets were filled with people, cars and vendors selling everything from electronics to hand-knit sweaters and salteñas—empanadas made Bolivian-style with onions, peppers and meat.

Although the Real range is two hours from La Paz, the city is the perfect starting point to acclimatize. A year of planning and thirty hours of travel had finally brought us to these wild mountains that guaranteed adventure. Sleep came easy that night.

We planned to stay in La Paz for four days, but by the next evening, we were getting antsy because, well, the weather looked good. The weather is pretty much all people talk about when it comes to skiing big peaks in unfamiliar places. It was May—Bolivia’s Astral Fall and the transition period between the wet and dry seasons. The peaks had just been received some precipitation, meaning we could hit higher elevations in a clear weather window with soft snow.

“What if we just left for Sajama tomorrow?” Fred proposed, referring to the national park 250 kilometers to the south. The weather wasn’t optimal east of us in the Reals yet and Fred thought taking our acclimation mission to a few easier and smaller peaks in Sajama was a good idea. Z and I agreed.

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Posted from Freeskier