We get blown off Sajama
Friends, family and loved ones,
Right after I did the audiocast last night the winds picked up dramatically. One tent was destroyed and the other nearly blew away with two of us in it. Our local guide said he had never experienced those kind of winds. We hastily decided to go down even in the dark as our very lives were at stake. We packed all we could salvage as the howling wind ripped at us. Buffeted by brute blows, we scrambled down steep skree slopes for hours under a dark moonless sky. Once at Basecamp, we set up what was left of our tents and crawled in and tried to sleep.
We are grateful for surviving the storm. We cleared our equipment and supplies from the mountain and made it back to the trailhead by midday. And then we just had to visit the nearby hotsprings. This a great place to soak in the view while soaking sore muscles. Thanks for joining us on our adventure, a what an adventure it has been. Sometimes we get the mountain and sometimes it gets us.
All our best,The Mountain Frogs P.S. We look forward to trying it again when it’s not so windy.
We get to the base of Sajama
Friends, family and loved ones,
It was a hard day of traveling for the the Mountain Frogs. We drove 300 km. As we approached, we could see the Lama of Sajama, grazing peacefully. Sajama means West in the local dialect. Standing at 6,542 meters above sea level, it’s not only one of Bolivia most western, it’s the highest in the country.
We shouldered our packs and hiked a few more hours to base camp at 4,865 meters. This brave little burro accompanied us all the way to camp. The team is doing well. All our best,The Mountain Frogs
Audio Post
Audio Post
Frogs meet Lamas
Friends, family and loved ones,
We took another hike today up to 5,000m and along the way we encountered many wild Lamas.We even had to go around them to return to our tents. A team of experienced Alpinist stopped by to say that they were turned back from the summit by brittle ice conditions. Rather then proceeding into a dangerous situation we decided to set our sights on a even bigger but hopefully safer mountain. Mount Sajama (6549m) is the tallest mountain in Bolivia and according to our sources, it is in fine condition. So Illimani will have to wait for now we are in route to Sajama. All our best,The Mountain Frogs
It was well-organized, seamlessly integrated. Best guide I have had on any guided trip.
