Sajama – Bolivia Highpoint

Sajama (21,463ft/6542m) – Highpoint of Bolivia via NW ridge (5.4 M1 WI2 in conditions we encountered)

Dec 14 – 20, 2019

Eric and Matthew

Dec 14 Matthew arrives Arica, Chile (0ft), bus to Sajama village, Bolivia (13,900ft)

Dec 15 Eric arrives Arica, climbs 15,000ft peak, returns to Arica, Matthew in Sajama village

Dec 16 Eric takes bus to Sajama village, both climb 14,800ft peak, sleep in village

Dec 17 hike to 16,800ft, sleep at 15,800ft

Dec 18 hike to 18,100ft, sleep at 17,200ft

Dec 19 hike to 19,000ft, sleep at 16,800ft

Dec 20 Summit, return to Sajama village

Climbing Sajama was challenging on many fronts, including political unrest in Bolivia, an accelerated acclimation schedule, more technical off-season conditions, deep fresh  snow to break through, and numerous lightning storms. 

Back in October we decided to climb Sajama over Christmas break. The main climbing season is the dry season, roughly April through October. However, I had talked to a few friends who had successfully summitted in December in previous years, and it sounded possible. The main difficulty would be the weather, we thought, but local guides told us snow generally just falls in the afternoons even in the wet season, with mornings generally clear.

We had about a week to work with, but had found reports of climbers summitting 6 days from landing in la paz, so the itinerary sounded feasible. We bought our flights to la Paz,  Bolivia in late October. We then used visahq to get Bolivian visas in advance, since we had heard some airlines do not allow boarding without a visa. (Some travellers report no problem and that they purchased visas on arrival, but others had trouble, so we played it safe). 

By mid November, though, Bolivia’s presidential election had concluded and it was widely suspected that Evo Morales had manipulated the results in his favor. Country-wide protests erupted, with all major roads out of la Paz blocked.

This lasted for weeks, with the us state department issuing a level 4 Do-not-travel advisory for Bolivia and advising all Americans to leave. 

Evo Morales fled to Mexico and a new election was scheduled in 90 days. In the meanwhile, though, supporters of Morales continued blocking roads.

I called up a hostel in Sajama village and Matthew contacted local guides and they all said the roads were impassable from la paz to Sajama but they expected the situation to settle down by December.

It sounded like too high a risk of getting stuck in la Paz if the unrest flared up again in December, so we switched our flights to go in and out of Arica, Chile. Sajama village is very close to the Chile border, so as long as we could find ground transportation there from Arica we figured we could avoid the closed roads in Bolivia.

Of course, there had recently been protests in Arica over general wealth inequality in Chile, with roads closed for weeks in October, but the situation there had since settled down when the government promised a referendum on reforms. So Arica seemed like the best city to fly to to access Sajama. Also, Chile now grants free visas on arrival for US citizens, which made entry easy.

We next had to figure out ground transportation, which was not trivial. No car rental agencies allowed travel into Bolivia. The hostel owner in Sajama said if we could make it across the border he could pick us up.

I considered renting a car, leaving it at the border and walking across, but it seemed risky and expensive. Also, it was unclear how far I could even drive, because there is an entering-chile checkpoint at chungara and an entering-Bolivia checkpoint at Tambo Quemado, but they are separated by 5 miles of no-mans-land. I didn’t want to be lugging my gear all that distance. 

Finally I found Nordic bus, which leaves Arica daily at 7am for la paz. I figured we could ask nicely and the driver might be able to drop us off early just after the border, then the hostal owner could pick us up. This is the strategy we used to access aconcagua from Chile in 2017.

To get back, though, no bus companies I contacted said they could pick up the border. Finally, Matthew found Sertours in Chile and Victor said he could pick us up at the chungara side of the border, where a Bolivian car could drop us off. Finally, it appeared all the logistics would work out.

The weekend before the trip I decided to try to preacclimate by sleeping as high as possible, and ended up camping on the summit of mt Adams above 12,000ft. I’m not sure if I retained any of that acclimation, but at least it was fun. 

Matthew flew out Thursday night and I flew out Friday night after finishing grading all my final exams. On Friday night Matthew made it to Arica, slept for 5 hours in a hostel, then took the 7am Nordic bus towards la paz. The driver indeed let him off at the turnoff to Sajama village, and he was able to hitch a ride into town in a passing car.

Dec 15

Sunday morning I arrived at 715am in Arica, just a bit too late to catch the bus to Bolivia. I needed to wait until the next morning, but planned to get in some acclimation by climbing high and sleeping low.

I had reserved a rental car from econorent, which opened at 8am. (Website is only in Spanish so a bit hard to find on English search engines). 

By 8am I picked up the car and was driving east. The road to the Bolivian border goes over a 14,800ft pass, but in my experience hiking to a high altitude works better for acclimation than does driving. Also, if I got altitude sickness while driving it would be much more dangerous than if while hiking. 

I decided to drive to about 12,000ft then hike up a 15,173ft mountain I’d picked out from topo maps, Mauga o Sausamuna Peak. I figured if I got up and down quickly I could drive back to sea level before altitude sickness set in.

After some construction delays I found the rough unmarked dirt road turnoff I’d seen on satellite images and started driving up. The road was rough and narrow with very steep dropoffs, and I parked at a wide spot that seemed safe.

I started hiking up at noon, soon gaining the West ridge. I avoided cacti and thorny bushes, and at times scrambled 3rd class rock. By 240pm I reached the summit, marked by a small cairn. Apparently someone else had hiked that peak too.

I didn’t stay long. In my experience going quickly, unacclimated, to such a high altitude only works if I descend very soon. 

I descended back to my car and immediately drove back to Arica. After more construction delays I dropped off the car at the airport, then took a taxi to Hostal Inti, the closest hostal to the bus station. 

Dec 16

The next morning I took the 7am Nordic Bus bound for la Paz, and the driver said he could drop me off at the Sajama village turnoff. I would later learn many riders got dropped off at locations before la Paz, so it is nothing out of the ordinary. 

We passed through Chungara without stopping, then got off at Tambo Quemado to show passports and visas and enter Bolivia.

The driver dropped me off at the Sajama turnoff and I texted Matthew on my inreach to come pick me up. Volcan Sajama loomed in the distance, capped with huge glaciers and looking very intimidating. Our route would go up the northwest ridge, though, which was out of sight and hopefully easier. 

Matthew soon came in an SUV with the hostal owners son driving. We were staying at hostal Parinacota, which I highly recommend. 

It was about a 20 minute drive to the village, and on the way we passed a checkpoint where we paid $14Usd each to enter. (Contrary to reports on summitpost the park and mountain are in fact open all year).

Matthew had scoped out the village earlier, playing soccer with some kids and enduring a rainstorm with thunder, lightning, and heavy snow in the mountains. He also purchased canister fuel in town. Note: we learned white gas is not easy to obtain because of its use for narcotics in Bolivia, but canister fuel (isobutane) is readily obtainable.

We dropped our gear off and did a short hike up Huisalla West (14,800ft), a subpeak of Sajama with a cross on top and great views across the green valley toward Parinacota and Pomerape peaks. 

That night Rosa cooked us an excellent dinner and we packed up for the trip. 

Dec 17

At 9am Rosa and her son drove us a few miles to the start of the trail at 14,500ft. There we started up with huge packs loaded with 5 days of food, glacier gear, and big mountaineering boots. I had brought some 8000m boots I wanted to test out for the future. They were probably overkill for Sajama, but it was useful to test them at a high altitude (where feet tend to swell a bit). 

The going was slow, but after 90 minutes we reached the official base camp at 15,800ft. It was marked by a fancy sign and rock wall cooking area. Just below camp was a grassy green valley with horses and vicunas grazing, with a small spring gushing water.

We pitched the tent, found a big 10L water jug, and filled it up. Matthew managed to use a picket to funnel the water into the jug, and repaired some leaks with gorilla tape.

In the afternoon we hauled a load of gear up to 16,500ft and stashed it under a big boulder. Three porters were coming down and they said a guided group of Swiss climbers was at campo alto (18,600ft) ready to summit the next day. Also important, they told us there was no water or snow until near campo alto. 

We descended back to camp, and noticed the summit was in the clouds between about 1pm to 5pm. This was consistent with Matthews observations of the previous days – mornings were reliably clear, afternoons reliably cloudy, rainy, or snowy. 

Dec 18

The next morning we left around 8am and hauled our gear and a bunch of extra water up to the ridge at 17,200ft. We picked the biggest tent platform there, enhanced it a bit, then pitched the tent. We then descended to retrieve our cache under the boulder. 

On our way back up we ran into the Swiss team descending. It was two Swiss climbers, a cook, a guide, four porters, and the porters dog. They said they turned back at the gully gaining the glacier due to sketchy icy conditions. They had been hoping it was full of snow to make it easier, but that was not the case.

This sounded troubling to me. I knew we were in the off season, and that gully might shut us down too. I’d brought long ice screws and slings but no short screws or rock pro to protect a mixed climb. We would just have to assess it when we saw it.

After reaching our tent we hauled a load of gear up to 18,100ft just below a big cliff. There were a few snow patches along the way, and we brought snow down to camp to melt. 

That evening a brief thunderstorm passed through dropping snow, then cleared out. We ate freeze dried dinners, the food we can always tolerate at altitude even with loss of appetite, and went to bed early. 

Dec 19

The next morning I felt like I wasn’t acclimating too well. My blood oxygen content was not as high as I wanted. So I reluctantly started taking some diamox. Diamox helps acclimate but has the annoying side effect of making you pee more. That’s not good when water is scarce and it’s important to get a good night’s sleep. 

Neither of us really felt up for sleeping higher, and we were a bit concerned about thunderstorms and felt it would be safer to avoid campo alto. 

So instead of moving up as is standard, we decided to just do an acclimation hike to scout out the crux gully. We hiked up past campo alto, into thin snow coverage. We followed the steps kicked by the Swiss team up to about 19,000ft near the gully. From our view it didn’t look too bad. I was sure we could find a way up it.

We turned around and hiked back to camp, picking up some snow on the way. That afternoon was spent melting snow and reading.

Around 4pm we heard two other climbers outside. It was a Bolivian guide and French client. The client had already climbed other 20,000ft volcanoes recently so was completely acclimated. They were going to campo alto and planning to summit the next day, same as we were. 

It was comforting to know the guide expected the route to be climbable, and that there would be another party on the mountain.

Shortly after the two left it started snowing hard. Then the clouds darkened. We heard a weird buzzing sound outside the tent, and it turned out the boulder behind the tent was buzzing. It sounded to me like the noise high voltage transmission lines make in the rain.

We both knew that could mean only one thing – that rock might very well get struck by lightning soon. In the span of about 4 minutes we were completely packed up and hustling down the mountain, verbally recalling the procedure for CPR just in case. We got down to a flat area at 16,800ft, well away from the ridge we had been on, and set up the tent in the rain in a safer spot. 

We heard thunder that evening, but lightning never ended up striking the ridge we were on. We still felt much safer in the valley, and could only wonder how the other team was doing at campo alto. 

We planned to summit the next morning, and needed to be done in time for Matthew to catch a 430pm ride from Sajama village to the border to make it to his flight out of Arica that night. Working backwards and adding some safety factor that meant starting the climb at 130am that night. 

Dec 20

After a sleepless night the snow and rain finally abated as we were waking up at 1am. We forced down some cereal and were soon moving. 

I led the way up in my hiking boots, with Matthew in trail runners. We soon reached our gear cache at 18,100ft and switched into mountaineering boots. We loaded up the glacier gear, and additionally carried our big down jackets and a stove. 

We reached campo alto at 3am and paused to put on crampons. We saw the other teams tent and what looked like a single headlamp at the top of the crux gully. I guessed it was the guide waiting for the client. That was good timing since they would likely be out of the gully just as we entered it, thus avoiding rockfall risk. 

We followed their tracks up to a ridge then to the base of the gully. It looked like the client had just topped out when we got there.

Most trip reports describe this as a moderate snow gully, but we found it to be a mix of rock, ice, and thin snow. I started to climb up a rock chimney and the first rock I touched broke off. I carefully tested future holds and scrambled up. 

From there we ascended steep icy kitty litter to a thin snow and ice covered gully. We were both comfortable soloing up to the end. I then awkwardly wriggled up a 4th class corner, forgetting that Matthew had the rope. 

This meant Matthew also needed to wriggle up unroped, but we eventually both made it to the ridge crest. 

We followed the narrow 3rd class ridge until we encountered a steep exposed section. We roped up and Matthew clipped in to a piton there. I lead a full 30m ropelength with a bit of low 5th class rock near the piton until the ridge widened, then I belayed Matthew up. 

From there we packed up the rope and followed the other teams tracks up the snow slope.

The glacier directly above us looked icy so we cut up and left, following the edge of a rocky cliff marked by cairns. 

We soon caught up to the guide and offered to break trail. Matthew and I took turns, then let the guide lead after the cliff edge ended. I figured he would know the best route.

He lead directly up from there. It was interesting terrain with deep snow punctuated by ice steps. As the slope steepened the ice steps got more numerous, and steep enough to warrant protection. 

We only had two screws, so Matthew would clip in to one, belay me up 30m, then I would belay him up to the next screw.

After three ropelengths I took over trail breaking from the guide, just as we passed the inflection point of the slope and passed the last ice steps.

That turned out to be the last we saw of the guide and client. They soon turned around, probably because of the difficult snow conditions and slow progress.

It was very tough work breaking trail above 19,000ft. Sometimes it was shin deep, other times knee deep. I had two strategies. The first was go for seven steps then pause a minute to pant. The other was to pause 10 seconds between each step to breathe hard. Either way, it was about the most power I’ve ever output, and I struggled to suck in enough oxygen to keep up in the thin air.

The slope soon eased a bit as a whiteout set in. Matthew ditched his pack and started recording a GPS track. I continued leading through the whiteout for another hour, keeping my pack with the emergency stove, until we reached a broad flat area the size of a soccer field. In fact, this was the site of the highest altitude soccer match, and I believe it actually is large and flat enough for a match.

It was moving in and out of whiteout, and I paused when I detected the slope going down.

Matthew verified on the GPS we were indeed on the summit, at just before 930am. That just happened to be the latest time we were hoping to summit so Matthew could make his flight out that night. 

We paused for about 5 minutes to take some pictures, then headed down. We’ve learned from experience that it’s a bad idea to hang out too long at an elevation we are not acclimated to. The best practice is to get down fast. 

I led the way down, which was much faster. At one point I stepped a bit to the side of my up tracks and poked through a small crevasse. One leg went in up to my waist, but I quickly rolled out.

I carefully followed my tracks from then on as it started snowing, and i had no more crevasse issues. At the ice steps I put in a screw and belayed Matthew as he downclimbed, then he belayed me as I downclimbed. We did this for three ropelengths, then carefully kicked steps as we traversed across snow. 

We eventually reached the edge of the rock cliff and stopped to take off the rope. I hadn’t eaten a single calorie since 1am, and tried to force down a bite of a cliff bar and some water. But soon after I felt nauseous and threw up multiple times. I think it was due to overexhertion breaking trail at altitude. That has never happened to me before.

I felt great after throwing up, though, and we continued down to the narrow ridge, dropping below the whiteout and snow.

We roped up where the ridge narrowed and I belayed Matthew to the piton. He then belayed me over and we simulclimbed to the head of the mixed gully. 

I really wanted to rappel the gully, but we only had a 30m rope which would mean lots of rappels to descend 400ft. Also, the rock was crappy enough I wouldn’t feel great rappelling on any anchors. 

Instead we did a strategy where I built a hybrid body belay with slung horns to belay Matthew as he downclimbed, then he did the same for me. We found a few improved safer route variations on the way down, and finally reached our stashed hiking poles at 1230pm.

Matthew had just 4 hours to get to the village, so we agreed he would hustle down, leaving any extra gear for me to take, and I would take my time. I didn’t fly out til a few days later. 

I hiked down cautiously, and it seemed like the dark clouds were descending with me. When I made it to campo alto it started snowing hard and thundering. My heart was racing and I tried to pick up speed. At the gear cache I switched back into hiking boots and scree surfed down. The thunder kept getting closer, and I jogged around the ridge crest, making it safely to the tent around 115pm. 

I collapsed in the tent and didn’t move for 15 minutes as the snow outside turned to rain. I think the combination of extreme exertion at altitude, plus not eating anything, being dehydrated, and running from the lightning had caught up with me. 

I eventually coaxed myself into gathering some snow outside, melting it into hot water, and sipping that while forcing down a bar nibble by nibble. 

I waited til the rain stopped around 230pm and then started packing up. I later learned Matthew had made it to the trailhead at that time, and Rosa was waiting in a car to bring him back to town. He had just enough time to catch his ride to the border.

By 3pm I was packed up, but moved very slowly. The pack was monstrous. In the rush, I think I ended up with basically all of the group gear. I was also still very worn out.

I took lots of breaks, and by 5pm was down to15,000ft. There was a water source, so I decided to camp there. I set up the tent and took a nap, but by 7pm I was coughing up junk. I was worried about getting altitude sickness, so reluctantly I packed back up and started hiking back down. The best cure for altitude ailments is descent.

At the trailhead I ditched my pack to come retrieve later, then walked in the dark for an hour along the road, finally reaching Sajama village at 845pm. It had been a long 19 hour day. 

Rosa welcomed me in and cooked up a nice dinner of soup, spaghetti, and beef. I still somehow wasn’t very hungry, but managed to force it down anyways. I’m not sure how my body was functioning all day on basically zero food unless I was burning fat reserves.

Dec 21 

The next morning I rode out with rosas son and picked up my pack. I had originally planned to climb Parinacota, a nearby peak, with my extra days. But I was still coughing a bit so decided to descend down to sea level at Arica instead. I wanted to be in top shape for my next peak, chimborazo, in Ecuador in three days, and wanted to prioritize that summit (a country highpoint) over Parinacota.

I emailed Victor and he picked me up at the border that evening, and we rode down to Arica. It was great to practice my Spanish for the four hour ride, before getting some rest down at sea level.

 

 

 

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