Rock climbing is not very developed in Bolivia primarily due to the summer also being the rainy season. I made several attempts (in person and on WhatsApp) to find climbing gear to rent and/or any guidebook but none exists. Everything is more focused on high altitude mountaineering by tour agencies and even rock guides are pretty scarce. However, I was super happy to connect with Jose through the Peñas Mountain Project admin to get out climbing and get his help with transport for an acclimatization hike.
The short two days outside of La Paz vastly exceeded our expectations with fun climbing, a top out view of Lake Titicaca, a full vista of the Cordillera Real range despite weather, getting up close with a glacier and a snowy summit above 17,000 ft.
Multipitch at Peñas
A little under 90 minutes driving North of La Paz to Peñas we pull off the road in the high Andes plains (Altiplano) at 13,000 ft. A storm is slamming the Cordillera Real which is hidden behind clouds with heavy rains that luckily never cross the valley towards us all day.
All the climbs have placards, which is a cool old school touch.
We warm up on K-1 Finance Visa (5.8+) since my travel partner is new to climbing and multipitch. I lead all day in a party of three with Jose offering feedback to my travel partner who is new to lead belay. This first climb is simple and less enjoyable due to the vast amount of lichen. The bolting is comfy (4-8 ft) in this area with mostly glue ins and bolted anchors connected with chains but no rap rings. The belays are mostly on nice ledges. I had a bit more fun after we switched to American Visa (5.9+) which had more features to work with. Each seems like it could have been linked in one pitch with one longer and one very short pitch.
We rap 25m off the top from bolted chains and move over to a second wall to get on Persona Non Grata (10a). Avoiding a beautifully vibrant orange bulb of a poisonous flower which looks like felt but once numbed Jose’s hand for two days last time he touched it.
We practice a lead fall and then moved up a more interesting climb on thin, kinda techy features. We top out around 14,000 ft to a surprising view of Lake Titicaca which despite being a cool geographic phenomenon of a large high altitude lake… I wasn’t going to visit since I couldn’t figure out an active way of engaging with it. So this was a treat!
At the same time, the clouds started burning off the spectacular Cordillera Real late in the afternoon, progressively revealing the impressive range of 6000+ m (~20,000+ ft) glaciated peaks.
Eventually we pull away from the scenery to descend over the saddle, down through long grass and link the two rappels with a 180’ double rope rappel to the base.
To our great surprise, the small town of Peñas hosts beautiful murals and our accommodation (280 Bs) has a whole concept idea of the rooms named after the mountains in geographical reflection of what you could see looking toward the Cordillera Real. Also, the hotel design going from these mountains to the jungle like bathroom just as landscape of Bolivia changes West to East.
We go out to dinner at the local cafe (I think this place? ) which apparently if you set a reservation (like Jose has) they serve you an amazing 3 course meal ($5 USD pp) instead of the advertised pizza / hamburgers. The place even has climbing topos and sells months aged hard cheese for ~ 30 Bs, if you know to ask. Jose was an amazing conversation partner discussing Bolivian history and political dynamics.
Pico Austria Acclimatization @ 17,477 ft
It’s late season for the mountains as Spring leads to (typically) near constant rain. Jose says last Mega El Niño (which is this year) caused a drought in the high Altiplano so we are still trying to play in the mountains and acclimate for 6000m peaks in late October.
Jose suggests we do a loop up Pico Austria from North to South instead of just ascending and descending from the Southern route to the pass. It is a treat over the 7 mi and 2,400 ft.
Hiking out of the high Andean golden prairie, we pass multiple large lakes and a long waterfall to an 80 ft high glacier headwall calving into a pool.
We even walk out onto the glacier (a responsible amount) as the cloud line ascends / descends to reveal Pico Condorini (18,530) and light snow comes in / out.
We spend a long time playing around the glacier with total freedom (unlike many glacial viewing opportunities) before taking lunch. The North side is not the main route so we descend a gulley and head up the Pico Austria pass (16,800 ft) off trail.
Callie starts feeling strange as we head up the peak. We make the summit (17,477 ft) in a snow storm cloud and unfortunately don’t get a view.
As we descend the peak and the South side of the pass, we go through a less engaging but more well defined trail down two valleys to meet up with Jose.
The freedom to spend our time and get off the main trek to the glacier and go our own speed made the acclimation hike so much better than going with a mixed experience tour group.
The whole two day trip North of La Paz vastly exceeding our expectations!
