Mountaineering

The Andes mountain range, rising up from the Pacific coast of the American continent, is the longest and the youngest mountain range on the planet. After the Himalayas, it is the second highest range and still growing. Formed by the subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American plate, the Andes - a real backbone of the continent - is composed by tectonic snow capped peaks and many volcanoes.

The Andes can be considered a true paradise for mountaineers due to many reasons:

• Wide range in height ranging from around 5000m the lowest to almost 7000m the highest.
• Easy access thanks to a large web of mining and agricultural roads.
• Beautiful snow capped peaks and volcanoes.
• Moderated technical difficulty of most of the “normal” routes.
• Remoteness of several areas where you can still found new routes and even unclimbed peaks.
• Lack of special permits or fees to be paid to climb mountains.
• Lower cost of logistics compared with other mountain ranges.
• More stable and predictable weather.
• Longer climbing season up to 8 months (climbing in some dry areas like the Bolivian Lipez or the Chilean Atacama desert can be done almost year around).
• Less danger of avalanches

Mountaineering Expeditions require some degree of technical knowledge and certainly endurance given that some of the routes may involve long summit-days of glacier traversing, crevasse crossing or even steep ice climbing. Acclimatization to the altitude is certainly the most important challenge for most of our clients, which is why we stress organizing our programs to follow a proper acclimatization process. Mountaineering is a serious activity and you should do it with a professional guide. After intensive training and courses finally a group of Bolivian mountain guides have been certified by the International Mountain Guides Association UIAGM/IFMGA. We only work with those guides on our mountaineering trips. For more information about the guides please visit the following website www.agmtb.org

As is our tradition, our main goal is to guide you through the routes in the safest possible way. That is why we always include some training before the actual climbing and stress our clients to make a proper acclimatization process, either with us or by themselves. Acclimatization is mandatory the key of success at high altitude, please refer to our acclimatization page to get more information about this subject.

Please make sure you understand the trip's grading and choose the right trip for your outdoor experience and endurance. For mountaineering trips we strongly suggest you to consult your doctor before signing for a trip. Our clients must understand and accept that mountaineering can be strenuous and involves certain risks are an integral part of this activity.

Since there is not a formal Rescue System in the country, the group will normally be on their own. Although we usually fully complete our trips, sometimes there are situations like: lack of acclimatization, clients who get sick or changes in the weather conditions, can force our guides to change the itinerary or even cancel partially or totally the trip in order to guaranty the safety or the clients and the staff