The Cordillera Real, Royal Range, offers superb mountaineering opportunities for mountaineers of all abilities. Several peaks pierce the sky over the Bolivian Andes rising to over 6400 meters. This trip combines a comprehensive curriculum of glacier travel and high altitude mountaineering skills with summit attempts on Huayna Potosí, (19,968’/6088m) and the “shining one” Illimani (21,125′ / 6439m). If you are limited on time, our trip may be split into segments.

The trip begins with catching our breath in the high city of La Paz. After a day of local sightseeing and market visits, we will visit the pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaka. Following this we will travel to the town Copacabana along the shore of Lake Titicaca where we improve our acclimatization by boating and hiking around the lake. The next few days will be spent learning and honing our snow and glacier skills from a 15,200’ basecamp amid the high peaks surrounding Chiar Khota or Lago Condoriri. Pack animals will assist us in reaching the lake. Peak Condoriri, representative of a condor about to take flight is the namesake mountain that overlooks the region. Having acclimated, we can now attempt peaks such as Pequeño Alpamayo (17,613′), Ilusioncita (16,896′) or Ilusion, (17,500′) or even the summit of Condoriri. All require early starts, careful glacier navigation, and have sections of narrow ice ridges or steep ice slopes. From here, it’s on to one of our primary objectives, Huayna Potosi.

Huayna Potosí at 6088 m / 19,974′ is Bolivia’s most frequented mountain and resembles an ice pyramid. To the people of the region it is an important mountain god. Climbing Potosi begins with a night at Zonga Pass and a day of hiking over mixed glacial terrain to Campamento Argentino at 17,800’’. Early the next morning we shoulder our packs and climb toward the snowy summit.

After resting in La Paz, we drive to Hacienda Una from where we begin our short trek to basecamp of Illimani. Several summits comprise the massif described in Mountain World as “one of the most beautiful groups of peaks in South America.” From the first camp, Puente Roto, we work our way up to Nido de Condores (Condor’s nest) at 17,880′ feet above sea level and position ourselves for a summit bid of Illimani’s north peak early the next day (21,125’’)