Maria Lloco is a 5552 meters 18,200 ft high mountain just west of Huayna Potosi. On June 28th I left at 3.48am because I woke up early. I drove to Milluni which is close to Huayna Potosi base camp, and then onto a smaller road that went up on the south side of Huayna. I stopped at 4830 meters 15,850ft and started walking at 5.55am. It was still dark and I used my headlight but the batteries died in a couple of minutes. Full moon was only a few days away so it was not too dark without a light and at 6.30 it there was some light. That road goes to Tuni and Condoriri reaching over 5000 meters, and there is another road that goes closer to the west side of Huayna Potosi and Maria Lloco but I've read it's a private road and they charge 50 bolivianos 7 dollars to open the gate. Also I had believed the road I would be driving to be really bad, which the police in Milluni also pointed out, but it was not that bad. It was quite good actually, but still I walked from the other side and had to climb up to 5245 meters and then descent a difficult rocky slope to 4750 meters again before climbing the 5552 meter high Maria Lloco. I wanted to take an intermediate route. While on the lower slopes, it looked like there was a snow slope and then a couloir leading relatively close to the summit, so I took that route which was nice and quite steep but not too steep.
When I got to the top of it and to a ridge, the summit still seemed to be far away. The ridge and the other side of the mountain were free of snow at that altitude. It was loose rock. It didn't look like something I wanted to climb so I decided to climb below the ridge on the snowy side traversing towards the summit while slowly gaining elevation among some rocks. But as soon as I left the couloir the snow turned loose sugar snow and the slope was steep. At times the snow was thigh deep and climbing was very slow. Not that much fun but eventually I reached a short snow slope leading up to a big pile of loose rock that was the summit. I took my climbing boots off for the summit. The views of the Huayna Potosi west face and the cordillera real were impressive.
I had a feeling that going down was going to be bad. After going down the highest, rocky part, I put on my boots and crampons just to descent less than 10 minutes on snow but then I chose to take the rocky side to go down. I think I should have taken the snowy side but another route there. Going down a steep mountain side made up of loose rock is a nightmare and takes a very long time.
I went back down to 4730 meters and on the way back to my car I took a route that gently rose up to 5100 meters on very nice terrain for walking and then on the other side the road at 5030 meters. There the road was almost flat and very good. It was 6.20 when I was back at the car so the trip took 12 hours 25 minutes car to car. That's a long long time, much longer than my typical climbs.
Maria Lloco in the morning:
Huayna Potosi's 1000m high west face from the summit of Maria Lloco:
Funny natural lines of sand and small stones.
I think I'm done with mountains for now. It's been a fun "season" of climbing and each trip has been a huge experience. My favorite was Charquini. Mururata was a good day too.
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