It was Wednesday April 13th when me and another Finnish La Paz resident left after 10am from the city. Compared to last year, the road was a lot better because it was paved a lot further, and it was widened and ready for pavement all the way to Ventilla (I think that's the name of the very small village) where you have a choice of taking a very steep right down towards Palca and Illimani, or go straight towards Los Yungas (the road goes between Illimani and Mururata), or take a very slight left and drive toward Mururata. When you take the left, the next small town is Choquecota.
The drive is bumby, and eventually you take a right to cross the river. We drove to about 4230 meters/13,880ft and parked. Soon after that spot the little road goes left and up in another valley. Suddenly a man appeared and asked if we were going to Mururata and when we were going to come back and some other questions. Then he left almost running. I never want to talk to these people because you never know what they are up to. Of course they are usually harmless country people but I never really feel safe unless I am at 5000m or higher. So, for me camping there was out of the question and we took out heavy backpacks and headed up. I had been there before and climbed Mururata, so I knew what to expect. This time it looked like a better idea to stay on the right side of the valley. There are actually slight paths there and one of them goes really high, maybe up to 5100m. There are some steeper sections, but all in all it's all quite nice going compared to many other mountain approaches. At about 5050m there was a green area that could have been good for camping, but we had time to go higher so we kept going. The glacier starts at about 5015 meters and we were to the right of it. I think it was at 5130m where we saw another small flat area with some ok camping spots that were fairly wind protected. We left our stuff there and went higher but there were no campsites there, so we went down and got ready for camping.
The sunset was nice, but when it got dark and colder it was time to get in the tents at about 7pm or a bit before that. I think I slept from about 12 to 3. It was a very nice, windless starry night that never got very dark. At 4.25am we started getting ready. Even after a badly slept night that didn't help your recovery, it's a nice feeling to get up on the mountain and get ready for some climbing. All the water and wet areas just outside the tents were frozen, but in the night I wasn't even close to being cold, thanks to my -20C /-4F sleeping bag. I didn't even have to fully zip it or have gloves or inner boots on at 5130m or 16,830ft.
We started walking at 4.55am in the darkness and crispy cold. It would have made no sense to go down to the glacier, so the best thing to do was to keep going up along the right side of the valley on rocky terrain, and eventually we would have reached the Mururata main glacier. Then it looked easier to go right and up a steep sand slope, than to continue to the glacier. So we went slowly up for maybe 150-200 vertical meters until the terrain got flatter. And as the terrain I was reaching the flatter terrain, I could see the Arkhata summit, and it's western glacier. They both looked a lot bigger and nicer than I had anticipated, so I was excited. There was a little pond. My partner was behind me and he had taken a different route, so I got to the glacier by myself, put on my climbing boots and crampons, and headed up.
It was still early, about 8am, and I was on the shadowy side of the mountain so it was cold and the snow was perfectly hard. It was totally calm and the sky was clear. I went up or a while and the saw Jari putting on his boots on the edge of the glacier. From there it was fairly steep but not exactly steep.
It didn't take very long to get to the top. I would have liked the climb to continue longer. It was pretty easy. The top of the mountain has plenty of room and it's almost flat while the opposite side of the mountain is very steep. The views of Mururata and Illimani are great. Starting from the beginning of the western Arkhata glacier now looks like a good idea. It should be an awesome climb, but the beginning of the glacier may be steep (and icy) according to Google Earth.
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