Tilata Climb

A day after a climb in December 2015 I trekked to the Tilata glacier, but didn´t go any further. Legs were heavy from the previous day´s climb, it was a little foggy higher up, and I thought my climbing buddy was still going to get there if I waited, which didn´t happen. So after a while I went down.
In June this year I was walking/trekking with another person from refugio Huayna towards Tilata, but very soon it was evident that reaching the mountain was not really an option that day.

July 5th I left home at 5.45 in the morning, took a minibus to Plaza Villarroel, and then orange and red cable cars to be in El Alto at 6.31. Next was a short, mile-long taxi drive to a street close to Plaza Ballivian, from where minibuses (at least sometimes) leave towards Zongo. The minibus left at 6.45 and at 8.10 I got out at 4290 meters elevation.

A very steep, grassy slope starts right next to the little road. It felt desperately cold outside after sitting in the minibus, but in 5 minutes it felt ok. The morning was perfect, as usual for this time of year, with blue skies and no wind. I had decided to move fast but without getting lactic acid in my legs. First I followed a little river that has nice waterfalls. Soon I reached a flat meadow where some cows and llamas were starting their day. I got up a little hill to find another flat meadow, and soon there was a third one. All of these would be perfect for camping, because the surface is soft with very short grass. It would be like sleeping on a soccer field with high mountain views.

From 4700 up there was a 200 meters high steep and rocky slope, but it was still easy. Finally before the glaciation starts there is a gentle rise with nice rocks that are almost white. All in all the approach was much easier than I remembered. I got to the glacier at 5015 meters in an hour and a half, with 1.24 of moving time. In 2015 it took 2.22 of moving time.

I didn´t expect Tilata to be the most thrilling climb, but it surprised me in a positive way. Once I arrived at the glacier, there was a frozen pond, and everything else was still frozen as well. This side of the mountain was still in the shadow at 10 in the morning when I started with boots and crampons, after a little break. As this year is a dry one, the glacier was bare and surface was hard ice. I was glad I had sharpened my crampons before this trip, because otherwise it would have been difficult and risky to climb. Low on the glacier there was a quite steep section that offered more challenge than I had expected, given the icy conditions. Then came a not so steep section with very hard snow, and the rest of the slope up until the summit ridge was moderate. The left side of the glacier was very icy all the way up, as I would find out while going down.

The summit ridge started from 5300 meters and led to the top at 5343 meters. The ridge is made up of big blocks of almost white rock. The other side of the mountain was totally free of snow. During snowy years it might be covered.

I was on the summit at 11.22 and was surprised it only took 3 hours 9 minutes total time.
Going down was fast too, even though I had to be careful and slow because of the icy parts. I was back at the road at 1.14 PM so the whole climb took 5 hours and a minute, with about 1050 meters of elevation gain.
After just a few minutes a minibus passed, but it was full so I started walking up the road. 5 minutes later I was surprised to see another minibus coming, and I got the last available seat. I got out while still in the countryside outside El Alto, to walk and run 25 minutes down to the closest Puma Katari (the La Paz city bus) line. I needed two comfy and spacy bus rides to get home. I was at home at 4.15 so this was a quick trip especially considering that I used public transportation, for the first time for a real climb! I would say Tilata is a perfect first-ever climb for someone with at least some fitness, especially when the conditions are good.

Serkhe Kollu 5546 meters in April

On April 19th me, my wife, my brother in law and his friend left La Paz at 5 in the morning aiming to climb the 5546 meters high Serkhe Kollu close to La Paz. It was a Friday and a national holiday. We had rented snow climb equipment for them the day before. This was my second time on this mountain.

We drove to represa Incachaca and took a right there to drive up to 4530 meters on a tiny dirt road that forces the driver (I drove) to concentrate quite intensely. From the top we had to drive down for about 15 minutes to represa Hampaturi, which is at 4270 meters if I´m not wrong. There had been a rockfall, but luckily we were able to drive over the rocks on the road. Then we passed the third and fourth reservoir/represa of the morning, and after maybe an hour and 25 minutes of slow driving we got to the last one close to Serkhe Kollu at 4810 meters of altitude.

The morning was clear and totally calm. I was carrying a thermometer on my backpack, and it was showing about 2 Celsius above zero, but maybe it was too close to me to show the actual air temperature. At about 9 in the morning it got cloudy as we were looking for a spot where to get on the glacier that had steep borders at its low end. But higher we had sunshine and blue skies on our left and dark cloud on the right.

I think it took up to 3,5 hours time elapsed to get to the first glacier. It didn´t rain much during the rainy season, so the mountains are quite bare without much snow. After the first glacier there was a long section of rocky terrain until we got to the second one that leads to the top. The first time I climbed Serkhe Kollu I climbed a much more difficult route on the main face and descended the easier route we were on now. In 2015 there was much snow from about 5000 meters all the way to the top, but now I think the first glacier started at about 5250 meters.

I had been sick 2 times before this climb and was out of shape, so it was actually quite hard for me to get up to the top even at slow pace. Right after the climb I got sick for the 3rd time, and then once more. The route presented some little difficulties on rock. It is much easier if covered with a lot of snow. The steepest parts on the upper glacier might have been 40 degrees which is nice.

The snow was of good quality. It was more firm than soft, but not icy. I was really glad that all 4 of us made it to the top. We were at home 13 hours after leaving.