Expedition Leaping Llama - Bolivia 1995
More details to follow.
This was my first major mountaineering expedition overseas, and we really threw ourselves in at the deep end. Myself, Jaishan Mahan, JP Downes and Richard Profit pretending we knew all about winter mountaineering, but basically making it up as we went along.
We set our sights high: the Andes. Second highest mountain range in the world, they would stretch form London to New York if you picked them up and moved them.
We successfully climbed some very high peaks:
- Cerro Charquini 5400m
- Cerro Huayani Potosi 6088m
- Cerro Illimani 6400m
All in all, I would say that standing on a snowy ridge at over 6000m; seeing the icy peaks of the Andes disappear away to the north and south, glittering in the pale sun; looking west towards the blue smudge that is Lake Titicaca, birthplace of the Inca people; then looking east to where the land falls away to become the mist shrouded greenery of the Yungas jungle; was probably one of the most beautiful places I have been on Earth.