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Elevation: 15,000 ft
GPS: -16.5625, -68.1262
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Shared By: David Kider on Feb 17, 2008 · Updates
Admins: Tony Yeary

Description Suggest change

Bolivia is an interesting climbing destination with the entire gamut of disciplines. There’s bouldering, multi-pitch sport climbs, hard alpine mixed routes, and high-altitude ski mountaineering. Perhaps best known for its mountaineering objectives such as Condoriri, Illimani, Huayna Potosi, and Sajama, Bolivia also offers an increasing variety of quality sport climbing in spectacular locations throughout the diverse country. Though one of the least developed countries in South America, Bolivia is safer than most of its neighbors in the region, the people are friendly, and there’s a strong local climbing community—including a dedicated cadre of internationally certified mountain guides.

The de facto capital city of La Paz is an ideal base for mountaineering in the glaciated Cordillera Real, which is home to most of the country’s 6,000-meter peaks. There’s also a high concentration of sport climbing located in and around La Paz including, Aranjuez, Zongo, Peñas, Pomani and Dragon Dormido.

To the south of the Cordillera Real, the compact Quimsa Cruz range sees very few visitors and offers opportunities for new routes on glaciated peaks in the south and high-quality granite spires in the north. An extensive network of mining roads allows for fairly efficient access to many of the high alpine lakes and glacial valleys.

The volcanic Cordillera Occidental runs along the border with Chile in the northwestern part of the country. The villages of Sajama and Tomarapi both have hostels from which one can attempt to climb Sajama (Bolivia’s highest peak) or one of several 6,000+ meter volcanoes straddling the border with Chile. There’s generally good skiing on these volcanoes from March to May.

The famous Salar de Uyuni and the Abaroa National Park in the far southwest of the country is an otherworldly environment where one can climb nontechnical volcanoes ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 meters.

Getting There Suggest change

Getting to Bolivia from the United States is a bit more difficult than getting to most of the neighboring countries. The only nonstop flight is on the national airline BoA from Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Other options connect through Bogota (Avianca), Lima (Latam) and Panama City (Copa). Domestic transportation is cheap. Buses are fairly safe and reliable, and one can fly cheaply between the major cities. Renting a car, however, can be complicated and expensive. 

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Classic Climbing Routes at Bolivia

Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.
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