Mt. Rainier Kautz Glacier Climb

I am way behind on posting photos from the trips I have done lately, so hopefully I will have a bunch of posts in the next week or so. I will start with my latest trip since it has the fewest photos to sort through.

A Mt. Rainier greeting agent. Much more friendly than the Rangers. Actually the rangers were great! Not like North Cascades National Park.

Here is a panorama from our camp. Mt. St. Helens in the distance.
Crossing the Nisqualy Glacier.

Justin, Kate, and Liz.

Another guide services camp below us.

Scott near the summit.

Scott at the summit.

Liz with about ten steps to go.

Fist Bump!

The rappel down the Kautz Ice Chute.

Kate back at camp.

Heading out in less than perfect weather.

A panorama of the entire Muir Snowfield.

American Alpine Institute Bolivia Trip: Part 3 Illimani

I am back in the not so sunny Pacific Northwest. While on many hours of flights yesterday I sorted through hundreds of photos from the Bolivia trip. Not only did I sort the ones from the part 3 but I went back and added photos from part 1 and 2 so be sure to go back through the previous 2 blog posts to see some new photos.

The last few days of Part 2 consist of a summit of Huayna Potosi. I got a nice photo of it, but unfortunately did not climb it due to the flu.

Kids when we got off the bus at the base of Illimani.

One of our porters and a horse.

AAI guide Juan with north summit of Illimani in background.

Some porters coming down from high camp.

This lady kind of makes me ashamed to not be carrying my own stuff up to high camp.

Diccon making the last few steps to the summit.

On the summit. Diccon giving the universal "I feel great" sign.

Summit shot.

Heading down with the summit in the background.

The north peak in black and white.
This guy greeted us back to camp. This photo does no justice to how big these birds are.

Leaving La Paz. The houses of the Altiplano catching early morning light.
El Alto and La Paz from the air with Huayna Potosi in the background.
See you next year Bolivia.

American Alpine Institute Bolivia Trip: Part 2 Climbing in the Cordillera Real

We just got back from part 2 of the AAI Bolivia trip in the Cordillera Real. This was a great trip in an amazing area and we managed to tag three summits along the way.

The first day we take a boat to an island on lake Titicaca.

Later that day we head up to a base camp which we spent the week at. Here the burros bring all our gear up to camp.

Next day we did our first acclimatization hike. Here Diccon reaches the col with Huayna Potosi in the background.

From the summit we have a great view of Condoriri and izquierda (left) wing. Two days later Danny and Diccon made an attempt at the Izquierda via the huge snow face in the center. They turned around about three pitches from the top due to being short on time.

This is a close up of Cabeza (head) of the condor.

A group shot on the summit of Pico Austria. Over 16,000ft.

The next day we climbed our second summit (Piramide Blanca). Unfortunately the white pyramid no longer has any white and should be renamed the black pyramid. This peak was over 17,000ft.

On the summit of Piramide Blanca. Our campsite is located between the two lakes in the background.

From the summit we could see our next objective. If you look carefully you can see several people climbing the left ridge to the summit.

The other AAI group heading back down the glacier as seen from the summit.

The next day we did some water ice climbing near the base of the glacier. This was good technical practice.

Juans son doing some ice climbing.

Ray after getting down from climbing.

We do things right at AAI. Birthdays in the mountains are important too. A hand carried cake for Jim's birthday.

That night I spent some of the evening shooting some photos.

After a much needed rest day it was time to climb again. On our way to our main goal of the day we climb over a first summit and down the other side. Here another group of climbers head to the summit of Tarija.

Diccon on the summit of Tarija.

Our main objective for the day (Pequeno Alpamayo). The Standard route heads up the ridge split by sun and shade. Our route would be the direct route up the face to the summit. We started just to the left of the rock and after two pitches traversed right below the horizontal band of rock 3/4 of the way up the route. The last pitch followed the perfect snow ridge on the right skyline and finished directly on the summit.

From the top of the second pitch we could see our other group heading up the normal route.

Diccon near the top of pitch 2.

Looking down from the pitch 3 belay.

Diccon nearing the belay.

On the way down.

Heading out the next day

Back at the bus.

Amazing skys on the way back to La Paz.

Wildlife of the Bolivian Andes.

I try not to post photos of marginal quality on this blog, but this post will break that rule. For the last two weeks I have been climbing and trekking in the Cordillera Real here in Bolivia. I don't consider my self a birder, but I do like to know what the birds and animals I am seeing around me are. Having never been to South America and having no field guide, my only chance of identifying the birds I am seeing is to try and shoot a photo of them and them and hope it is good enough to identify later. Here are some of the photos I shot in the last couple of weeks. Some are quite good from a photo standpoint, some are really bad, but hopefully they will help me identify the birds. Some of the birds were pretty easy to identify so I have labeled them. Others I am still searching for.

Andean Geese



Bar-winged Cinclodes

Andean Flicker

White winged diuca finch.

Juvenile Caracara.

Not a bird. Some type of funky kangaroo rabbit hybrid. These things would make a great "b" horror movie subject.

Rufous-Collared Sparrow?

Not a bird, but I thought it was kind of cool.

Some type of coot? It looked like a coot, but its call and behavior was very different from ones I have seen in North America.

Mountain Caracara. Our local guide Juan informed us that this bird is said to bring good luck, which is always nice when you are sitting on the top of a 17,000ft summit and one glides by.



Some type of waterfoul. Yea that does not narrow it down much, but I am a crappy birder.

Puna Ibis

Andean Lapwing.

A beautiful bird that I only saw once on this trip. I know its a really crappy photo, but it should do.

Andean Gulls on Lake Titicaca.

Short Winged Grebe

Crested Ducks

Andean Condor. This guy flew withing 30ft of our camp, but unfortunately I did not have the 200mm lens at 18,000ft so this picture kind of sucks.

If anyone knows what any of the question mark birds are I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave it in the comments.

Thanks.

American Alpine Institute Bolivia Trip: Part 1 Treking in the Cordillera Real

Just got back from part 1 of the American Alpine Institute Bolivia trip. This year we had to change the trek due to a landslide making the regular trek impossible. This trek was so good that we may never do the old trek again.

Sheep herder.
One of our hardest working members. We used mules burros and horses to carry most of the load.
After a short climb we were on a vast plateau at 14,500 ft.
An Andean caracara, said to bring good luck.
Susan on the other side of the plateau where we head down to our camp deep in the valley in above her head.
The group heads down.
Lots of stars.
Danny getting to know the burros.
A locals home.
Climbing out the other side of the valley.
Our camp.
There is a hut system being developed here in the Bolivian Andes. This hut was newly build and not open yet.
The group crossing over a high pass at 16,000ft. Huayna Potosi in the background.
Group shot.
Heading down into the next valley and our camp for the night.
The vast dry valleys are amazing here.
The group.
Heading down to a lunch spot.
Mamerto and Juan.

Juan and Susan

Jim

Jim and Danny

Nancy and Margen
One of the many areas of the trek that has no trail.
Llamas
Condoriri with some young locals in the foreground.
Baby llama.
Local kids at our camp.
Sunrise near camp.
The final day of our trek.

Heading back to La Paz.