Facing a Guardian of the Valley
A high-altitude descent in the Andes
A high-altitude descent in the Chilean Andes
The Inca worshipped the mountains as protective deities. These guardians of the valley were called apuwamani in Quechua, the language of the Inca. An ambitious bike project in Chile was created for riding five of these mountains to raise awareness of the history of these people who are no longer. All of these mountains are higher than 5,000 m in altitude, some more than 6,000. In 2017, I got an invitation to trek up and ride down the last big mountain of this multiyear project.
Llullaillaco is the third-highest mountain in Chile and is in the running for the highest active volcano on Earth at 6,739 m. It has very little ice and snow compared with other mountains of this height, likely thanks to its neighbour, the Atacama Desert. Llullaillaco lies hundreds of kilometres away from any urban centres. It’s often surrounded by heavy storms and often temperatures less than -30 C. Those could be the reasons it’s rarely visited by mountaineers. I thought it sounded like an exciting riding goal. I told Patricio “Pato” Goycoolea, the project’s creator, that I would gladly accept his invitation. Martin Bissig, a photographer and friend from Switzerland, would come with me.
This past Novemeber, we landed in Santiago, Chile’s capital. We met Pato. Later, at a bike park, we met the two Nicos: Nicolas Gantz, our cameraman, and enduro rider Nico Prudencio. Finally, at a barbecue, the rest of the team joined us: Sebastian Prieto Donoso, photographer, Benjamin Camus, the second
cameraman, and Federico Scheuch, another mountain biker. We spent the next two days in the mountains near Santiago getting to know each other and acclimatizing to the elevation. The first peak we reached together was at 3,850 m. Everybody was feeling good, although Martin and I were the slowest.
With pickups loaded, we left the city the next morning toward the north to the Atacama Desert. Chile is a long, narrow country with a little more than 4,000 km of coastline. The coast was constantly to our left. Cliffs, rocks and sand were always on the right. We finally made our first stop for the night near Baja Englais. It was still light out when we arrived. We couldn’t wait to finally move, so we rode a few epic lines along the Pacific Coast and enjoyed the sunset over the ocean. It was sublime.
Next day, same type of route. The endless desert again. Time went by slowly. We finally arrived at the desert oasis San Pedro de Atacama around evening. They say there are two kinds of tourists here. Some are here for the amazing landscape and nature. Others come for the cocaine. The Bolivian border is only a few kilometres away, so it seems to be the ideal place for drug trafficking. We, on the other hand, came to further acclimatize and enjoy nature.
The area around San Pedro is one of the most arid regions
in the world. For every month but January, the monthly average rainfall is 5 mm or less. At the Valle de la Luna, just 15 km outside of the city, we carried our bikes up several slopes to follow the backs and ridges of the rock and sand formations back down to the valley floor. Surely, it was some of the most impressive downhills we’ve ever ridden. After days of travel, we reached Llullaillaco National Park. The volcano had been visible for kilometres. I could understand how the Inca saw gods in these mountains. Two hours later, we pulled up to small cabins at 4,200 m, our base camp. The next day, we packed for the high camps. Only the bare necessities were to go with us, and we couldn’t forget anything. We were able to drive to our first camp at 4,800 m with our vehicles. We fought up the slopes of the volcano in first gear and stopped between large boulders. Our backpacks went and then we rode off. We wanted to get some gear up to 5,300 m that day. We made our way slowly on the loose volcanic rock, breathing heavily in the thin air. The view became more and more spectacular. It’s amazing how diverse the colours of the different types of rock were. Even though there were still some small bushes and shrubs around base camp, there was nothing green anymore. Slopes of gravel pulled endlessly toward the sky. We could only vaguely imagine what it would be like to carry our bikes up there. We sat for a while, taking in the mountain. Devout silence. Only the wind howled
“The volcano had been visible for kilometres. I could understand how the Inca saw gods in these mountains.”
around the rocks from time to time, sometimes more, sometimes less.
After our descent, we put up our tents next to the vehicles. It turned ice cold as soon as the sun was gone. The temperature range in the desert is enormous. It can get as high as 40 C during the day. At night temperatures drop to the double-digit sub-zero range.
The next day, we carried our bikes up as high as possible so we’d only have the weight of them on our backs for as short as possible on our summit day. We also had to bring everything we had left at 5,300 m the day before up to our camp at 5,600 m. The backpacks were really heavy now – tents, food, crampons, warm clothes and our bikes. We all had at least 20 kg to carry. The penitentes – snow and ice pyramids formed though uneven melting in the strong and direct sunlight and low humidity – were difficult to get through. They could be as high as 2 m. It took us more than 20 minutes to cover 100 m in some parts. It got steeper and steeper on our way to the high camp. The fine gravel
got coarser, and the rocks continued to grow bigger. Pretty soon we were balancing on huge boulders: a really tough endeavour with our bikes. I was done for the day at 5,600 m. The path farther up became even steeper and the boulders bigger. Beyond that, a huge snowfield followed. Pato, Frederico and Nico continued to fight up a few more metres in altitude. I hadn’t slept well the night before and didn’t feel very well acclimatized to the altitude. I felt like the ascent was too fast for me. I would have liked to spend another night at 4,800 m
“Completely alone on the volcanic slopes, a few kilometres through the Atacama Desert to the cabins at base camp. I was in awe of the beauty of this hostile environment.”
to better adapt. The rest of the team felt well, so we stuck to our timetable and descended to the vehicles to drive down to the base camp. A rest day was planned before an attempt at the summit.
Everyone slept in the next morning. The past two days had been demanding after all. Martin and I wanted to spend another night higher up to adjust to the elevation. We packed our things at noon to set up our camp at 5,300 m while the others stayed in base camp. It was an overwhelming evening up there, just two of us, in this grand volcanic landscape. I woke up at night because I felt sick. I got the shivers and had to puke. The next day, I still had a headache and didn’t feel well at all. Martin had no problems. The rest of the team made it up. There was a big hello. I decided to get my bike back down from our high camp since I saw no chance that I’d be able to carry my bike to the peak in the condition I was in. No mountain is worth seriously risking one’s health. The possibility that I’d make it to the peak unscathed was zero. I said goodbye to my friends with a heavy heart and sat there for a bit while they continued up. The following ride down to base camp was extremely exhausting, but also a very special experience: completely alone on the volcanic slopes, a few kilometres through the Atacama Desert to the cabins at base camp. I was in awe of the beauty of this hostile environment.
The rest of the team got on their way to the summit at midnight. It was -25 C. They went up a steep gully, then they put on crampons at the edge of the snowfield. They made their way up carefully to a ridge. The boulders soon reached the size of small cars. They took a short break when the first rays of sunlight reached them. It was hard going because of the huge rock. Martin was the first to reach the summit around 2 p.m. The rest followed and made it to the peak, 6,739 m, at 3:30 p.m., with bikes on their backs. They were the first to carry up their bikes from the Chilean side for sure. They didn’t spend much time on the summit since it was now late in the day. Riding down was impossible at first. The terrain was much too blocky, so they had to carry their bikes once again. Everybody was extremely tired and weak. The first rideable passage was on the snowfield. Then they rested. Biking at this altitude is extremely gruelling. The huge gravel slope to camp from 5,800 to 5,300 m was a highlight for Pato, Frederico and Nico. They collected their gear and waited for the others.
The symptoms of altitude sickness usually disappear immediately when you move to a lower altitude. I was feeling much better as I followed the team’s descent from base camp via radio. It started to get dark and I grew a bit worried. It was 10 p.m. When I heard that everyone had arrived at the vehicles, I started cooking. My friends had been up for 24 hours. Of course, they had to be hungry. We hugged, and I congratulated them. I thought they would fall into their beds immediately, dead tired. But the adrenalin kept them awake for a while. We celebrated the success for a few hours.
It wasn’t just the success on Llullaillaco, but the grand finale of the Guardian del Valle, Pato’s entire project. The peak is the last apuwamani he’d summit. It would continue to guard the Atacama Desert long after our departure.