The Inca worshipped the mountains as protective
deities. These 'Guardians of the Valley' were called
Apu Wamani in Quechua, their native tongue.
Recently a group of ambitious riders set out to
conquer five of these legendary mountains to raise
awareness of the history of these people that are
no longer. I accepted an invitation to the last big
mountain of this multi-year expedition.
At 6739m, Llullaillaco is the third highest volcano
on Earth. It's also the highest peak with no glacial
coverage, which is surely due to the fact that it sits
enthroned in the most arid part of the Atacama
desert in Chile. It lies hundreds of kilometres from any
modern civilisation and is often surrounded by heavy
storms with temperatures regularly dropping below
minus 30 degrees Celsius.
All these reasons conspire to ensure it's rarely
visited by mountaineers, making it an exciting
goal for myself. So I told Pato I would gladly accept
his invitation.
Pato, short for Patricio, called the project to life.
He took it upon himself to ride the Guardian del
Valle. All the mountains involved are over 5000m in
altitude with some more than 6000 just like his final
hurdle, Llullaillaco.
Strictly speaking my trip to Chile began in Africa
on Mount Kilimanjaro. After the video of this trip
was posted in May 2017 I received a message from
Pato. It simply read, 'Come to Chile! We ride big
mountains here.' It was the beginning of a long email
conversation that laid the groundwork for my trip to
the Southern Hemisphere.BIKING IN CHILEMasters of
their domain?