APU WAMAMI
Llullaillaco is the third highest volcano on Earth, at 6739 metres. It’s also the highest mountain with no glacial coverage, which is surely due to its location, enthroned in the most arid part of Chile’s Atacama Desert. It lies hundreds of kilometres away from any civilization, is frequently surrounded by heavy storms, and more often than not sees temperatures below minus 30 degrees celsius. Those could be the reasons it’s rarely visited by mountaineers, but it sounded like an exciting goal to ride; I gladly accepted Pato’s invitation. Pato, short for Patricio, brought to life an interesting project: Guardian del Valle. He took it upon himself to ride the Guardians of the Valley by bike—five mountains over 5000 metres tall.
My involvement began in Africa a few years ago, following a bike trip to Mt Kilimanjaro. After the trip video was published in 2017, I received a message from one Patricio Goycoolea: “#bigmountainbike. Come to Chile! We ride big mountains here.” It was the beginning of a long conversation that laid the groundwork for my trip to the Southern Hemisphere.
Even though I didn’t know the names of all my travel companions, I was sure they had convenient conditions for acclimatization at home, since they were all from Chile’s capital Santiago, where the mountains rise up to almost 6000 metres just a few kilometres outside the city. It’s easy to spend a few days in thin air here. The process of getting
