APU WAMANI: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE GODS

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