Accelerating Time – Climbing Mode, Guides Exams And Breathing Thin Peruvian Air

After the season finale on Pain du Sucre a few weeks ago I totally switched to climbing mode for two weeks of intense training to get ready for our aspirant mountain guide exam. Every second day I was rock climbing and every second day up in the mountains practicing my short roping skills. It was a good and fun period spent in the mountains with good friends.

Then came the exam, which was our last aspirant exam after one and a half year worth of courses and tests. It was to become an intense week in the mountains around La Grave with beautiful traverses, ridges, snow climbs, long rock climbs and alpine ridges. Fortunately it went well and everyone in the group did an amazing job and passed the tests. Now we are all aspirant guides and are about half way through the Swedish UIAGM mountain guide education.

The day after the exam I would have loved to rest and relax after some hard weeks of training, but I just had to wash my clothes and repack my bags. The following day early in the morning I met up with Bjarne Salén and we went to Geneva airport to catch a flight to Lima, Peru.

We had the most effective journey I have ever experienced, and about 35 hours after I left my front door we were rolling in to Huaraz, the mountain capital of the Peruvian Cordillera Blancas.

Here we met with Aldo and Marco at Galaxia Expeditions, and they helped us out with accommodation and logistics for the area. The next day we were already bound for our first acclimatization trip to 5700 meter high Shaqsha.

We spent four days at around 5000meter with one failed attempt on a beautiful line on Shaqsha due to bad ski conditions. But the big objective of breathing thin air was accomplished and we really feel we are in a good phase so far on our little adventure.

Two days of rest has followed and it’s my first real rest days in over a month and now we are ready and motivated to go back in to the wild tomorrow. It’s always interesting to see how the body reacts to the altitude but I feel slightly positive so far and if just the ski conditions are on our side, then I hope to ski some beautiful lines before the month is over.

It’s great to be out on an adventure again with Bjarne and we are both looking forward with excitement to the weeks to come!

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