I had read about the climate patterns before going there, and experienced first hand myself that the winter weather is very stable in the Cordillera Real. Normally it stays that way until the rainy season starts, somewhere in spring. The farmers on and around the altiplano are looking forward the first rains for a long time.
From what I read, you can have an occasional bad day in winter too, but I was lucky, didn't even get one! The only time I didn't have good weather was on Huayna Potosi. The summit was in clouds, but as it wasn't snowing or windy, climbing it was still no problem, just no views from the top, so I wouldn't call that a bad weather day at all.
In the Cordillera Occidental I was somewhat less fortunate - clear skies again, sure, but high winds interfered with climbing there. Perhaps I'll go back there some day and try again. High winds can happen in the Cordillera Real as well of course, although it's not as big a problem. Occasionally we experienced serious winds, but not so bad as to stop us.
If you try again, good luck. And make sure you start as early as possible on Illampu - ideally, you would be on the summit by sunrise, and off the steep face slope again before the sun starts melting it and the rocks start tumbling down.
I finally found my original notes! I had been looking for them for a while already, but couldn't find them. But now that I have, I finally could write a proper TR about it.
rgg - Apr 4, 2011 1:16 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Looks like you had god weatherI had read about the climate patterns before going there, and experienced first hand myself that the winter weather is very stable in the Cordillera Real. Normally it stays that way until the rainy season starts, somewhere in spring. The farmers on and around the altiplano are looking forward the first rains for a long time.
From what I read, you can have an occasional bad day in winter too, but I was lucky, didn't even get one! The only time I didn't have good weather was on Huayna Potosi. The summit was in clouds, but as it wasn't snowing or windy, climbing it was still no problem, just no views from the top, so I wouldn't call that a bad weather day at all.
In the Cordillera Occidental I was somewhat less fortunate - clear skies again, sure, but high winds interfered with climbing there. Perhaps I'll go back there some day and try again. High winds can happen in the Cordillera Real as well of course, although it's not as big a problem. Occasionally we experienced serious winds, but not so bad as to stop us.
If you try again, good luck. And make sure you start as early as possible on Illampu - ideally, you would be on the summit by sunrise, and off the steep face slope again before the sun starts melting it and the rocks start tumbling down.
rgg - Apr 16, 2011 9:06 am - Hasn't voted
Re: Looks like you had god weatherI finally found my original notes! I had been looking for them for a while already, but couldn't find them. But now that I have, I finally could write a proper TR about it.