Apex Bolivia 2001 left Edinburgh at 9am on Sunday 18th March 2001. The following morning, we flew from London to La Paz...

At over two vertical miles above sea-level, La Paz (3630m; pictured on the right), the capital of Bolivia, is the highest capital city in the world. We spent four days there to acclimatise before ascending by jeep to the rudimentary laboratory at 5200m on Chacaltaya, a mountain near La Paz. There we stayed for the next ten days. The lab is usually used for cosmic physics research.

During our time in the lab we conducted our experiments. Most of the work was done on three "sample days", when the team assembled our equipment and set about taking blood samples, testing our breathing and heart function, inhaling Roger's cough stimulant, and doing computer tests of brain function.

200 metres above the lab, the peak of Chacaltaya was a popular place to visit to watch the amazing sunrises and sunsets, and to get terrific views of El Alto and La Paz. Just another 10-15 minutes further along a ridge was Chacaltaya mountain itself. From both these summits, we had great views of the famous Illimani, and other nearby mountains, provided the clouds stayed away.

After our time in the lab, we descended to La Paz again breifly, before most of the team travelled to Sajama. We had a choice of mountains so that we didn't get caught out by bad weather (we did't want to go all that way and get rained off!), the choice being between Illimani (6440m), Parinakhota (6330m) and Sajama (6520m). We selected Sajama on the advice of our guides, . Unfortunately the weather on our summit day was quite poor and only a handful of the group made it to the summit.

After returning from Sajama, we had a few days to do some sightseeing before heading home on the 11th of April.