Cholitas Escalador: Women who emancipated themselves by becoming climbers

They could only work as cooks in base camps, but never climb to the top of mountains. They won their battle, and now they also want to become mountain guides.

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Grupos de escaladoras aymaras

Lidia was born into an Aymara community in Bolivia. For many years, she worked as a cook at mountain expedition base camps, preparing meals for guides and climbers heading to the great Andean peaks. At that time, indigenous women were rarely considered key players in mountaineering: their role was often limited to support work.

Over time, Lidia and other women in her situation began to wonder why they couldn't climb mountains too. Many were wives of mountain guides and were already familiar with the high-altitude environment. So they began training and taking part in the ascents.

Initially they climbed mountains in Bolivia such as the Huayna Potosi, a peak over 6.000 meters high near La Paz. What caught the world's attention was the fact that many of them continued to wear elements of traditional Aymara dress, such as polleras—wide, traditional skirts in bright colors—over their technical mountain gear.

Their most famous feat came in 2019, when a group of Cholitas Escaladoras reached the top of theAconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, at 6.961 meters. For women who came from backgrounds often marked by social, economic, and ethnic discrimination, it was a highly symbolic achievement.

Like Lidia, many women were condemned to merely working as cooks at base camps during mountaineers' and tourists' excursions. This was real discrimination, often coupled with episodes of violence they were victims of. Every time one of them asked to accompany the expedition to the summit, the response was always the same: "Impossible, you wouldn't be able to reach the top." And now, thanks to the achievements of the Cholitas Escaladoras group, Bolivian women can not only reach the summit, but very soon they will also be able to become mountain guides. And offer fair competition to men.

Cover photo taken from Wikipedia

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