Login
login / signup
It was the highest ski resort in the entire world–until the snow disappeared. Rising above Bolivia’s capital city, La Paz, this once glacier-laden peak was a hot spot for locals and tourists alike. Now a quiet and rocky summit, the simple structures near Chacaltaya’s peak are only a reminder of the mountain’s popularity.
Translated from the Aymara language, the mountain’s name means “cold bridge.” This makes a lot of sense when one realizes the mountain used to have an 18,000-year-old glacier on it. The Chacaltaya glacier was one of the many ice sheets that supplied water to La Paz and the surrounding region. In 1939, it would also begin supplying some fun. With the installation of a rope tow using a car engine, the world’s highest and Bolivia’s only ski resort was born, lifting skiers up to the “top of the world” at 17,785 feet. Along with sporting infrastructure, a chalet, the Club Andino Boliviano, was built to house a working restaurant (still considered the world’s highest by Guinness World Records today).
📸: Lesly Derksen
/ 2
Through the 20th century, the ski resort was a popular destination for avid slalomers, with visitors coming from all over the world to test their mettle on the notoriously difficult rope tow. By the 1990s, however, it was growing apparent that the massive glacier was quickly shrinking due to climate change. Almost a decade later, scientists predicted the glacier would be gone by 2015. The ice melted so fast it beat that prediction by six years. No longer conducive for large amounts of snow to lie out for skiing, the resort died along with its natural neighbor.
While mostly abandoned now, the chalet still has two permanent residents, Samuel and Adolfo Mendoza, who provide food options to the occasional mountainside visitor (hence it still holds that world record). Once frequent users of the ski slope, the brothers are now caretakers of its memory. Sometimes enough snow does still cover the mountain for skiing, but with the rope tow now abandoned, most visitors elect to choose only a hot meal with a view.
