Mountain Climbing in Bolivia to Benefit the PRTC

I love climbing and I love wrestling. The challenges that each of these activities present have always been intriguing to me. I often find myself striving to reach new heights in both climbing and wrestling. I’m truly passionate about both.

I’m putting these two passions together to raise awareness & funds for the Pennsylvania Olympic Regional Training Center (PRTC) in expeditions where I’ll be climbing big mountains in Bolivia from July 22nd to August 5th.

Big mountain climbing requires fitness, focus, perseverance, endurance, teamwork, physical and mental toughness - valuable character traits we also learn through wrestling.

Pequeño Alpamayo rises to 17,749’ from base camp at 15,000’.  Pequeño’s face offers technical sections of mixed rock and ice climbing. Summit day consists of glacier traverse, two pitches of fourth class rock, and then navigating steep ice on a knife-edged ridge.

Illimani rises much higher to 21,125′ from the trailhead at 15,000’ for a gain of 6,125’. Illimani looms over La Paz, with steep flanks and is the tallest in the Cordillera Real mountain range. High camp is at 18,372’. Summit day crosses an exposed ridge and onto broad snow slopes, around crevasse fields, and eventually onto the final, classic, knife-edged summit ridge.

Join me on this great adventure by helping support my effort in the mountains which will directly benefit the PRTC and our Olympic level athletes, as they make their climbs up the World and Olympic wrestling landscape.

• Progress updates will be provided on Instagram @coachrogerreina & @pennsylvaniartc and on Twitter @CoachRogerReina & @pennsylvaniartc