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MZ: So what happened?
We flew into La Paz and got picked up by a crazy German guy and some Bolivians, then drove down into the city. The airport is on a plateau at about 4000 meters and as you descend into the city, you go through all the slums. The deeper you go into the city, the nicer it gets.

We hung out in La Paz for a bit then drove back up to the plateau and then all the way to the mountains, way down into Sorata Valley where Illampu sits.

We did a lot of hiking to acclimatize. It was so remote we didn't really see any people. We saw a few locals every couple of hours but they were busy farming and looking after their crops.

MZ: The locals - what was their gear like compared to yours?
(Laughs) They take car tires and cut the tread to the same shape as their foot, then they take a piece of string and strap their foot in and walk around in it. They farm in that and everything. I had blisters with fresh socks and liners everyday - their feet are so tough. They've got big legs, too. They're burly characters to be able to live like that.

MZ: Did you see anyone else?
Once we left the villages we didn't see anybody for atleast a week while we were camping up on the side glacier, looking at our objective - 6368 meters of pure, steep, steep snowboarding.

MZ: Who were you with?
Stian Hagen, an extreme skier from Norway, Xandi Kreuzeder, a photographer and skier from Germany and Freddy Jakoby, who didn't climb with us but filmed the descent from across the valley.