EXCLUSIVE: Taylorsville climber becomes oldest woman to summit Bolivia’s highest peak

SAJAMA, Peru (ABC4) — A climber from Taylorsville has become the oldest woman to reach the summit of Sajama, Bolivia’s highest point.

On June 4, Carol Masheter, 78, climbed Nevada Sajama during an expedition through the mountains of Bolivia. Just days earlier, Masheter climbed the summit of Acotango, another peak near the Bolivia-Chile border, making her the oldest person (male of female) to do so.

Carol Masheter becomes the oldest woman to scale the highest point in Bolivia (Courtesy: Carol Masheter)

“I’ve been saying ‘one more tall peak’ for the last 20 years, and I just can’t seem to stop I just love it so much,” Masheter told ABC4.com.

The Summit of Sajama stands 21,462 feet high, and few can say they’ve reached the top. However, this is far from Masheter’s first climb.

The first mountain she climbed was in Bolivia in 1997, which is where she learned to adapt to high altitudes and cold weather. By 2008, Masheter summited Mount Everest as a 61-year-old. She says it took about 11 hours to complete the climb.

Masheter says she started mountaineering after a life-changing event at the age of 50 and encourages aspiring climbers to get out and try it.

Now 78 years old, she faces new challenges while climbing. Coming off Sajama was particularly difficult for Masheter, who referred to that leg of the journey as “the night of 1,000 falls.”

“Instead of thinking about the summit, think about what you need to do in the next five minutes, what you need to do in the next hour, and where you need to be by the end of the day… your goal kind of takes care of itself,” she said.

Climbing was not the only adventure of the trip.

Masheter was accompanied by Professor Akiko Kamimura of the University of Utah, who went to Bolivia to collect data for a research project. When they weren’t climbing, Kamimura and Masheter visited lagunas just outside of La Paz where they found flamingos, llamas, and alpacas

Professor Kamimura invited her to come back next year to summit Sajama again. Masheter says she’ll have to check with her doctor before braving the journey one more time.