The Cholitas on top of Mont Blanc

Ana Lia, Estrella, Heydi and Teodora are four Aymara and Quechua women from La Paz, Bolivia. For centuries, their mothers and grandmothers were confined to the roles of cooks, cleaners or housewives. They chose a different path: one of emancipation and recognition.

On 26 August 2025, the four Bolivian women wrote a new chapter in women's and cultural mountaineering by reaching the summit of Mont Blanc.

Climbing peaks against machismo in skirts

They have already climbed numerous peaks — in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina — including Aconcagua (6,961 m) in 2019, the highest peak in the Andes mountain range. They now dream of climbing an 8,000-metre peak in Nepal, but before that, they raised the Bolivian flag on Mont Blanc (4,810 m), accompanied by Agustin, an experienced guide and Ana Lia's father.

These seasoned mountaineers don't wear technical clothing, but rather ‘polleras’, loose-fitting, colourful skirts that swirl in the wind, the emblem of the Cholitas — an affectionate (and formerly pejorative) diminutive of the Spanish word chola. It's a way of asserting themselves, of existing, and of climbing peaks in defiance of conventions, which are often male-dominated.

As with many adventures, the summit is not the most important: it is the journey, the values and the messages conveyed that give the strength to move forward. The Mont Blanc, cradle of Western mountaineering, becomes in turn the scene of a dialogue: that of the encounter between traditions and conquest without domination. This achievement is not just another summit to their credit, it is above all a victory against the limits that the world has assigned to them.

Photo crédits @Ricardo Selvatico