Bolivian indigenous women break barriers through mountaineering

Janet Mamani (left) and Cecilia Llusco, Aymara, two indigenous women members of the Climbing Cholitas of Bolivia Warmis, play a football match at about 6,000 m, in the last flat area before making summit at the 6.088-metre Huayna Potosi mountain, near El Alto, Bolivia. – Photos: AFP

A sudden gale drowns out the crunching sound of footsteps on the ice and makes skirts billow in the freezing night.

Ten indigenous Aymara women slowly trek up a Bolivian mountainside in their traditional dress as a statement of their emancipation.