European Couple Sets Two-Up Motorcycle Altitude Record on Bolivia’s Uturuncu Volcano
Updated: 11 hours ago
Pascal and Stephanie Moscato reached 5,629 meters off-road on a Honda Africa Twin, surpassing the strongest known two-up benchmark by 29 meters.
By Atlas Editorial Team
10 September 2026 • Quetena Chico [Bolivia]
At 5,629 meters above sea level, almost everything is short of breath.
People are. Machines are too.
On April 7, 2026, Pascal Moscato pointed a Honda Africa Twin CRF1100 up the battered flank of Bolivia’s Uturuncu volcano with his wife, Stephanie Moscato, behind him. They had crossed sand, ice, water, loose rock and terrain partially erased by the mountain itself. They had prepared for the altitude, studied the route, and even rebuilt a critical section of track the previous day.
Eventually, none of that mattered.
The Africa Twin simply ran out of mountain-going power.
At 5,629 meters, on a brutally steep final section, Pascal opened the throttle. The motorcycle could give no more. With both riders still aboard, it came to a standstill.
Atlas World Records has now recognized Pascal and Stephanie Moscato for the Highest Altitude Reached Off-Road on a Motorcycle with a Passenger.
Where the Road Stops Being a Road
Uturuncu rises more than 6,000 meters from Bolivia’s remote Altiplano, near the small community of Quetena Chico. Decades ago, sulfur mining brought a rough road high onto the volcano. Time has not been kind to it.
Landslides, runoff, erosion, ice and loose volcanic material continually redraw the route. Pascal and Stephanie knew this before they arrived.
That uncertainty was part of the attraction.
They had also done their homework. Nearly two decades earlier, Austrian motorcycle travelers Joe and Renate Pichler had ridden two-up on Uturuncu. Historical reporting places Renate on the motorcycle to approximately 5,600 meters before she dismounted; Joe then continued alone to 5,796 meters.
The Moscatos knew the story well.
“Joe and Renate's travel adventures around the world were a huge inspiration for our own trip,” they told Atlas. By coincidence, they had even met the couple in Santiago, Chile.
So 5,600 meters became more than a number. It became a line on the mountain.
The day before their attempt, Pascal and Stephanie hiked all the way to Uturuncu’s 6,008-meter summit to acclimatize and study the terrain. At roughly 5,600 meters they found a badly damaged section of the old route and spent precious energy preparing a way through.
They knew why it mattered.
“We knew we had to make it over this part to surpass the previous benchmark,” they said.
Ralph Runs Out of Air
Their motorcycle has a name.
Ralph.
Ralph is a Honda Africa Twin CRF1100, chosen not because it was the lightest machine for the job—it decidedly was not—but because it was the motorcycle Pascal trusted for the couple’s two-year journey through South and North America.
They altered the suspension setup, fitted off-road tires, shortened the gearing and used a high-flow air filter. Most of their luggage was left behind in Chile before they entered Bolivia.
The riders had been on the road for eight months by then. Sand, corrugations and rough tracks were familiar. Extreme altitude was not.
At 4,000 meters, Pascal could already feel the motorcycle losing strength. Above 5,000, the difference became dramatic. Every lost bit of momentum mattered more.
For Stephanie, being the passenger did not mean being passive.
She had to read the terrain, anticipate the motorcycle and shift her weight with Pascal. “I still have to be very active,” she explained. There was also the unusual psychological bargain of riding terrain she admits she would not attempt herself while surrendering the controls to someone else.
“I trust Pascal’s riding skills more than I trust my own.”
Near the top, the old route became so badly washed out that they deviated onto a steep shortcut. They made it through the difficult section without falling.
Then Ralph began to surrender.
Pascal estimates that the motorcycle had lost roughly half of its normal power in the thin air. He shifted into first gear and used full throttle. The engine continued running, but forward motion disappeared.
At 5,629 meters, the motorcycle stopped climbing.
Pascal deliberately stalled the engine so its compression would help prevent the bike from rolling backward down the steep slope. Both riders remained aboard at the high point.
An independent Atlas witness, Clément Cristin, later confirmed that he personally watched Pascal and Stephanie arrive together on the Africa Twin at 5,629 meters, with Pascal riding and Steffi still seated as passenger. Laura and Marcelo were also part of the support team on Uturuncu and helped witness and document the attempt.
They had beaten the known 5,600-meter two-up benchmark by 29 meters.
A Small Adventure Inside a Very Large One
The record was never the whole journey.
Pascal and Stephanie sold what they had at home and set out on a two-year motorcycle trip across South and North America. Uturuncu was, as they describe it, “a little adventure during our big adventure.”
That may be the right scale for understanding it.
World records have a tendency to reduce complicated human experiences to a number. Here the number is 5,629.
But getting there involved altitude sickness, coca leaves, a 6,008-meter acclimatization hike, route repair, sand, ice, freezing nights, a heavy motorcycle, an old mining road coming apart under the Andes, and two people who have learned that marriage conducted through motorcycle intercoms sometimes benefits from simply switching the intercoms off.
They describe traveling two-up as “a stress test for our marriage.”
Apparently, the marriage survived Uturuncu.
So did Ralph.
Their next stated destination is Tuktoyaktuk in northern Canada, where the road reaches the Arctic Ocean and the landscape presents a very different kind of emptiness.
Asked what larger message they would attach to the record, the Moscatos offered something considerably less solemn than the altitude might suggest:
“Make peace, love and legalize wheelies.”
At 5,629 meters, perhaps seriousness has already become another unnecessary piece of luggage.
You can follow Pascal and Stephanie's adventure here:
Instagram: 2upmotoadv & cramec.yt
YouTube: cramec
Certified by Atlas World Records on 9 September 2026