Quite honestly the hardest thing we have ever done. I thought I might not mention the altitude sickness, thumping headaches, inability to get air into your lungs quickly enough, lovely nose bleeds, turning blue or -20 temperatures but quite frankly, they were all part of the adventure. Day one of the Huayna Potosi adventure was actually brilliant fun, acclimatising to the altitude (4,700m) and practising climbing in cramp-ons and using picks to climb sheer ice walls. Not a natural climber, I surprised myself by loving it. The evening at the Refugio passed with lots of cups of tea and sharing stories with a couple of vets from England who were on a 14-day hiking adventure - and were wisely bypassing Huayna Potosi for lower climbs. By midnight though, it was icy cold - thank god we had invested in some sexy thermals!
Day two we hiked up to high camp (5,200m) which only took us an hour or so with all our gear, water etc on our backs. But with beautiful views over the glacier and the sun high in the sky to keep us warm-ish it was a pretty nice place to relax. The whole camp was in their sleeping bags by 6pm and trying to get some kip before setting off at 2pm the next morning for the BIG day!
So, we woke up at 1am, piled on all our clothes, got on our snow boots and cramp-ons and after a cup of coca tea, we were armed and ready with our ice picks for the ascent to the top of the mountain. I have to say I don't remember much about the climb. When walking in the pitch black, surrounded only by snow, slowly digging in your cramp-ons, cautiously moving one foot in front of the other, with a small headlight and delirious from the cold and panicking that you cannot feel your hands, feet, nose... time goes surprisingly fast.
It was testament to Pete and my relationship that we were still, just about, talking by the end of this expedition. It is quite testing to be tied to your loved one under such extreme conditions. A lovely Canadian friend Jess summed it up well, she conquered the mountain with her boyfriend Justin. 'Did you cry? We were pushed to breaking point that day, like 10,000 times'. Jess, why didn't you tell us this until after we returned to La Paz!
Still, we trudged up the glacier digging our cramp-ons in deep to secure ourselves on the glass-like ice, climbing like this for 6 hours to finally ascent the summit ridge pulling ourselves up with our ice picks, and getting up onto the narrow platform on top of the mountain for sunrise. With the 6080m ridge totally exposed to the wind, the sun was more than welcome and unveiled an incredible landscape of the whole Cordillera Real mountain range, La Paz city, Lake Titicaca and all the way over to Brazil. Quite an amazing view.
As were the views of the glacier now glaringly lit by the morning sun all the way back down to camp, a long route back down to the first nights camp. All in all we hiked 10 hours that night. Thankfully, we had two amazing Bolivian guides with us, Rogelio and Victor, without which I think I would have collapsed on the ice and asked to slide back down (though I think I probably did request this in my exhausted state). I can't believe they do this 3 times a week - wow!
To hike at the altitude is quite an experience, your body and mind do strange things! On return to La Paz at 3pm in the afternoon, Pete disappeared to bed and didn't emerge until the next day. I hadn't been able to eat for a couple of days, so a warm cosy bar and some home-made soup worked for me!
Incredibly Pete has now got his eye on a 13-day expedition up Aconcagua in Argentina, only a mere 6962m. Easy for climbers now so experienced as us he says! Maybe he has it in his genes... hopefully his climbing-star uncle Rab can point us in the right direction for some seriously warm climbing gear for next time, if indeed there is a next time... I might be on the beach with a surf board instead!
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