Ice Climbing to 6,088 Meters / 19,974 Feet - The Most Difficult Thing I've Ever Done

Instead of going back to Argentina as planned and spending my day drinking good wine, eating good steak and enjoying life, I decided to climb Huayna Potosi in Bolivia because it looked awesome, 7 of the people I was traveling with were doing it, AND it only cost $120US for 3 days (so cheap compared to the 1/2 hour ice climbing I did in Patagonia for $50US). Although I knew it would be somewhat difficult, I had NO idea what I was getting myself into... And, let's just say that the next time I hear a pilot tell me we have reached 20,000 feet, it will have new meaning.

DAY 1:
Already acclimated to Bolivia's high altitude cities, the 8 of us headed to base camp #1. We spent the day mountaineering. Sometimes, we were strapped into a harness while others, we had to be extra careful. The day was important because we learned how to properly fall in order to stop ourselves from disappearing down a snow covered cliff. It was also loads of fun and quite difficult at times, like when we ice climbed an inverted (slanted towards you) 85 degree wall.

At this point, we were at about 4,700 meters. Some of us started getting headaches and all of us began to loose our appetites. Eating became a chore. We HAD to do it because of how much physical activity we were in for and how fast our heart's were beating. Mine, beat at a pace of 19 beats in 10 seconds. An average resting heart rate is about 70 or 75 beats per minute but at the rate I was going, it was more like 114. Was I worried? Hell yeah! And, the only thing that did was put more thoughts into my head about the possibility of my heart exploding or my fainting on top of the mountain.

As if that wasn't enough, when we all went to sleep (or tried to go to sleep), I ended up waking up and thinking the window in the room I was sleeping in was the light at the end of the tunnel. I turned to my friend Calli to see if she was still awake, but she didn't respond, so, I had to calm myself down, breathe slowly, and tell myself that I wasn't going to die and shouldn't run out of the refuge and turn back at 4 in the morning. Not only was this incident caused by paranoia, but altitude induced hallucinations as well.

DAY 2:
We all woke up, exchanged stories about how we slept and how the altitude was affecting us, force fed breakfast down our throats and headed to base camp #2, located at 5,200 meters.

The 3 hour hike to the next lodging location was no joke. I'm 5'2 and 110 pounds. Lugging a big backpacking backpack filled with metal crampons, 5 layers of clothing, heavy boots, an ice pick, harness, water, sneakers, toiletries and chocolate, weighing about as much as I do, was not my idea of a good time. To make things worse, the road was really rocky and at times, we had to crawl up on our hands and knees, or be careful not to twist an ankle or break a knee on a loose rock.

As we continued along, the guys got farther ahead than Calli and I. Together, we climbed, took breaks, and renewed the vital altitude helping coca leaves in our cheeks. Occasionally, we would meet some people on their way back. From talking to them, we learned that only 3 out of 9 made it to the top. We met a girl whose nose started bleeding before she fainted and collapsed half way. We also met guys who had to turn back either because they vomited or got bad headaches. And, finally, we met a girl who made it. Though it took her longer, she did it and said she cried at the top because it was the most difficult thing she'd ever done. At that point, Calli and I got worried, because this rocky uphill hike with heavy backpacks on our backs was already about the most difficult thing we'd ever done.

3 hours of hell later, we made it to the second base camp. Now, we REALLY had no appetite, but once again, had to shove bread, soup, coca tea etc. down our throats. Then, it was rest time, dinner, and sleep at 7pm.

DAY 3:
At 1am, it was go time. Nervous? Yeah... something like that... But, I was determined to make it, and so happy to have Calli along. I hadn't really had any altitude problems yet, didn't need to take a pill, and felt that if I just went dead turtle pace, I could do it.

We all put on almost everything we owned, got our headlamps on our heads, and started the march uphill. About 5 steps into it, I, and everyone else, were already huffing and puffing. It was going to be a looooooong night.

While we all started out together, we ended up in teams of 2 with a guide. Calli and I were strapped behind our guide, holding on to a rope. At times, he wanted to go faster because he does this climb all the time, but I wouldn't let him. I knew that if I was gonna make it, I couldn´t go fast so, I took my time.

All of a sudden, I found myself climbing up a practically vertical cliff in pitch black darkness and having to cross over one of its peaks to the other side of the cliff before going further up. That's when Calli and I´s conversation turned into something like this:

"WHY THE HELL ARE WE DOING THIS?!!"
"OMG I´M GONNA DIE! DO YOU SEE WHAT WE ARE HANGING OFF OF??! AND COULD FALL FROM IF ONE PIECE OF ICE BREAKS?!"
"JUST DON´T LOOK DOWN. OR FALL. BECAUSE THEN WE'RE BOTH DEAD! YOU CAN DO IT!"
"WE JUST PAID $120 TO DIE! WE ARE THE DUMBEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! THIS IS SO UNSAFE!"
"NO, NO! WE JUST PAID $120 TO GO TO HIGH ALTITUDE, CHEW COCA ALL THE TIME, LOOSE OUR APPETITE, GET HEADACHES, HIKE 3 HOURS YESTERDAY WITH OUR BACKPACKS ON, WAKE UP AT 1AM, HIKE CLIFFS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DARK NIGHT AND HAVE SNOW BALLS ROLL RIGHT BY US AS IF A BIG AVALANCHE IS GOING TO COME SWEEP US AWAY! WE ARE SO STUPID!"

"Watch out for the giant hole in the ice right there," said our guide once we were no longer hanging off the cliff.

"Thanks...."

And yet, we couldn´t turn back. We were determined.

My head started hurting so I took an altitude pill. Thankfully, it never hurt again and soon, the sun came out and made us feel a lot better.

But, 6,000 meters into it and 88 to go, Calli couldn´t walk anymore. She´d hurt her knee on the rocky hike the day before and had to stop. She was so close and tried to continue, but absolutely could not. So, she turned back and joined another guy who ended up having to do the same because he vomited and felt sick.

We hugged, started crying, and then I had to go on. If I was sick, I´d turn back, but for pure exhaustion, I couldn´t.

1.5 hours to go, it was just me and the guide. I could see the top and it looked so close, but it wasn't. That last part took a long time and was the most difficult part of the climb.

My climbing became a little something like this:
1) Jam the ice pick in with as much power as I had (none)
2) Move feet up a little
3) Drop knees to ice
4) Drop head to ice
5) Cry and ask myself why I'm (still) doing this
6) Repeat

Soon enough though, I realized no one cared that I was crying, and it was pointless. So, I stopped, and that´s when I hit the crampon length walking trail on top of the mountain. "You are INSANE! I am NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN!" I told my guide.

"This is what mountaineering is."

"I´m going to die."

"Don´t worry. Go slow. You are tied to me so you will not go down the cliff"

(My as* you will stop me! You are barley bigger than I am and this cliff is about 80 degrees) "Has anyone ever fallen down and died?"

"No. Just broken a few limbs"

Oh... right, I thought.... broken an arm and leg in the middle of nowhere with god knows how long it took to see a doctor or how they even got down.... 'just a few limbs'...

But, some how, some way, I made it to the top.

"Yeah Ana!!"
"You are the toughest woman I know"
"Are you looking for a husband?," my guy friends said as I put my goggles over my eyes and started crying because I was terrified, happy I'd made it, and had no idea how in the world I would get down safely.

"I would rather serve 2 more weeks in Iraq than have to climb this mountain again!" said Rickey. That right there goes to show you just how awful and hard it was. According to our guides (none of which apparently thought I would make it because I´m a small, slow and female), this hike was harder than the Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Americas), though much shorter.

I still can´t believe I made it to the top! It is one of my hardest and most rewarding accomplishments to date. We´ll see if I still end up doing Kilimanjaro in a few months... I haven´t decided if I want to spend 1K to climb a shorter mountain without ice now that I´ve done this one, but, you never know. What I do know, however, is that there better be some coca for that climb! Say all you want against cocaine, but coca and coca leaf production is sooooo so SOOOOO important in helping people deal with high altitude (and that's aside from the other effects it has like helping digestion).

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