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Published: January 2nd 2009
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Huayna Potosi
Dar she blows... Thoroughly bored of pollution, crazy drivers and boozing me and Melissa decided we had to get out of La Paz and be a little productive. The last time i was here i really wanted to climb Mount Potosi which is a measly 6088 metres(2500 off Everest). Its suppose to be one of the most accessible 6000+ metre mountains in the world. We didn't realise how productive we would need to be!!
When we signed up for the trip we had to get a fitting for our gear(ice axe, crampons, the lot). It kind of dawned on us then that this wouldn't be a stroll. So off we went to the mountain which was an hour out of La Paz. Our plan was a 3 day 2 nights and the first day was training but 2 Swedish guys were gonna do it over 2 days and 1 night which sounded mad to us.
We pulled up our beautiful(and freezing) Refugio at 4700 metres but we were surprised and Melissa was disappointed to see no snow. We thought we were getting ripped!!! After a few hours sitting, eating(they stuffed us) and meeting our cool guide Mario we ventured out for our
training. We didn't have to walk long and we reached the glacier. Mario brought us through the techniques of climbing which was great fun. We were climbing up some parts vertically and had to ab sail back down which Melissa wasn't a great fan of. After the training we went back to the Refugio to relax and acclimatise. The reason a lot of people cant make it is due to altitude sickness. Even in bed that night breathing was really hard and we still had to climb another 1300 metres.....
The next day Melissa got her wish. We woke up to the whole area completely covered in sneachta although now we knew the trek would now be even harder. And then the Swedish guys and a Belgian couple arrived back from their attempt. The news wasn't too good. They had blizzards and the altitude sickness stopped them going any further. They said they also got to a point were they were to scared to continue. This wasn't a good omen.
Off we set at 2pm through the snow. The scenery was absolutely amazing and we were already glad to be doing the trek. It was a 3 hour
trek through the snow to our Refugio. The altitude started to affect us but chewing Coca leaves really helped a lot. So at about 6pm we reached the Refugio which was nothing more than a tin shed. We had some soup and then settled in for 6 hours sleep(yeah right!!). Although i was wearing all my clothes, gloves and hat i still froze and neither of us slept. The guide was snoring within 5 minutes.
The guide got us up at 12am(although he was asleep and had no alarm clock) to go on our great slog to 6088m. We went outside well wrapped up and it wasnt that cold. In fact i was warm walking although it was between -5 and -10 degrees. After putting on our crampons and harnessing ourselves to each other(there's lots of holes) we started with our ice axe up the steep incline. Straight away it was tough and Melissa was starting to feel the altitude. I was okay as i was chewing on the coca leaves. The snow was really dodgy to walk on and the guide warned us not to stray from his path. The one time i did i fell down a
crevice and i was lucky enough to impale the ice axe before i went under. Melissa was hilarious. She just turned around and stood their looking at me until i told her in not so polite terms it may be time to start pulling me out!!! The guide arrived shortly after to assist.
This was one of the hardest things i have done and was just as we imagined. We started the trek at 12am and at 2 or so i asked how far up with had climbed. We had only gone from 5100 metres to 5350!!! We were devastated and Melissa was struggling more and more(as was i) so as we walked we had to navigate over more and more dangerous and tight crevices. At one point we had to use our axe and pull ourselves over one that you couldn't see the bottom of. Crazy!!
But on we went and it actually got a little better and with the encouragement from the guide we thought we might actually make it!! Then we got to a mountain face and realised we would have to climb up it. We were climbing at about 70 degrees vertically for about
20 minutes. We were getting tired fast and it was quite clear that any mistake we result in almost certain death. If Melissa fell there was a chance me and the guide could hold on to her but if i fell everyone was screwed(the guide was about 5 foot and 9 stone!!). So after chatting with Melissa we decided enough was enough. We were hiking for 5 hours and were still only at 5700 metres. We informed the guide who funnily enough seemed a bit offended and told us we could do it. But the danger was only going to get worse and i didn't think they should let someone who only ever climbed a staircase go up this!!
So we turned around and headed back. The sunrise on the way back was spectacular and it was surreal to sea what we passed during the night(crevices, avalanches) It took about 2 hours to get back to the Refugio and it was tough on the knees. You have to be off the snow fields by a certain time cos if the sun gets to high in the sky you run the risk of avalanches. When we got back to the
hostel Melissa collapsed asleep and i was wrecked to. I got her up cos i wanted to make the total journey back to the other Refugio as we were tired and cold. This was a bad idea and i didn't realise how much the altitude got to Melissa. She was stopping every 5 or 6 steps out of breath, tired, cold, sick and with a headache. It took 3 more hours to get back to 4700 metres and we were both fecked at the end. We arrived back at 12 pm so we basically had been hiking for 12 hours. We were shattered!! It was time to go back to La Paz to ring in the new year......
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