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Published: August 7th 2007
Huayana Potosí
The triangular peak of Huayana Potosí rises above an old miners' cemeteryClimbing Huayna Potosí, one of Bolivia's highest mountains, was to be our last big challenge before heading home to the realities of jobs, mortgages and a privileged western life. At 6,088m (19,974ft) above sea level it breaks the 6,000m point, and is only 26ft short of the magic 20,000ft mark. And why not? We were certainly fit enough and having spent the last 2 months at an average altitude of 4,000m we were definitely acclimatised. This climb is not the sort of thing you can just fly in and do. It was now or never!
On the first day of our 3-day trek, we drove from La Paz with our guide, Rolando, and our cook, Jaime, to Laguna Zongo, where we set up Base Camp at 4,700m. The afternoon was spent at a nearby glacier head practising different ice techniques for walking, climbing, descending, abseiling and rescue.
Rolando told us that, 10 or 12 years ago, the glacier had extended another 50 or more metres down the valley, and was about 40m higher. It's melting faster than an icecream in the sun: climate scientists predict that it will have disappeared in another five years, due to global warming. The
Porters carrying our gear
On the way to up to High Camp 5,390m ski resort on a nearby mountain is also threatened by disappearing snow. Temperature increases will harm more than tourism: the electricity for the cities of La Paz, El Alto and Cochabamba comes from hydro-electricity stations in this area, and all rely on meltwater. It was disturbing to see much of what Rolando said reiterated in an article on melting glaciers in the June edition of
National Geographic. As we climb the morraine ridge, Rolando shakes his head sadly, and conversation moves on to the levels of poison in fruits and vegetables due to the use of chemical sprays, the future of crops with changing world temperatures, and the happier subject of his climb last year of Aconcagua, at about 7,000m the highest peak in the Americas. We couldn't tell which achievement he was prouder of: having made the summit or having taken the first holiday of his life. Like most guides, Rolando works freelance and supplies most of his own climbing gear. There seems to be much competition to secure work with the climbing companies, even for the skilled guides. The mob we chose,
Bolivian Mountains, is owned by two Bolivians, one an experienced mountain guide, the other an expert in
mountain tourism for westerners, and an Englishman. They make a habit of supporting the employment of quality local guides. It showed, as Rolando and the rest of the team were always professional and careful about the business side of things, and cheerful around the stove, enjoying teasing us about our Spanish and equally enjoying their spectacular lack of success in teaching us some Aymara.
On the second day our 2 porters arrived and we shifted the whole camp (excluding the kitchen tent) up to the High Camp at 5,200m. Arriving at about midday we had plenty of time to relax in the sun, acclimatise, enjoy the scenery and chat to other climbers waiting here. High Camp is attractively situated just below the snow line on a rocky saddle. Already we were high above many of the lower mountains around us. Rolando checked our equipment while Jaime cooked up a delicious spaghetti bolognese dinner for us. At about 4:30pm the sun disappeared behind the mountain looming above us and the temperature plummeted. The whole camp retired to their tents and hunkered down. It was to be a cold, short night. As we lay in our thick down bags listening to
rocks contracting and cracking around us we were grateful for spending the extra money when considering what rating of sleeping bag to buy one year ago. This night Dave made sure his contact lens case containing his contact lenses were inside the bag with him. He didn't want to repeat the problem he had on the last high camp around Ausangate in Peru when his contact lenses froze in the case overnight!
At 1am our wake-up call came from Jaime who served us hot tea in our tent and laid out a spread of breakfast in the vestibule so that we didn't have to get out of the tent and endure the air, a brisk -15 degrees celcius. After breakfast, we struggled into our thermals and outerwear. Two pairs of thermals on our legs, three thermals and a down jacket on our torsos. On top of this rain- and windproof trousers and jacket. Two layers of gloves, warm hats, jacket hoods and climbing helmets topped it all off. Out of our cosy shelter now and it was time to don climbing harnesses, big clumsy mountain boots and crampons. These last few were very hard to fit and adjust in
the biting cold with bare hands, even with the help of Rolando and Jaime. A word of advice to anyone doing this themselves for the first time: go to the toilet before you put all this gear on!
At 2:30am it was time to pick up our ice axes, rope up and begin the slow, dark trudge up the side of Huayna Potosí. The first 3-and-a-half hours was dark and we couldn't see very much apart from the lights of La Paz and El Alto slowly appearing in the distance as we gained altitude. From this distance these smelly, noisy cities looked pretty, dressed in their fairy lights. Even though the ice slope was a fairly constant gradient, and not very steep, we still had to stop several times to rest and catch our breath. Poor Claire was particularly suffering as she had a bout of gastro that morning and was feeling quite weak. She drugged herself up with Gastro-Stop and soldiered on into the night.
There were about 8 groups that morning going up ahead of us. We saw 2 groups turn around and return during the first part of the climb. The first group returned so
Fetching water
Jaime, the cook, had to collect and melt snow from a nearby glacier for cooking and drinking early we speculated that someone had altitude sickness. The second group turned around just after summiting a small ice shute that led to a low ridge on the east side of the mountain. Here ee were suddenly exposed to the wind and it got very, very cold after that. At 6am the sun was starting to appear and we were treated to a wonderful sunrise that gradually lit up the surreal snowy landscape around us. A blinding white fairyland of wind carved hummocks, icicle-draped ice caves and deep crevasses surrounded us. We paused for a while to bask in Sol's warm rays and gave thanks to its return after the deathly night. By 8am we had reached the base of the "wall", a 180m high, 45 degree ice slope and the last section before reaching the summit. This looked so daunting that another group in front of us turned around and headed back to High Camp. How awful it must be to call it a day so close to the summit! This section was certainly the most difficult and tiring and Claire, in her weakened state, was close to giving up herself, stopping after every couple of steps and resting
Camp site at High Camp
This site is also known as Rock Camp against the ice face. However, after yet another brief rest and a serious self-talking to, Claire picked up her ice axe and forced her tired body up, one more step at a time.
The "wall" took an hour to climb. We had to use our ice axes and the front points of our crampons for the whole length, fixing an ice screw every 50m as a safety anchor. The thin atmosphere and low air pressure was playing havoc with our bodies causing us to stop and catch our breath every 4 steps on the near vertical climb. As well, the water we had taken with us from High Camp had long since frozen inside our packs, so we were dehydrated. Eventually, at 9am, after what seemed like a lifetime we hauled ourselves onto the summit, physically exhausted but emotionally high. Dave's oxygen-starved brain was playing tricks on him as he looked at his watch and incorrectly read the time as 3pm!
The view from the top was absolutely amazing. Being one of Bolivia's highest mountains (the highest tops 6,500m), we had a wonderful 360 degree view of the surrounding Andes. The sky was clear apart from a few
clouds, which lay way below us! It was like looking out of an aircraft window, only much, much better. Fortunately we had the 3m by 20m summit to ourselves, as the other groups had descended by this time. Handshakes, congratulations and photos completed the summit ceremony before our guide started preparing the ropes for a quick abseil down to the base of the "wall". Dave took a short video from the summit which you can view by clicking on the film icon at the top of this page.
The descent was (not surprisingly) much quicker, taking us only 2.5 hours to reach High Camp. On the way down we crossed a few snow bridges over deep crevasses that we hadn't seen on the way up in the dark. It is fearfully mesmerising gaping into the icy blue maw of a deep crevasse: we were glad we were all roped together!
Jaime had hot tea and sandwiches waiting for us at High Camp. We had a 30 minute break before stripping off our climbing gear, breaking camp and descending down to Base Camp where we were met by one of the owners of the climbing agency to drive us
Rolando, our guide
Checking equipment the day before the summit climb back to La Paz and a long, hot shower!
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Sheila
non-member comment
What next?
Fantastic, next you'll be attempting Everest. Thanks for sharing the wonderful views via your photos and video. Oh well, I guess it's down to Earth with a bump now!! Sheila xx