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Published: November 6th 2009
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I´m not joking with the title I really thought I wasn´t going to make it at one stage. Mountains are no joke...
Bolivia has some of the highest mountains in the world and also the most accessable. I had talked to quite a few people who had tried to climb some of these peaks and decided to try one myself. To be honest I wanted to climb a volcano from San Pedro de Atacama that was 5,480m and only took 5 hours return but it was too expensive. I was told to wait till La Paz were it was much cheaper.
And so the hard ship begins.... (I´ll try to make it less painful and quicker for you)
I got picked up at 7.15am after having only 6 hours in bed with 2-3 hours of sleep, I dont know if it was the suspense or the noise but I couldn´t sleep well at all the previous night. I caught another hour in the taxi ride to the base camp for our climb. After re-packing our gear we started from base camp (4,700m) at 9am with our packs weighing 15 - 16kg. It is supposed to take 3 -4 hours to
reach high camp at 5,150m. We made it in 2.5 hours so we were pretty chuffed and thought it was a good sign that we would be up to the summit pretty easilly.
We got some lunch at high camp then I knocked off to bed to catch a few more hours sleep, I only got 2 with all the other teams coming and going. Then we had a bit of dinner at 7pm and were told to go to sleep and get rest before our 12.30am rise for the summit. I knew this was the way it was going to be and I knew it was going to be hard. I mean my usual sleeping pattern is gettting up at 2pm and coming in at 5am so this was a complete head fuck! I didn´t sleep a wink from 7.30pm to 12.30am, I just listenedto everyone else snoreand toss and turn all night.
We got up at 12.30am none the less and after getting on all our gear and packing our smaller summit packs we headed out on the the ice to put on our crampons. So at 2am in the pitch black, freezing cold, with only 1
Our first day
with big packs small head torch, at 5,150m we started our long walk toward the summit.
The idea is to reach the summit around 7am just after sun rise. We were walking for what seemed like hours and we stopped for a break, I checked the time and it had only been an hour, it was then that it hit me "IAN, YOU DONT LIKE WALKING!!!", "WHY ON EARTH DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOD IDEA?!?!?!!!", but it was too late and there was no turning back.
There were 3 in our group including the guide. After walking for what seemed like hours again I startd to see light on the houizon and thought "thank god, sun rise, we must be nearly there". But again no I was to be let down, at this stage it was still too dark to see the summit and all we could see was the ground in front of us and the torch lights of teams ahead. The light I saw on the horizon was just the lights of La Paz city shining up, it had only been another 40 minutes. Still I was in good shape and so was the team we had gone
past two other teams who were at a slower pace and we were making good ground. As we got closer I could start to make out the summit and realised we were still leagues away and to not even think about asking the guide how long left? or how high are we? it would have only flattened me. We stopped for a break at one stage and I was sure we were a good 30minutes past half way but just then the guide anounces that we were at the half way point, both altitude and time wise. It was tough to take but at least we knew, 5,550m approx.
Then we force marched for 2 hours at a good pace, the teams behind us falling farther and farther back gave me a kind of confidence. I knew I had to make it I just didnt know if I was going to be able. The route we took was the longer but easier one around the back of the mountain in a loop. When we had come around the back there is a semi steep ridge to climb then a small glacial ice field before the final climb to the
summit ridge, it should take an hour. It may not seem like much and at 1000m I could run it in 20 minutes but when we hit that ice field at 5,700m my lungs gave up!! I wanted to turn back but having come all this way I couldn´t bring myself to do it. We got across the ice field taking lots of breaks so I could catch my breath then we were at the 45* gradient climb to the summit ridge.
I really can not explain just how physically demanding the last 300m of this climb were for me, on the 45* climb we were stopping every 10 - 20m to catch our breaths. The only thing that got us up there was what all the novice and first time climbers like me were saying at high camp.
"It´s only a walk, mind over matter thats all" and at that stage of the climb it really was, mind over matter.
At that altitude you can not catch your breath even sitting doing nothing we were panting. The reason I dont have many photos, especially of the amazing sun rise we saw is becasue I was too exhausted
12.30am
Breakfast, gear check, and move to get out my camera.
We finally summited at 7.30, 30 minutes later than expected due to the last hour taking the extra half an hour for breaks. When we got there I was done and I mean really done. The views were spectacular but the clouds started to come in fast so we didnt spend much time. Even after out rest it was hard to find the energy for photographs. My red bull which I had kept as backup energy to get down wa frozen solid and un drinkable.
At this stage I really considired what kind of injury I could give myself to get mountain rescuse to come get me....
The last part of the climb was so hard, I really cant explain it properly. The start was fine I have lots of memories but the last 400m was foot over foot and I have no other memories other than: Pain, dont stop, step, step, step. Thats the way it was to the top.
However once we started moving the idea of thicker actual oxygenated air spured me on and gave me energy. With a struggle and a few breaks we got back to high
camp around 12pm, nearly 10 hours of walking and climbing. If only that was it though, oh if only.... we took a 10 minute break before packing our main packs back up with our snow gear and started our decent with our once again 15 - 16kg packs to base camp. We got down around 2pm. If it wasn´t for the thicker air I may well have collapsed. We got a taxi back to the office where I got my commemorative t-shirts then I went back to the hostel a broken man.
I would love to describe the final part of the climb in more detail or how it felt to be at the top but I think I may have repressed many of the memories due to the trauma.
Some people do this as a holiday, for fun.... they should all be locked up!!!
It was the hardest physical thing I have ever done and personally I can think of better ways to get kicks. Too much effort/punishment with out the pay off of fun or excietment for me but its a personal thing i suppose....
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