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Published: December 29th 2009
Huayna Potosi
The view of the mountain on the drive from La Paz.Oh the things Braeden gets me to do! First it was spending a day on a mountain bike after 18 years of not riding. Then it was hiking the Inca Trail for 4 days with no previous hiking experience. And now, the big one - climbing a mountain 6088m above sea level when I have never climbed anything before in my life. How he gets me to do it, I have no idea, but it was insane!
To put it into perspective, Huayna Potosi is just 26 feet short of 20,000ft and stands higher than: Mt Erebus (highest in Europe at 5642m); Mt Kilmanjaro (highest in Africa at 5895m); and Mt Logan (highest in Canada at 5959m). Despite what the posters say (¨easiest 6088m mountain climb¨) - it is not easy. Nor does it feel like a climb for beginners as also advertised.
We went through the company ´Travel Tracks´and chose to only go on the 2 day climb as opposed to the 3 day as the first day was only spent at base camp practicing climbing on the base of a glacier. The cost was reasonable at Bs.700 (approx. $100 USD) and included our transportation to and from
Huayna Potosi
Day 1: Climbing up the rock face of the mountain. the mountain, a private guide, food for 2 days and all of the equipment including sleeping bag, head lamp, boots, crampons, ice pick, warm jacket and pants, harness, rope, gloves and balaclava. Our guide was awesome!
On day 1 (Dec. 26th) we were driven to the base camp by 8:30am to meet up with the 5 other people we were going to be climbing with (3 guys and 2 girls). From there, we started our climb up the rock face of the mountain to the Rock Camp (5130masl) which took approx. 2.5 hours. It was quite difficult as we had to carry all of our equipment ourselves which worked out to be roughly 45-50lbs. I´m pleased to say I managed all on my own considering my backpack weighed almost half of what I do and another girl barely made it even with one of the guides carrying her pack.
We got to the Rock Camp around noon and it was quite chilly. Most people chose to sleep but Braeden and I stayed up drinking tea and playing ¨Uno¨with a couple other people. We had dinner at 6pm, got a briefing from the guides about the itinerary for the
Huayna Potosi
Day 1: Climbing up the rock face of the mountain. next morning (1am start) then went to bed at 7:30pm. Fortunately they provided very good sleeping bags so the night wasn´t as cold as we thought it would be as there was no heating system in the camp. Also, the shared sleeping quarters turned out to be not as bad as expected - 10 people in the same room provides extra body heat.
We were woken up at midnight on the 27th and immediately layered up in all of our equipment. We were roped in with our guides (2 ppl/guide) and were climbing in the dark by 1am. The climb was hard and long but seemed a little less daunting since we couldn´t see what we were up against. The constant upward climb on snow and ice walls was extremely difficult, painful and at most times very unenjoyable. Also, the high elevation made it impossible to breath (like trying to breath through a drinking box straw as Braeden put it). As I said before, our guide was awesome - very encouraging and willing to stop whenever we needed to for breaks. Braeden had problems with headaches the further we climbed and I was quite nauseous and so thirsty that
Huayna Potosi
Day 1: Rock Camp (5130masl). I kept eating snow in order to not make our guide stop every 5 minutes.
As I wrote on the wall - the most difficult and painful shirt we have ever earned! In order to reach the summit of Huayna Potosi you need nothing but sheer determination and will-power. There were many times I was close to tears, my legs giving out and not wanting to go on. However, two things kept me going. The first was the fact that if I gave up, Braeden had to too because we were roped together with one guide. The second was the fact that both other girls and one guy had already given up not even half way up the mountain and I had to be the only girl to make it to the top.
We made it to the summit at 6:45am along with 2 other guys from our group (4 out of 7 - falls within the average of 60-70% success rate). I finally understood what one guy wrote on the wall at the Rock Camp about not knowing whether to cry or laugh. It was very cold at the top and unfortunately clouded over so we couldn´t
Huayna Potosi
Shared sleeping quarters at Rock Camp. get very good pictures. We only stayed for a few photos then started our descent back down to the Rock Camp. The climb down the mountain wasn´t much easier than the climb up as the snow conditions had changed and our crampons kept jamming up with soft, wet snow causing us to slide and lose our footing (this is why you have to reach the summit by around 7am or it becomes too dangerous to make it back down). The views on the way down were amazing though! We had no idea what we were missing on the way up in the dark. It took us approx. 1.5hrs to get back down to the Rock Camp where (absolutely exhausted) we had to repack our backpacks and climb back down the rock face of the mountain to the base camp. We were so happy to finally reach the bottom!
We were back in La Paz by 1:30pm, got our free t-shirts from the company and were sleeping not much later. Braeden unfortunately was having extreme chest pains, problems breathing, an elevated heart rate and minor fever upon return which was a little worrisome - such drastic changes in altitude can
Huayna Potosi
The dog that lives at Rock Camp infront of the kitchen. definitely be hard on the body! Apparently (according to the internet), symptoms like these are common, especially among men.
Despite the pain and hard work, it was definitely worth it. I don´t know if I will ever climb another mountain again (at least not one that high), but at least I can say Braeden once again got me way out of my element and it was an experience neither of us will ever forget!
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