No pain no gain.

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This weekend was one of those experiences that will stay with us forever. One month ago James said to Julie: I want to climb over 6000m and Julie replied: yeah whatever! She hoped that this would never eventuate. But regardless of Julie's reservations, on Saturday at 8am both James and Julie (and Ryan) stood at the top of Huayna Potosi, a mountain that is 6088m high.

To put things in perspective…Mt Cook is 3753m. The highest mountain in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro is only 5,895 mts. The highest mountain in all of Europe, Mt Elbrus is a smaller 5,642 mts. The highest mountain in North America, Mt McKinley is just a little taller at 6,194 mts. In fact outside of the Andes, the only other ranges with taller mountains are the Himalaya/Tibet and Hindu Kush ranges.

It is hard to describe the experience...it was soooo hard. The hardest physical activity we've ever done.

The first day we hiked two and a half hours to base camp and spent the night at 5130m. We didn't get much - if any - sleep... possibly due to the rock base under our tent, the very low temperature, or/and the effects of altitude (which apparently makes you take shorter breaths, making sleeping difficult)... but it didn't matter much because at 12am on Saturday we were woken in order to prepare for the ascent. At 1am we were fully kitted out with ice axe, crampons, boots and head-lamp and started the long march (march is a bit of an overstatement... crawl or plod would more accurately describe our walking style on this occasion). For Julie this was quite nightmare-ish but James was full of anticipation and excitement.

When the mountaineering company advertised this climb they said that all that was required was 'average' fitness... what they should have said was that you need a double - no quadruple - portion of determination and perservance. It became a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and having regular (or very regular) rests... and it was during these breaks while resting one's head on the ice axe that the idea of falling asleep right then and there sounded like a fantastic idea. If it wasn't for the fact that James was getting cold waiting, Julie would have been fast asleep in no time. James tried to keep Julie's energy levels up by forcing consumption of chocolate... but the altitude had weird effects and Julie felt very full. But the hours gradually ticked along, daylight arrived and we got to the final 'wall' before the summit. From appearances this wall looked relatively short... it was only 200m... but at a 55 degree angle this wall = 1 hour of slamming an ice axe into the steep and icy wall and stomping your crampons into a secure position... in combination with the 'thin' air up there, this was pure exhaustion.

After much toil (8 hours of climbing) and near total exhaustion, the summit was reached! At this point Julie was experiencing gravity pull and sat down for 5 minutes while James took photos. The views were amazing and James took the opportunity to locate the next mountain he would like to climb. It was at this point that Julie fully considered what it meant to get back down the mountain (especially the wall that had just been climbed) and her spirits hit an all time low... both Bellinghams wished they had their snowboards.

This climb has been an experiment in seeing how much punishment the body can take… but the rewards are great. The experience has drastically increased my self belief and has given me a sense of freedom, to know that, by simply putting one foot in front of another, in the right direction I can get anywhere.

I have an uncle that died climbing in the mountains in Nepal. During this adventure he was constantly on my mind. This blog goes out to him and his amazing family… the Wood girls.

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Photos

Suited up and ready to climb
1am Saturday morning

The final 'wall'
180m of 55 degree pain - an hour of pain

Comments

[debbie]

You guys are my heros!!!
oxox

[Lydia Holoboff]

Good on you
Wow, this is really impressive. I enjoy your emails and can't wait for the next adventure. Hopefully for Julie this was the hardest physical one, and James you must be a little insane. Sending you both well wishes for future adventures.