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Published: February 24th 2008
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Huayna Potosi.
With the peak visible above the clouds Tuesday 19th Feb - Day 28
During the tour a number of us talked about doing some ice climbing in the cordillera real; the mountains around La Paz in Bolivia.
As we looked around the various tour operators we found it would cost around $80 to spend a day up on a glacier but for a ridiculously cheap $100 (USD) we could do a 3 day expedition to attempt a climb of Huayna Potosi.
The three day expedition only suited myself and Mick, (I just had enough time left after the tour), so we signed up for it.
When I got back to La Paz after visiting the salt flats on Monday night we had a kitting out session for all the gear and met our guide, Miguel.
Between booking up the expedition and the first day Mick and myself had time to learn about what we had signed ourselves up for. Mick met a guy at the hostel in La Paz who had summited that day, who apparently looked utterly wasted and said that in the last 50m or so he was ready to give up as the summit push was so hard, with the last
200m being an ice climb on 75 degree slopes.
We also learned that many expeditions would be forced to give up the summit if they were too slow, as the summit had to be reached by dawn, otherwise the snow conditions would become too soft to climb and the risk of avalanche would increase greatly. This meant that we would need to start our summit climb at around 1am.
On the first day we left La Paz early and took a car up to the mountain refuge at an altitude of 4800m. From here we headed out to a glacier about an hours walk away to practise ice climbing for about 4 hours.
When we got back to the refuge, where we would spend our first night, we got to know the other climbers from Germany and Sweden and their guides. I think we were all feeling the effects of the altitude, as we were all cold and tired and went got in our sleeping bags ver early. Personally the altitude had made me short sighted for the night as I couldn't focus on anything further than 10m away. Also when I first got in my sleeping
Training Ground
The glacier we practised ice climbing on. bag I felt very cold and feverish. This set alarm bells ringing! Was I going to have a bad reaction to the altitude? If so this wouldn't be good news for the himalayas....
It was a very restless night as the thin air made very hard to sleep, I lay awake until about 3am and then got some broken sleep.
Wednesday 20th Feb - Day 29
I woke up and instantly could tell that my vision had improved and the fever had gone, so it was all looking good again. Today would be the easy day, with about a 3 hour walk up the high camp at 5200m for a relaxing afternoon and a very early night.
The air felt very thin on the ascent up to high camp and I had to pause frequently to catch my breath. We were also carrying about 40lbs of gear each up the mountain. Mick showed his true potential today by staying on the heels of the guides all the way up to high camp arriving in only 2 hours. I arrived about 5 mins later followed by Martin and Marcus (Germany) and then Magnus and Maria (Sweden) about
10 mins later. Our chances for the summit were looking good, with all of us getting up to high camp in good time.
Our guide, Miguel, told us that only 40% of climbs were successful with the main reasons for failed attempts being fitness and acclimatisation followed by high winds and lightning storms high on the mountian.
At high camp we were joined by an Australian guy who turned up in jeans and trainers and was going to attempt the mountain in 2 days with his own guide. Therefore he had to miss out of the acclimatisation night at 4800m, and was already complaining of a bad headache. I gave him some paracetomal and didn't fancy his chances much.
We ate as much as we could force down and turned in for the night at 6pm. Fearing another sleepness night I pinched a sleeping pill of Mick which knocked me out within 30 minutes.....
Thursday 21st Feb - Day 30
Our guides woke us up at 10 past midnight and I got up surprisingly easily. Before all the torches went on I saw lightning outside and felt very dissapointed, as I knew any lightning on
the mountain would mean the summit would not be reached, as crampons and ice axes don't mix too well with lightning!!
We got up regardless and the guides told us the storm was on another mountain so were still on.
I forced down some coca tea and chocolate and got all my gear on, ready to start climbing at 1am sharp. We left camp just ahead of the other teams and started our slow ascent, up a snow slope at about 45 degrees and then traverse across a similar slope. The going was very slow, with Miguel setting the pace. I tried to get my breathing into a rhythym, I could feel the air getting thinner and on the steep sections I would take a short pause for a breath after every step. Slowly but surely we made good progress up the mountain. It was very cold, around -15 degrees and there was heavy cloud cover. I hoped it would clear as the sun rose.
At 5am we reached the bottom of the daunting 200m 75 degree slope and took a short rest. It was so cold I didn't enjoy standing around much and lost the feeling
in my toes. I urged our guide to let us continue as the other groups caught us up, but he made us wait as we were too ealry. He didn't want to us to be on the exposed summit before dawn as it would be extremely cold with the wind chill. At about 5.20am we started to climb again, knowing that we would be climbing the steep slope for over an hour.
Progress was very slow and I could see Mick was getting very tired. For this hour my whole life became about keeping the rope joining Mick and myself tight, but not impeding his progress and my own technique, kick, kick, pick, kick, kick, pick........ I shouted encouragement at Mick as I could finally see the summit approaching and stars above. We were going to make the summit and have the views we had hoped for......
At 6.30am we finally reached the summit, but the clouds had formed once more and there was no view. We sat for long enough for a bunch of photos and the light improved and then bagan our descent by first rapelling the steep section. Our rope was only 50m long so
Day 2 Hiking
Lugging the gear up to high camp we had to do this in 4 or 5 sections, with Miguel belaying after driving a hefty stake into the ice.
We got to the bottom of the slope shortly after 7am and then started the descent to high camp. As we descended the clouds cleared and were rewarded with fantastic views (Mick later told me he had a very emotional moment at this point). As soon as we started descending my energy levels fell rapidly - the wheels fell off! I must have been running on adrenaline on the steep ice slope and now I was running on empty. I could only manage a slow walk and co-ordination became a real struggle.
We finally reached high camp mid morning and had the best soup ever before a further walk down the lower refuge. By the time we got back to the car I felt utterly spent but so pleased that we had all made it! YES!!!!
Well done to Mick, Magnus, Maria, Martin and Marcus who were all successful. You were a great group. Thanks.
The other Australian guy attempting the peak in two days turned around 2 hours after leaving high camp, his headache
Day 2 Hiking 2
On the way to high camp never cleared, he found the going tough with a night less to acclimatise and lost his bottle of water on the traverse.
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Kath
non-member comment
Good work!
Amazing...