Climbing Pequeño Alpamayo..5700m

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We have just been the highest we have both been in our lives (Mie has been higher). We are back in La Paz after climbing a mountain 5700m high.
The whole experience was challenging, but totally worth it.
We left Lap Paz on April 1st for Tuni, a small town in the middle of nowhere, we had lunch in a small house made of mud. Then collected our donkeys and set off with our bags on a 4 hour walk to base camp. We passed hills, streams, lakes and llamas on the way. It was beautiful.
After a couple of hours walking we had the mountain in our sights, it looked huge and scarey. When we got to base camp our cook made us a hot drink and prepared the dinner, which was more rice with cheese (yum...). We were in bed by 6pm, desperately trying to sleep as we had to be up at 2.30am to start to climb the mountain.
Lo was the only one to sleep (I think she can sleep anywhere), it was too cold and the anticipation of the mountain kept me & Mie up.
At 2.30 the next morning, we were up and dressed (the good thing about sleeping in all your clothes) and went to have breakfast, the 3 of us were so irritable and irritating that none of us dared to speak for a while, and when we did it was to complain about being cold, tired or feeling sick.
We packed up our crampons and ice hammers and walked for 1.5 hours to the edge of the glacier. At the glacial front, it was -15C, sooo cold. We got tied together for safety and headed up the mountain. It was 4.30am and still dark, with our head torches on we could only see a few metres in front.
When the sun finally appeared at 6.30, it was amazing.. the most stunning thing ever. We were surrounded by snow and could see lakes and mountains. We stopped and ate (now frozen) chocolate and admired the view.

The next bit was really hard - the altitude stopping me, completely out of breath, the guide had oxygen canisters and adrenaline shots.. .incase we needed them.
When we got to the top it was amazing.... we could see for miles, it was really special- especially as I didn't think I would make it up there. We could see all around us, we were above the clouds - so felt really high. I suppose 5700m is fairly high.
We stopped for a bit to enjoy it up there, the peacefulness and solitude before heading back down.

Down was a lot easier and loads more fun,the views were even more beautiful than before. We made it back to the glacial edge in 1 hour, (4hours up!) crampons off...then with 1.5 hours walk back to base camp- we were back before 11am. After lunch (more rice) we took the 4 hour walk back to the bus.. the killer..... when we got back to La Paz and after lots of sleep, everything felt ok again. When I look at the pictures, I cant believe I was there..

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Photos

Climbing in the dark
Can you guess who bought 3 bolivianos Toysheba´ batteries, and who bought 12 bol duracell??

We made it!!
Just a few minutes to relax..

On the way down
Smiles or faces of relief??

Comments

[liz your mum]

mountain
that climb was bit harder than alvecote hill you used to moan about when you were a teenager,bet you wont moan again.well done im so proud of you.wish it was me.maybe some day eh. take care chick.love ya.