One of the things I've always wanted to do is to climb a 6000m mountain. Huayna Potosi (6088m) in Bolivia is supposed to be the most accessible 6000m peak in the world as well as being one of the easiest so we thought we'd give it a go.
We signed ourselves on to a 3 day trip to the mountain with a guide we'd been recommended. First thing the next morning, we got driven to base camp which is about 2 hours from La Paz. Base camp consists of quite a nice refugio at 4750m. After some lunch we went to the glacier at the foot of the mountain to do some ice climbing and practice moving around on snow and ice. We both really enjoyed the climbing though it was pretty tiring at that altitude!
The 2nd day of the trip was pretty easy. Just a 3 hour walk up to high camp (a very small and basic rufugio) at 5130m. We spent the rest of the day chilling out and acclimatising there. We had planned to go out and play in the snow practising self arrest (ie stopping yourself sliding down he snow if you fall) but the guide said it was too windy to go out there. It was pretty cold at high camp so we went to sleep really early ready for an early start the next morning.
We got up at 1am and after a bit of faffing and waiting for the wind to die down we set off at 2:30. The first part of the climb wasn't too hard. Fairly steep snow but just a long snow plod really. We had to walk fairly slowly because as soon as we put too much energy into our steps we were out of breath and once that happens you can't get your breath back till you stop. It quite quickly got harder, becoming steeper and we were constantly almost out of breath and neither of us were feeling great - due to the food in La Paz and the lack of a toilet at high camp. After a while we came to the first bit of actual climbing. It was only a steep slope but too steep to walk up so required using only the front points of the crampons and the pick of our ice axe. The hardest thing was that the wind was very very strong on that section and blowing spindrift everywhere making it very hard to see what was going on. After that section we continued on for a few hours on tiring but non serious terrain - our guide Juan keeping us away from any crevasses.
Things got hard again once we got above 5800m. The air was noticably thinner making our pace very slow, also everything feels heavy at this altitude, especially our feet! This was just before the sun started coming up and it was also really really cold (the moisture from my breath kept freezing my the buff over my mouth). The exercise wasn't warming us up much because we were out of breath before we could get warm. Juan was kind and gave Becky his down jacket but I just had to shiver. The terrain got a lot harder too but by this point the sun was starting to come up and everything was looking very beautiful. We had to do a fair bit more climbing and edging along very narrow ridges but despite being incredibly knackered this section was the most fun. We reached the top at about 7:30 and once there we had a little sit down and then back along the hard section until we had a longer rest in a safer flatter section. The way down was much easier and only took a few hours. By 3 in the afternoon we were back in La Paz and able to have some much needed rest at a much more sensible altitude of 3800m.
We signed ourselves on to a 3 day trip to the mountain with a guide we'd been recommended. First thing the next morning, we got driven to base camp which is about 2 hours from La Paz. Base camp consists of quite a nice refugio at 4750m. After some lunch we went to the glacier at the foot of the mountain to do some ice climbing and practice moving around on snow and ice. We both really enjoyed the climbing though it was pretty tiring at that altitude!
The 2nd day of the trip was pretty easy. Just a 3 hour walk up to high camp (a very small and basic rufugio) at 5130m. We spent the rest of the day chilling out and acclimatising there. We had planned to go out and play in the snow practising self arrest (ie stopping yourself sliding down he snow if you fall) but the guide said it was too windy to go out there. It was pretty cold at high camp so we went to sleep really early ready for an early start the next morning.
We got up at 1am and after a bit of faffing and waiting for the wind to die down we set off at 2:30. The first part of the climb wasn't too hard. Fairly steep snow but just a long snow plod really. We had to walk fairly slowly because as soon as we put too much energy into our steps we were out of breath and once that happens you can't get your breath back till you stop. It quite quickly got harder, becoming steeper and we were constantly almost out of breath and neither of us were feeling great - due to the food in La Paz and the lack of a toilet at high camp. After a while we came to the first bit of actual climbing. It was only a steep slope but too steep to walk up so required using only the front points of the crampons and the pick of our ice axe. The hardest thing was that the wind was very very strong on that section and blowing spindrift everywhere making it very hard to see what was going on. After that section we continued on for a few hours on tiring but non serious terrain - our guide Juan keeping us away from any crevasses.
Things got hard again once we got above 5800m. The air was noticably thinner making our pace very slow, also everything feels heavy at this altitude, especially our feet! This was just before the sun started coming up and it was also really really cold (the moisture from my breath kept freezing my the buff over my mouth). The exercise wasn't warming us up much because we were out of breath before we could get warm. Juan was kind and gave Becky his down jacket but I just had to shiver. The terrain got a lot harder too but by this point the sun was starting to come up and everything was looking very beautiful. We had to do a fair bit more climbing and edging along very narrow ridges but despite being incredibly knackered this section was the most fun. We reached the top at about 7:30 and once there we had a little sit down and then back along the hard section until we had a longer rest in a safer flatter section. The way down was much easier and only took a few hours. By 3 in the afternoon we were back in La Paz and able to have some much needed rest at a much more sensible altitude of 3800m.
Ginger beard alert! You absolute gits though, that looks amazing! I am struggling to contain my jealousy.
ReplyDeleteDid you buy the gear (gators, boots, crampons etc) or hire it?
Looks really empty on the mountain and nice weather though - that cloud inversion looks fab! Fair play guys!
ps. thanks for a my new desktop wallpaper!
ReplyDeleteThe guide provided some extra gear - boots, crampons, ice axe, gaitors and trousers which was actually decent enough stuff. There were quite a few ppl on the mountain but spread out enough to not feel like there were, also i think we were earlier than most ppl. Which photo is your desktop?
ReplyDeleteAlso the guide gave me his down jacket to wear. I loved Him.
ReplyDeleteLovely pics throughout this blog. Good read too.
ReplyDeleteI've just linked to it from my blogs.liverpoolecho.co.uk/aintnomountainhighenough/
Wow! that looks seriously stunning.
ReplyDeleteI did some ice climbing at sea level, indoors, in scotland (kinlochleven) and that was knackering enough, never mind at 5800m.
Very, very jealous. Awesome photos too.
Andy C