Huayna Potosí is a beautiful snowcapped mountain near La Paz and bears the title as the easiest 6000 m peak since the easy access and since it doesn't require much technical climbing knowledge. So for us beginner mountaineers this 6088m peak sounded like a nice challenge.
I had already read about this ascend back home and when I had the mysterious denguelike fever just 5 days before, I was afraid I couldn't go. Gladly the fever didn't come back and we could book the trip. I guess the starting conditions weren't exactly optimal since I was still a bit weak and we had had hardly any days to acclimatize. Well, we went with what we got.
We booked a 3 day trip with a recommended company called Climbing South America. They were a bit more expensive but had the best gear, reliable guides and we didn't exatly want to save money on the security. In addition to Chris and I, three Germans and a Dutch couple joined us. The Dutch were well-acclimatized and hence did only a two day trip heading more or less directly to the high camp and the summit. Us, we needed the extra day in the high altitudes. For five climbers three guides were needed plus a cook or two.
On the way to the mountain we passed some rusty red lakes next to the coppermines and admired the mighty mountain with a clear blue sky. Our first night was in a "rustic" aka very basic mountain hut at 4700 meters. On arrival, we occupied a couple of mattresses upstairs and then had lunch.
Hannes, Mareike and Natalie with a broken tire
Rusty lake 1
Rusty lake 2
The mountain
Our great group Hannes (29), Natalie (28) and Mareike (24) had never done any mountaineering but everyone was excited. With Chris we had some experience of the use of crampons but Chris was the only one with previous iceclimbing experience. So after lunch we started practising these skills: how to walk with the crampons and how to use the iceaxe. The actual climb wouldn't include proper iceclimbing but there were parts where you need to crawl with the aid of an iceaxe.
The glacier wasn't that pretty and the weather was foggy. Quickly we remembered the tricks with the crampons and after a while the guides set up a top rope on a short iceface. Chris went up first like a pro of course and guides were calling him a spiderman. I went next and made it all the way to the top but huh was I exhausted afterwards. At this altitude of 4800 m every bit of effort makes you breathless and especially the effort of smacking the iceaxes on the hard surface and then kicking the wall with all your power to make the foot holds solid. On the second time around everyone made it to the top and also my own performance felt a lot better. Iceclimbing wasn't too bad (but it has nothing on bouldering) ;)
Happy iceclimbing fans
Getting ready for some crampon training
<3
A guide on a glacier
Rappelling down
Excited
Spiderman
Top!
And me!
Kicking hard!
Getting back with a clearer sky
We were cold and tired when coming back down to the hut and there we enjoyed a nice and plentiful dinner. To avoid altitude sickness and to thinnen the blood we drank loads and loads of water and tea. This of course had an unpleasant effect on the good night's sleep: Nothing is more annoying than having to climb out of the warm sleeping bag and heading out into the cold night to find the toilet. Nothing, except having to do this twice.
Dinner at the low camp
It was an early night, we went to bed around 20.00 which proved to be an excellent idea since the quality of sleep was poor...at least the quantity was better. The altitude made the heart pound hard and the dry air made breathing even more difficult than the thinness of it. I was happy to get up earlish and enjoy some breakfast. After that we packed our gear and prepared mentally to climb up from 4700 m to high camp at 5130 m. The backpack was heavy with the big sleeping bag, crampons, plastic boots, iceaxes and warm clothes. Gladly we walked super slowly...really, SUPER slowly. It was a hot day and even with the altitude we were sweating. Today's walk was still only on rock, the snowline started from the high camp. After a couple of hours of heavy panting and a very annoying comment from a passer-by we were finally there. (The comment was from a guy coming down after summiting: "Hey, this is still the
easy part. But yeah, it's totally worth it!" I wanted to high five him. In the face. With a chair.)
Ready to go to the high camp!
Can't stand to pose
Up we go
The high camp was beautiful yet even more rustic than the other base camp. The outside toilets smelled horrifying but the beds weren't too bad and the room got quickly warm from the groups of people in it.
On top of us, there was a huge group of Norwegian students (about 10 of them), 2 Dutch girls we had met earlier in Torres del Paine (small world!) and some 5 other people from France, Poland etc. The atmosphere was really nice, everyone was chatting, playing cards or chess, drinking loads of tea and napping. Some had already suffered from altitude sickness symptons like nausea, headaches and insomnia. I only had cramps in my muscles and light headache but still a good appetite and good spirits! I was glad to have my appetite since our cooks had prepared quite a surprise for us for lunch: hamburgers and french fries at 5130 meters. I don't have to say how jealous the other teams were ;) After lunch we continued playing, chatting and napping and at times went outside to wonder about the tomorrow's route. The steep and clearly visible path on the snow and the high icy peak looked amazing but intimidating.
So far the highest point we'd been to
Views
Team Germany enjoying the sun
Hamburgers and fries!! And Pedro
We had even an earlier dinner, at 17.00, because at 18.00 it was time to hit the bed and then wake up again at midnight. It started snowing right before bed time and I kept my fingers crossed that it would stop before the departure. We packed our summit packs ready: warm layers to add, a balaclava, warm gloves, snacks (plenty of chocolate - naturally), tea, water, suncream and sunglasses. We were discussing what to wear during the walk up: one doesn't want to sweat but being cold isn't exatcly an option either. I skipped the warmer pants but started off with too many warm upper layers which I soon had to strip down.
Evening atmospheres
So we woke up at 00.00. Nervous, one could hardly eat but it was necessary to get some energy. I did munch happily on my yoghurt and fruits but I'm not sure if anyone else really had appetite. Chris complained about a slight headache but was otherwise ready. Our guide Pedro informed us that Mareike and Natalie would pair up and leave first with Makario, then Hannes with a guide called Paulino and then last but not least us with Pedro himself. In these teams we would be tied together with ropes, the guide would walk first and then me with Chris coming last.
Horrible picture but there we are, 1.30.
All the Norwegian and other teams had left and we could just see the occasional head torch climbing up in the darkness well above. The moon had been full a few days ago and it lit up the way nicely: so well that we soon turned off our head torches, they were just not necessary. 1.35 we started, first down a bit on the rocks to the snowline and then we put on our crampons and sloowly started walking up. The first part was steep but we went so slowly that we could even chat a bit without getting out of breath. "It must get a lot worse", I thought, "when we get higher..".
On top of the first part we met Mareike and Natalie whom seemed to be tired but in good spirits! We continued past and soon we were already at around 5500m and made it to a part called the Argentinean Camp. It was really just an open snowfield where one could pitch a tent. Already three people had turned back and I felt grateful to be feeling so good still myself. We stopped for some chocolate but all of us, Chris and Hannes and I were eager to continue so we left without waiting for the girls.
We crossed the open field and came to a very steep part where iceaxes were needed. Every step was carefully placed and combined with a holding hit of the axe a few steps higher.
I felt excellent. Our pace felt so slow that I didn't get out of breath once and the feet weren't tired at all. But I kept thinking that it must get tougher, it has to. We had a couple of short breaks and then continued slowly, slowly. Still, we kept passing groups taking breaks.
At 5700 m Chris started feeling the headache and after another steeper part he couldn't slow down the heart rate anymore. I told Pedro that we should slow down the pace but we were still going too fast for Chris' hardworking heart. I started getting cold and was hoping to recover the earlier speed. But we weren't far from the summit anymore, the peak and the infamous ridge leading to it were already visible.
Yes, we had heard about the scary scary ridge beforehand. It was narrow, even more so than I had though. It was just wide enough for one foot and next to it on the otherside rose a small snowbank where one could hit the axe to be steadier. When that snowbank vanished and all you had was the one foot wide path with only darkness on both sides, I understood all those comments on the ridge. But at that point I didn't give it too much thought: I was focused on getting to the summit, it was right there and on the otherhand I was worried about Chris who kept asking us to go slower. It was not easy, to go slow, on the steep ridge but we tried and took one step at the time. I kept telling Chris that we were truly right there but at that point he wasn't too interested.
And then, we were finally there at 6088 meters! I was jumping and shouting while the orange-red piece of sky was glowing on the otherside and on the other one could see the glimmering sea of light of La Paz.
The lights of La Paz
My tired companion
The sun
is
rising.
Traffic at the summit
Happy Hannes
It was 6.10 and we were the first team on top! I was confused because I thought there'd been at least one Norwegian team before us but nope, they all came soon after. We made space for them on the summit and moved a bit further, put on more clothes and ate more (frozen) chocolate while admiring the views. Chris felt sick and cold and didn't quite join me in my enthusiasm but agreed to join some pictures at least ;)
The light slowly grew stronger and then the beautiful red fireball rose from the horizon and we started seeing the valleys and mountains around and below us. It was damn cold and taking pictures was painful. Chris was already done so after the Norwegians finally left down and made us space on the summit we took a couple more pictures and then continued down. All this time I couldn't believe it: we made it! To 6088 meters!!
The fire ball
Team not-so-stylish
Conquerer Holopainen!
More sunrise pictures
Happy Potosi fans! (Can you see the fake smile on Chris' face ;) )
Views
Now it got scary. To walk down the narrow ridge was way harder than going up especially with shivering legs and for Chris a dizzy head. Delicate footwork was essential so we wouldn't trip on the crampons. With the light of the sun we could also see the drop down on both sides: 400 meters on other and 1000 meters on another. Woah. And then of course another team appeared from below to cross our path. Chris was first on our rope to go down, I was in the middle and Pedro came last. This other team had a massive guide coming first and then a couple of small blonde girls. This massive guide commanded Chris to cross from the outer side while he himself would be standing on the path. Dizzy Chris was confused and started stepping on the snowslope below the path and I was terrified! Pedro's shout stopped this madness and we worked around it in a safer way: Chris and I hopped on the snowbank, with our legs over both sides while the other team passed us. "Just please don't push me", asked Chris and the girls said the same. The latter one was almost crying, just repeating "I'm gonna f*cking die, I'm gonna f*cking die..." while I tried to calm them down with "don't worries" and "you're almost theres"! I think they made it alive.
Norwgians going down
Last views
Gathering courage to go down
The ridge
Borrowed this picture from Hannes because it shows quite nicely the ridge..and this was still the wide part with a snowbank
The lower we got, the hotter it got and the more exhausting it got for me. Chris started feeling a bit better while I started creating an annoying headache. We still took it slow, most accidents happen on the way down, we remembered. And indeed I was really close to tripping down on the rope - several times. The sun shone bright and the views over the snowfields and crevasses were amazing. We saw massive walls of icicles and wondered if we actually came this way up, it looked so different and strange. Some parts were really really steep. The last part up the rocks to the hut from the snowline was horrible but then we were there! We had done it!
Enjoying the sun
A break
Views in the sun light
We had some soup for lunch before packing and heading back down to low camp. Natalie and Mareike had had to turn back soon after we passed them because Mareike was feeling too ill to continue. Natalie felt that she needed to try again, she was determined to get to the summit so she stayed for one more try. I'm happy to say that she made it up the next day! From the Norwegians and other teams about 50 % made it to the top.
We were all exhausted and not surprisingly I fell asleep on the way back to La Paz. Showers and laundry plus sleep was truly needed and in the evening we met up with Hannes and Mareike and her friend for some nice steakhouse dinner. Excellent!
Next days in La Paz were lazy. I couldn't get the experience out of my mind, so great it had been. We met the Germans and some other friends again for dinner and drinks. I really liked our group a lot and was sad to say goodbye to them. Before our final goodbyes with Natalie and Hannes, we still had one more great experience together. We went to the movies! But not just any kind of movies, to a VIP movie theather with crazy reclining sofa chairs and sushidelivery and what not. The movie sucked but we had fun with spilling soysauce on our freshly washed clothes in the dark theather.
In the evening we hopped on a night bus to Uyuni and said final goodbyes to La Pas as well.
