After some wonderful treking in Peru, we travelled by bus to Bolivia and the beautiful Lake Titicaca. On the way, we met a lovely Kiwi couple, Tom & Amy, who talked us into another crazy trek from La Paz. This one (Huayna Potosi) involved snow, ice axes, crampons and an altitude of 6088 metres (my previous peak had been a mere 4600 metres in Nepal some years ago).
The lady at the treking office seemed to know what she was talking about and made us feel more comfortable about attempting the climb. 2 days later and we were bussing it to the hills with our thermal undies (even Mobiley wore extra fur!).
Day 1 involved a short acclimatisation trek from the base camp at 4700 metres to a glacier, where we were able to have our first taste of crampons and ice axes. Here, we scaled a vertical face of ice only 20 metres high, but the altitude made it exhausting.
Day 2 was the climb to the next basecamp at 5200 metres. It was here that my runny nose turned into a cough and my stomach started to feel dicky. Nevertheless, we all went to bed at 6pm and awoke at 11.30pm. Several others in our group set off later as they were clearly fitter!
Crampons and head torches on, a rope tied between myself, Genna and Andre (our guide) and we were off scaling the glacier. It began to thunder, but we had no immediate rain so we were happy enough. We took it at snail-pace, so after an hour, a few of the fitter ones ovetook us. Then the snow and strong breeze set in. Visibility was just a few metres. Some of the slopes and crevasses were pretty scary and poor Genna was petrified by a couple of the drops into darkness.
As we trudged on, we eventually (after 3 hours), came across Tom and Amy. Amy was really suffering with altitude and Tom's frozen beard made him appear like a Narnia character. Amy tried to push on, but it was becoming unsafe for her, so they turned back.
As we plodded the next 2 hours towards the summit, I began to really struggle to breathe and had to stop every few metres. Really slow going. Thanks to Genna and Andre for being so patient with me as we approached our time limit to turn back. As the sun's head began to peek over the shoulders of the mountains, we finally reached the last few ridges to the summit. My watch's thermometer had warmed to -8 degrees C. The last 200 metres reminded me of the Everest summit, with deathly drops each side of our snowy knife-edge. I'm probably over-dramatising, but it felt that way. Gen loves climbing and heights, and even 'she' was jelly-legged.
The summit! Beautiful views, some great snaps and an exhausted relief. We were permitted only 15 minutes for safety reasons and then resigned ourselves to the descent. It had taken nearly 6 hours to climb, but we had 3 more hours down. I have to admit, at some points I just lost the will to carry on. God knows how Everest climbers do it! I take my fur-lined hat off to them....I could never do it.
By the time we arrived back at basecamp, we were pooped, but we had only 30 minutes break without our crampons before the final drop to 4700 metres and our bus (another hour's walk).
Great climb, glad I did it....but never again! I spent the next few days unable to eat (lost a few kilos) and coughing like a dog gargling sand! Nevermind. We got a free t-shirt saying we did it and were told that at this time of year, only 60% of folk reach the top.
However, for all you intrepid thrill seekers out there wanting a physical challenge- if you're thinking of attempting Kilimanjaro (5900 metres).....think again... You can do Huayna Potosi for 3 days, including all transport from La Paz, climbing gear, food, glacier training and accommodation for £100 all in! Kili will set you back over £1000!