Today is the day I start my 3 day hike up Huayna Potasi - part of the Cordibella Blanca range and with a summit of 6088m. To be honest I am a bit nervous about it as I have never been that high up and even at 4000m here in La Paz I have had minor breathing and altitude issues. I was up early double checking I had everything and then made my way to the city where I was to meet my hiking group infront of the tour office. Arriving super early I had an hour or so wait before anyone arrived - I had a lot of crazy thoughts go through my mind and at one point seriously considered giving the idea a miss. Reminding myself that there is nowhere else in the world I can attempt a 6000m summit with no experience and no equipment. People started to arrive and I met my group - Callum: a fellow Aussier over from Sydney and 3 French guys who are all in their 5th year of medicine and one more French guy who is a mad hiker and climber. Next we met our guides and they both seemed nice enough but with very little English. It wasn't long and we were off; first stop the depot to pick up our equipment, I needed nearly everything a fleece, thermal pants, jacket, 60L backpack, helmet, harness, ice boots, crampons, sleeping bag and headlamp. After the depot we made a 2 hour drive out to our refuge for the night, on the way I chatted with Callum the other Australian about his adventures so far in South America and got some really good ideas about other things to do and see in Bolivia. When we arrived at the refuge it was snowing, zero visibilty and absolutely freezing cold, we met the group of climbers that had just finished their summit and they looked absolutely dead to the world. I asked to a few of them how the climb was and it was unanimous - "the hardest thing any of them had ever done". First thing we did was practice setting up our gear - which was quite a struggle as the guides were not speaking any English and their rough Spanish was hard for me to understand aswell as the fact I had to translate for Callum aswell. After practicing our gear setup lunch was served and I was pleasantly surprised: first came a vegetable an quinoa soup steaming hot with fresh bread - exactly what we all needed in the below zero temperature condition. Next came a piece of steak, pasta, salad and some large hand cut potato chips - perfect to give us some energy for this afternoons ice wall training. There was also loads of fruits, a constant supply of fruit juice and hot water for tea, coffee and hot coco so the last thing I could complain about was the food. After lunch we geared up - packed all our things into our huge packs and hiked about an hour uphill threw heavy snow and Gail force winds to the snow walls where we would practice the ice climbing skills we would need for Sundays summit attempt. Even the walk was tiring but when we arrived it was obvious that this was not going to be a walk in the park: we put on our harnesses, boots, crampons, helmets and grabbed our axe- practicing firstly walking up a steep slope. The first thing about snow is its unclear if its soft, hard, slippery or covering a big hole so every step provides a challenge. We went to a part of the mountain where there was an almost vertical ice wall and practiced climbing up it using our crampons and axes; this proved quite difficult as you would first need to hammer your axe into the ice then kick two steps into the wall and repeat. After a 10 meter ice wall i was stuffed and really started to fear the next few days. The last bit of the training involved using two axes and a line (rock climbing line with a guy on the end of it ready to hold you if you slip) to climb a much higher ice wall. I watched the other guys go first and how much they struggled but I was also able to see where they were going wrong and so when it came to my turn i breezed up the wall. One of the French guys had unfortunately come down with food poisoning and when we arrived back he had high fever and couldn't stop spewing - the cool thing was though he was going to give up on climb and provided he felt better in the morning he was still going to attempt the hike to the refuge tomorrow. There is not much to do in the refuge except stay warm and eat so that's what we did. Everyone in the group was really laid back so it was easy just to hang out and talk about travels and kill time. Dinner came out and once again a pleasant surprise - a thick creamy soup, fried chicken and vegetables and fruit salad for dessert. They had a shower at the refuge and it had steaming hot water so I jumped in and tried to get my body temp back up as it was now well below zero. It worked momentarily but by the time I went to bed I was freezing again. Rugged up in all my clothes and in a below zero sleeping bag I still absolutely froze and spent the whole night trying to get my toes warm which I swore were going to get frost bright and fall off.