¡Hola!

Huayna Potosí is a 6088m (19,974ft) snow-capped mountain in the Cordillera Real (Royal Range) just north of La Paz.It had always been lurking on the periphery of my travel plans since I became very jealous of pictures of two of my friends from the Parque Machía project, Marianne and Ross, at the summit in the middle of a blizzard.It's said to be one of the easiest 6000+ peaks in the world to climb, not because it is simple technically, but because La Paz itself lies at 3600m, making acclimatization a little easier.However, the climb was far from easy and, in fact, was one of the toughest things I've ever accomplished in my life - I'm so glad that found the time to be able to do it.I really have Brenna (an American volunteer from Sustainable Bolivia) to thank for making the idea a reality, and forfindingus a great operator in La Paz called Altitud 6000 - a brand new company with ultra-friendly staff and all brand new equipment.We were really lucky with our group too as we just had one other person climbing with us, a wicked Swiss-French guy called Mateo, who is in the middle of a cycling trip from Sao Paolo to Lima, plus our two guides - a couple called Sergio and Pati - who were really awesome.

After picking up all of our kit from the office, we were driven out to the 'low' base camp, at about 4700m, a couple of hours out of La Paz, where we stayed the first night.During the day we headed out onto the glacier to practice walking up and down the ice, and also how to use axes to climb and abseil up and down vertical faces.Whilst I had been on a glacier before in New Zealand (Franz Joseph), the climbing with ice axes was new to me, and great fun - it was to become much more serious two days later when we actually had to climb the final stage of the peak in this way.The atmosphere at the low camp was great and we met some real characters there.

The next morning we walked for a couple of hours up the steep rocky path, with all our gear on our backs, to the 'high' base camp at 5200m.This was a tiny stone building perched on top of a rocky outcrop, just below the snow line, with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, lakes and valleys.We met a lot of people who had just returned from attempting to reach the summit that morning.There were some very fit and strong-looking people who said it was extremely tough, and it seemed that many people hadn't made it to the top, which was quite disconcerting.In the end we just chilled at 5200m for the rest of the day to acclimatize, and we all got an early night going to sleep at around 6pm - we clearly had an epic night ahead of us!

Leaving the camp after breakfast at 2am, we donned our crampons and set out onto the snow.It was extremely cold and dark, our headlamps just illuminating the well-trodden path ahead of us; it was only later coming down in the light that we could appreciate how treacherous the route was, skirting alongside sheer drops and massive crevasses appearing like deep icy sores in the mountainside.It took us about four hours to reach the summit, the girls speeding away ahead of us, but it was the last hour that was most tough.I was so exhausted, almost to the point of delirium.Even walking on the flat-ish stretches I watched Mateo staggering about like a drunk in front of me, mirroring my progress, and every time I blinked it seemed like I'd had a mini black-out.We were stopping so frequently, each time shoving a fresh bunch of coca leaves and bicarbonate in my mouth, and there was a moment where I was unsure whether I would make it.Then, when I saw the trail of headlamps ahead of me scaling the last climb to the summit, I realised that it was just about within my reach.As if intended as some cruel joke, the last 30m or so of elevation was reduced to a near-vertical icy strip surrounded by jagged rocks and overhangs, which we had to climb with ice axes and ropes, sapping the last vestiges of energy from me.Reaching the very top, whilst certainly euphoric, was hardly relaxing, as we clung on to the peak with our axes and took some poorly composed photos.The views, however, of the surrounding valleys and the lights of La Paz and El Alto in the distance were obviously incredible.

The walk back down was like enduring the worst hangover known to man.The sun was beating down on us, cooking us alive in our multiple layers and snow jackets, and by this time I had really pushed my energy reserves to below zero.The girls shot off ahead again, leaving Mateo and I slipping about and stopping every 20 mins to bury our heads in the snow.I managed to lose my helmet (which I had to pay for) after it disappeared off down the mountain slope like a shell from MarioKart and fell irretrievably into a crevasse.I also lost my ice axe at one point too, but this was obviously too much for our guide who bravely smashed his way into the ice to retrieve it.The final descent almost destroyed us, but Mateo and I eventually made it back to the high base camp and promptly crashed for half an hour until lunch.We had to leave again shortly afterwards to walk the last two hours down the rocky path to the low base camp to meet our collectivo bus, which then took us back to La Paz.

The whole experience was as horrendous as it was exhilarating, but I am so pleased that we did it.We were one of only two groups who made it to the summit that day, and Brenna was the only girl.We had a lot to be pleased with ourselves about, and we spent the evening out together in La Paz to celebrate.The next morning, at 6am, I left La Paz for Arica on the Pacific coast of Chile, leaving the wonderful Republic of Bolivia for the first time since the 7th November 2009.What an incredible seven months of my life.

R

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