Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Climbing Huayna Potosi

i've just returned from what i consider to be the most physically challenging thing i've ever done- climbing Huayna Potosi. Huanya Potosi is one of the tall mountains overlooking La Paz, it stands at 6088m tall and is one of the most popular climbs due to its proximity to the city.
My 'trip' was to take 3 days, the first day practising ice climbing on the glacier below, climbing to the camp alto the following day and then beginning our ascent in the middle of the night to reach the summit at sunrise.
I arrived at base camp and met my fellow climber, Pascal a friendly belgium girl. We pitched our tent and then set off toward the glacier to practise with our guide Roberto. Pascal was already having misgivings as she spoke little spanish and had specially asked for a english speaking guide- not only did Roberto not speak english, but spanish was his second language (his first being the indigenious language of Aymara) and his pronouncation wasn't helped by the fact that as far as i could tell he only had 5 teeth (most of those were gold). But despite that practise went ok and Pascal revealed that she does some climbing back at home and so could give me some instruction. Then back to base cap for tea and an early night, the night was cold- so cold in fact that the pond outside our tent froze!
The following day we set off on the 3 hour climb to 5200m camp alto, this was made even more difficult by the fact that we both had full packs to carry (including crapons, ice axes and snow suits- finally i was using my rucksack for what its intended). The walk was beautiful and half way up we turned around to se a condor circling above us and then gliding away over the mountain (oh, if only it was going to be that easy for me to get to the top). We also meet those who climbed the day previously and ominously less than half got to the summit. Once at camp alto we had a (very) early tea and then were sent to bed and told that we would be woken at midnight to begin our ascent. Our tent was pitched on bare rock and didn't make the most comfortable bed ever, we both slept very little.
Midnight comes and we are both woken and given a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits and quickly dress in all our equipment. I by this time resemble a michelin man, in fact i don't think i've ever worn so many clothes, moving around is difficult, as is tying my own shoe laces! we set off and after half an hour of walking both Pascal and I realise we over estimated the number of clothes required and are both dripping in sweat. We pause for a moment but the wind soon freezes our sweat and we must walk again before getting too cold. There is very little to see as our head torches only illuminate the ground immediately infront of us, just enough to see when to jump over a crevass. We continue to walk for a couple of hours until we reach the first bit of technical climbing, "just like we did the other day" Roberto reassures us- except that in practise, it was sunny and he was stood on the ground and we were secured by a rope to ensure we didn't fall, whereas today we were tied together and climbed behind one another (in the dark).
I was really beginning to feel the altitude now and very often had to rest, but each stop we took the wind would soon freeze us, my nose was beginning to run and there was still no sign of day break. We continued walking for another hour or so, Pascal wasn't as troubled by the altitude as me and the guide suggested we separate so i could rest more frequently, we did and i have never felt so hopeless watching her walk away breathing so easily, i continued walking with Eli (the assistant guide) but had to stop frequently and was getting progressively colder, i was struggling to hold my ice axe as i could no longer grip properly and becoming exhausted and stumbling slightly. The dark mountain looks very forboding and i'm beginning to get a little frightened, as soon as i think this i get my crapons tangled and fall head first onto the ground and promptly burst into tears. My face is now not only covered with frozen snot but icy tears too, Eli helps me up and my ever-dimming headtorch finally goes out so i try to change the batteries only to find my hands are so numb i cannot undo my zip pocket. Eli trys to reassure me and points to a wall of ice a little ahead of us "we only have to climb that 200m to the summit, it should only take us an hour more", its at this point i realise i will not be able to climb the final wall as i have very little grip on my axe and decide that after 4 hours of climbing we should return.
The return is just as exhausting and i'm not warming up, i'm getting more anxious as everything is still so dark. We walk for a little longer and the eastern sky is beginning to brighten, we stop to watch the dawn but again i get too cold so we set of again, we have reached a steep bit and its nessecery to abseil, all the time the day is brightening. I wait for Eli at the bottom and turn to look up at the mountain at that moment the sun reaches the horizon and the whole mountain turns pink and below me i can see an ocean of clouds with only the highest other peaks visible. In that instant the mountain suddenly is not so frightening and i can understand why people push themselves to climb as high as possible. we watch the rest of the sunrise in silence before continuing to descend. It took me another 90 minutes to reach the camp by this time i was utterly shattered and went back to bed to wait for Pascal to return. When finally she did, after reaching the summit and over 2 and half hours later i'm glad i turned around when i did, as if i'd got to the top i wouldn't have managed the walk back, she also didn't get to see the mountain itself at sunrise as i had; so my disappointment was tempered and i actually felt quite proud of myself.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow Katie ! WOW !!! I'm so totally impressed that you were even able to contemplate a serious climb like that, never mind the fact that you got to within 200m of the summit !

I can't begin to imagine how it must have felt when you realised you had to turn back, but I must confess I did laugh when I read about the frozen snot !!

Lots of love

T'Ann xxx

5:32 AM  

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