Eagle Connection: Huayna Potosi

Huayna Potosi , a 6,088m or 19,724 foot mountain in the Cordillera Real or Royal Range of Bolivia. The Royal Range has more than 600 peaks that are over 5,000 m and Huayna Potosi is not the biggest by any means. But it has an easy access and 2 refugios or base camps. The first one is at 4624m and we drove to that one. The second one is at 5350m. So we only had to climb about 800 meters at a time. But 800 meters at elevations of 5 - 6,000 meters is still tough.

There was four of us in our group who attempted to summit - Katherine from Germany, Matt from England, Justin from Australia and originally from Malaysia, myself and two guides. We took a 1 ½ hour van ride from La Paz to base camp. We were accompanied by 2 older gentlemen from Cordoba, Argentina. I had great conversations with the 80 and 70 year old Argentinians.
We arrived at the refugio which is really quite nice with several dorm rooms, a nice living room with a fireplace, kitchen, and a fully operational bathroom. We ate lunch and then were off for our lesson and practice with all our equipment - ice axe, crampons, harnesses, rope etc. We hiked up to the glaciar and practiced different techniques of walking up and down the steeps, practiced arresting (when falling, catching and stopping oneself with the ice ax and crampons), and walking together on a rope. It was really helpful and I am glad that I had that practice in the middle of the day. We went back, ate a yummy dinner - the cook, Juana, was fabulous!
The next day, we had a relaxing morning, organized our things, ate lunch, and then climbed up to the second refugio. This was a very basic camp - with metal exterior walls and thin Styrofoam for insulation - and 2 small rooms. One room was an organized camp kitchen and the other had a table and a large bunk bed that probably could sleep 10 - 12 people. We ate dinner and were sent to bed at around 5:30pm. Now I did not get to sleep until much later and it was really funny to watch my own internal reaction of being sent to bed early. Nonetheless I went and rested until finally falling to sleep near dark. We had to go to bed so early because we were woken up at 12:30am to get dressed, eat and start hiking at 1:30am. In South America (I do not know about the Himalayas yet), they hike the glaciars and high peaks in the early dark hours.
So off we went, a group of 6, all equipped with head lamps, snacks, water and our gear. I only carried my brain - the top of my large backpack - with snacks, water and a few emergency things. Since my agency owns the upper refugio, we were the first group to start. The other refugio is at about 5200m. There were 37 people attempting to summit that day. The hike was slow and steady. There were some deep crevasses which when I saw them, was grateful for climbing at night and not being able to look down. After an hour, Katherine was not feeling well so she and Mario, one of our guides, returned to camp. Now there was 3. I was a bit nervous at this point because if anybody else got sick then we would all have to return. Justin and Matt had absolutely no climbing experience either but onward we went. Justin needed a slower pace with frequent stops, which helped Matt’s altitude headache. We got up to 5900 meters and we were told we would not be able to stop anymore for the last 200 meters because it was too dangerous. Justin decided to stay and wait for us to return. I was able to give him my baclava and my emergency blanket to help with the cold. We climbed up the wall of ice, using all 4’s - luckily one had an ice axe and 2 had crampons. It was necessary!! Matt, Macario, our other guide, and I made it to the summit as the sun was rising - some 5 hours later. It was absolutely incredible!!! Windy, but amazing views of the Cordillera Real, high mountain lakes, Lake Titicaca etc. WOW!!!!! It was awesome and I felt great - I had lots of energy and was not effected by the altitude. I was so lucky! Matt was sick to his stomach and fighting not to vomit. At the time, I thought I am made to climb these peaks - a true mountain girl at heart. We only had about 15 - 20 minutes at the top before 2 other groups came. There was really only room for 7 - 8 people at the summit. Besides it was getting chilly sitting there.
Now having said that, we started the descent. The 200 meter wall which I climbed up with some difficulty but nothing major but I was motivated to get to the top - well coming down was an entirely different picture. It was truly really difficult - thick ice that I could barely stick my crampons into. Thank gosh I was roped in. It was slow going but I made it down and was ever thankful to be able to walk again on the snow/ice. We made it back to the high base camp, packed up our things, ate a snack and headed down to the base camp. We had our full packs but did not have to wear the big, heavy plastic boots because we walked down on loose rocks. But boy oh boy did I have trouble. Macario was teasing me that I looked like I was drunk because I stumbled a few times. So I took it really slow. My boots did not seem to be holding much traction and the straps of my gaiters kept coming undone. So needless to say it was a long, slow walk down. I was the last one down and arrived close to 11:30am. So we had an hour and a half break at the upper base camp and basically hiked for 7 ½ hours. WOW was I not exhausted! Juana had a hot lunch waiting for us - thank gosh. I was wiped out! But as I was taking off my gear, I noticed that Huayna Potosi had eaten the tread off of my right boot and that is why I was having so much difficulty with tractions. Luckily I made it safe and sound! The trip in total was 26 - 28 km. Of the 37 people who attempted the summit, only 15 made it. I was glad to be one of them!!

Anything is possible!!