Huayna Potosi, the highest my legs can bring me
For Steve, aka Chola pass heroe 🙂
I still remember Steve´s words while we were watching the sun set on the Kala Pattar (5550 meters) over the Everest: “I think this will be as high as we´ll get”. For all this time I thought the same, but I didn´t know about the Huayna Potosí
It´s the “easiest” mountain a tourist can climb they said in the agency. “Ha ha, I´ve been to the Himalayas” I thought stupidly.
It all started early in the morning with a short drive to the base camp at 4620 meters above sea level (masl). I was feeling great, amazed with the scenery, the snow and the mountain.
After a quick lunch we, the guide and I, started the ascent to the high camp. It took us two hours and I was still feeling great at 5130 masl. “This will be a piece of cake” I thought again stupidly.
The route
It was 19:00 and we were in our sleeping bags pretending to sleep. The altitute has different ways of showing itself, some people get headaches, others can´t breath. I couldn´t sleep the whole night…
At 01:00 I “woke up” and by 02:40 I was walking over ice and snow, kitted out with crampons and an ice axe. Everything was fine except that the oxygen was getting lower. I was running out of breath and I had to stop every two minutes to recover.
Finally we made it to the last part. A 250 meter wall of ice. “Oh Oh” not so easy, eh? The wall inclined at a 65 degrees angle!! Just think that a steep road is 15 degrees!!! How am I supposed to climb that thing? Slowly and with lots of breaks, one of them to put my fingers in my mouth for 5 minutes for them to thaw, I made it 🙂 The feeling, indescribable….
Completely wrecked and with frozen toes and fingers, I managed to drag myself to the high camp and then to the base camp where I fell asleep in the car drive back to La Paz.
Overall result: Huayna Potosí: 0 – Simon: 1 🙂 🙂 🙂
Tags: Bolivia, La Paz, Simon Uribe, Travel
simonuribe@yahoo.com
Gratulation 🙂 Noch einmal bin ich total neidisch… 🙂 gibt’s auch Berge in Columbien ? Der Führers Foto find ich geil…Vielleicht in schwarz und weiss ?
Viel Spass noch \o/
Nooooooo, que son esas montanias!nrnrQue envidiaaaa.nrUN abrazote
Simon!!!! That looks absolutely amazing mate!! And what an achievement! As I sit here at work in my suit I can try and recollect the pain at Kala Pattar and then increase that for your climb! Despite the lack of sleep, camping on the mountain must have been awesome!
But…..what was the final height?? You dont mention it!!
Keep the tales of your adventures coming!
Steve, aka Cho La Pass Hero!
Oops your are right Steve! the final height was 6088 meters!!!! It was incredible 🙂