| First photos taken were on reaching the summit. | |
| Midnight soon arrived with the guides ‘inviting’
us to prepare for the impending journey. I was expecting to struggle
putting most of the equipment on in the tent because of the cold, but
surprising it wasn’t too bad outside. Anyway, not a problem outside
for the hands/fingers putting on leggings, harness and boots. (photo: Paul (left), I (centre) and our guide on the narrow ridge summit of Huayna Potosi) |
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| After a hot drink, it
was a short walk to the ice where we fitted crampons and roped-up into
three teams. It was dark, still and chilly ..... the time just turned
1am. (photo: Looking down the steep ice/snow slope from the summit) |
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| Off we set, starting up the steep ice of
the glacier with head-torches showing the way. It was a long slog and
hard going, then we turned right and traversed the ice/compact snow. The
incline was gentler but still tough on the legs and lungs through the
thin air. (photo: View up to the summit from the bottom of the steep section) |
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| The uphill slog
continued endlessly, only broken by the odd little ice-chute to climb
up, with inclines varying between reasonable and steep. I kept thinking
..... ‘what am I doing here ...’. After about 5 hours, we reached
the final section leading to the summit, just as light was beginning to
break behind us. (photo: And a view from further away as we head back down) |
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| Great to have light, but it meant we could
see what we had to do to reach the summit. Not a pleasant sight ........
a 70 degree ice/snow climb of about 450 ft (approx 150m). I was ready
for packing in, but Paul suggested we rearranged the rope teams, me with
him, and then take it nice and easy. We agreed, so Paul and I roped up
with a guide, leaving poor Tony with a guide, and Sarah and Graham as
the other team with a guide. (photo: Amazing openings in the ice) |
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| Tony was almost
speed-climbed to the top by his guide, while Paul and I took a gentle
front-pointing climb arriving at the summit just as Tony was departing.
Utterly exhausted, we bolted ourselves down then sat and enjoyed the
views as the sun rose (yes, I suppose we did enjoy the view) (photo: Another couple ahead of us on their way down) |
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| The hard work was not over yet. It wasn’t
long before we were roped-up again starting the descent, with me
leading. More difficult than going up, as it was a constant struggle
ensuring all points of the crampons were in ice before putting load on
each step. (photo: View back in the direction of Huayna Potosi) |
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| I failed a couple of
times and had a couple of slips. Nothing dangerous, but off putting. By
now Graham and Sarah had also reached the summit. (photo: The path drops over the right edge of the ridge just beyond the two walkers) |
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| There was amazing sights on the way back,
huge gaps and caverns in the ice, with some scary looking routes to take
that were not obvious when passing over them on the way up in the dark.
Anyway, although we made slow progress, we were taking our crampons off
at the High Camp by 1030. Another exhausting outing ..... and it wasn’t
over for the day either. (photo: Our guide descending an ice chute) |
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| We still had to go
back to lower camp for transport back to La Paz. However, that was later
in the day, in the mean time it was in the tent and rest for a couple of
hours. Tony had been back about an hour before Paul and I, and it wasn’t
too long after that Sarah and Graham arrived back at the camp. All had
reached the summit. (photo: Looking back to where we had traveled from) |
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| We left High Camp early afternoon, arriving
at lower base camp some two hours later. That was the walking over for
this part, just had to sit around for a short while for Marco to arrive
with the 4x4 to return us to La Paz. (photo: Crossing a narrow ridge on the way from high camp to lower base camp) |
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