6,088m high, to be precise.
we drove two hours out of la paz to the feet of huayna potosi. it’s considered one of the easiest 6,000m peaks in the world because the ascent from base camp is only 1,400m. but “easy 6,000m peak” does not mean “easy.” we all realized that about halfway up the mountain.
the first day was spent in crampons and harnesses climbing up glacier walls with ice axes. by the end of the day, my guide told me that he was impressed with my improvement. “you’re not nearly as terrible as you were when we started this morning,” he said. “i honestly wasn’t sure if you were going to make it.” thanks for the confidence! let’s go climb a mountain.
so the next day we set off in the afternoon with big backpacks for high camp at 5,200m. we slept at 6pm and woke at 1am to gear up. plastic boots, snow pants, crampons, harnesses, ropes, axes, headlamps. we went up in pairs with a guide. at 2:15am, christoph and i were roped to mario and our merry team set off.
the details are a little fuzzy, but i do remember drifting in and out of consciousness, singing “do your ears hang low” hour after hour. the altitude affected me so desperately that i could only take a few steps without stopping to catch my breath. i counted paces. first i made it to 500 without stopping. then i tried to do 100 at a time. then 20. when my mind cleared enough to form a coherent thought, it was always that i had never done anything as difficult in my entire life.
in the wee hours of the morning, a girl on another team had to turn back because of hypothermia. her partner jumped in with christoph and me. despite her extensive climbing experience, she slowed us to a crawl. one, two, three steps. breathe.
we reached the summit just after 7am. i was so tired that christoph had to pull me up the last ledge. from the top, we could see lake titicaca shimmering in the distance and the peaks of the cordillera real below us. the entire mountain glowed in the early morning sun. but to be perfectly honest, there was no rush of accomplishment. i was way too exhausted to care.
i stumbled down to high camp, barely retaining my faculties enough to clear the crevasses. i slipped and slid down the snow and literally fell into the bunk room when we finally arrived. by 5,000m, my mind started to come back and the sugar rush hit after i forced down a chocolate bar. at noon, we walked through the door at base camp and collapsed in our crampons.
the guides told us that summit should take between four and seven hours. we did it in five. mario was mad at us for taking so long and kept muttering that women are always slow and ruin things for men.
i still think it was the hardest thing i have ever done in my whole, entire life. i am not sure if i’ll try another mountain. but if i do, it will not be quite so tall. still, it was pretty neat to be so high.
