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Well James and I have had a fantastic week since our last blog! We started off by visiting a tourist agency called "Alberth Bolivia" and somehow ended up booking a guide to take us up Huayna Potosi, a 6,088m mountain (although it is supposed to be the easiest 6,000m peak in the world!) in just 3 days time! We also booked a tour for the next day up Chacaltaya, a 5,395m which is a very easy mountain to climb as you are driven up to 5,200m leaving only 200m to climb. Despite leaving very late due to a broken down minibus James and I found the 200m climb surprisingly easy (which at that altitude is something of an achievement) although it probably had something to do with the fact that we had been at over 4,000m altitude for about 2 weeks now. James' dad had climbed the same mountain 38 years ago but apprently found it very hard!!

High Altitude Mountaineering

James and Anne Walkington
2006-08-08 16:53:24

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shipped out of the country.

Our final day before attempting the mountain was spent visiting an Pre Columbian archeological site called Tiwanaku. The site is over 1,500 years old with some parts nearly 3,000 years old. The scale of the place is huge with an enormous pyramid as it´s centre piece. Most of the pyramid is still covered in centuries of mud and teams of archaeologists work painstakingly to gradually reveal the immense structure from the ground. This might explain the extortionate entrance fee of 80 Bolivianos each (6 pounds) which can easily buy 2 people dinner and drinks here!

So the following day we were up early to start our ascent of Huayna Potosi. Our guide, Teordore, only spoke Spanish, which is not really a problem for us now, in fact we would rather have a Spanish speaking guide! Once we had established ourselves at base camp (4,700m) we headed off to the Old Glacier to practice (this was for my benefit not James´!) We practiced a few different techniques for ascending and descending ice slopes up to an angle of 80 degrees (The steepest ice slopes on the route up Huayna Potosi) before ice climbing a vertical ice face! James scaled it very quickly and I was feeling very nervous as my turn came around. I was quite surprised how easy I found it as I hit my ice axes into the ice and whacked my crampon points in as hard as I could (when I climbed I had to resort to brute force, whereas when James climbed he made it look like an art). Before I knew it I was at the top of the slope and it was time to be lowered back down again. We each climbed the face twice before returning to base camp for a good meal and then we took Teodore´s advice and headed for bed - despite it only being 6.30, but it was way too cold to stay up! The lowest temperture in the tent was minus 5 degrees - tropical at this height.

Day 2 of our expedition dawned and it was time to pack up and head to Advanced Base Camp. The route was ...

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