Take me higher!

So, After a few days recovery in La Paz we planned our return to the mountains. Our goal this time was to reach the summit of Huayna Potosi which at 6088m (shown on left) was higher then any of us mountain goers had been before. We hired a driver to take us to our starting point but once again saved countless Bolivianos on donkeys by carrying our heavy bags ourselves! About three hours walk got us to our base camp , on a ridge near a hut. We pitched the tents and made ourselves comfortable. ¨Casa Purser¨ at base camp is shown on the left with the clouds filling the valley below.


The next day James took Brid out on the glaciar for her first go with crampons and he made her struggle up the hill only to slide back down and learn to break with an ice axe. Joe & I threw snow balls and ate food to ensure there was nothing let over to carry back down the hill! On Saturday 10th of May we got up about 12.30am and were rewarded with a beautifully clear night. Some cereal and a cup of tea later we struggled into thermals and raincoats and headed for the glaciar.

At the glaciar edge we roped up in twos and put our crampons on. Joe & I were the first to climb the ice that morning followed by Jim & Brid. We carefully picked our way through the crevasses, past a higher camp and on to the summit shoulder. It took us four and a half hours to get the summit with the last 150m being a 45 degree wall which we climbed on the front points of our crampons. As we passed the 6000m mark we both found this quite a struggle and very long!The sun was still lazing in bed when we got to the summit, the only sign of its arrival a red line across the sky. At 6088m it was a new height for both of us. Joe celebrated by rubbing his hands to warm them up as I sat with my feet in his arm pits!!! It was beautiful up there but cold, cold, cold. A few abseils and we were back at the base of the wall, passing Jim & Brid on their way up. The sun at this stage started to give us a bit of warmth .

Left: Joe at the base of the summit wall.

Below: Sue eagerly awaiting the sun!

It took us about three hours to get back to our base camp. We enjoyed wonderful views of beautiful mountains all around us as we descended. On our arrival at camp we collapsed into bed for a morning siesta before second breakfast. All meals took time as we took turns to collect bags of snow ( white not yellow) to melt for water. Mountain living is rewarding but it sure ain´t easy. In the afternoon Joe & I built a stone wall around our tent in preparation for a storm. As we nestled into our beds that night the sky cracked and our tent was illuminated with huge flashes of thunder. We awoke in the morning to about 4 inches of snow everywhere. We packed our bags took down the tent and descended from the ridge to meet our driver Jamie for the drive pack to Laz Paz. Below: Joe on the morning of our descent from base camp.