Parasites couldn´t keep me down...I decided to try climbing Huayna Potosi even though I wasn´t in the best shape physically or properly acclimated. By God´s grace (truly!) I made it to the top without any problems whatsoever. It wasn´t exactly a walk in the park, but I felt that I could have even climbed another 400 meters higher (height of the nearby Illumani - you can see it in the background). It is a fairly basic climb - very few crevasses and so many people go up a day (about 60) that the path is nice compact snow and ice. I was on a rope with two Brits and our guide. I thought we would have to turn around when one of the Brits lost his cookies a full two hours from the top, but with some frequent stops (the guide even said he climbed like a girl :) he pulled through - I was quite proud of him...although he couldn´t feel a couple of his toes by the time we got down. We prayed he didn´t get frostbite...he refused to take off his socks to show us though.
Jen came with me and joined me for the first day of a little experimental ice climbing on the glacier. I had never done any sort ice climbing and was a little nervous that the whole mountain was going to be like this, but the guide assured us that there was no ice climbing involved on the actual climb. Jen stayed at the refuge while I hiked up to high camp...she passed away the time sitting by the fire, reading, and helping the cook. Below is a picture of the refuge where Jen stayed with the mountain in the background, and another of the gorgeous sky--perfect climbing weather.
2 comments:
Very cool climb. I'm jealous. I'm trying to talk Rae into letting my go up to New Hampshire this winter to do a 2 day ice-climbing course with REI. So far she's not too excited.
When do you guys get back to the States?
I have always wondered how I would do at altitude. I am glad you were able to make it up there. If we ever manage to live in the same time zone we will have to do some of that stuff together :) Take care and I will talk to you soon.
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