A climb to the summit of a 6088m mountain, Huayna Potosi, was the perfect challenge ...
We started on the first day by getting used to walking on steep inclines on ice in our cramp-on's and learning how to scale vertical walls of ice ... important skills for what was to come ...
Huayna Potosi .. from the starting point .. a beautiful view .. or a very scary sight .. depending on whether you are about to climb to the top or not!?
Job and I at the second refuge the night before the big climb ...
After getting out of bed in sub zero temperatures at 1am we started our climb ...
After 2 hours of hard, slow walking along narrow snow trails in the dark we reached a very steep incline and began to climb with our ice picks ... the near vertical trail continued for around 25 vertical meters ... a little scary particularly in the dark!
After another 4 hours trudging in the snow, overcoming altitude sickness, tiredness and fatigue, we made it to 6000m above sea level. The sun was starting to rise and we were able to see the final leg of our journey to the summit....
The following picture is the ridge we had to balance along to reach the top. Without doubt this was the most terrifying thing I have ever forced myself to undertake. The trail along the ridge was around 20cm wide ... with a small ledge to put your ice axe into as a walking stick. At times this ledge disappeared leaving you to balance along a 20cm wide ice ledge .... on either side a shear drop with no chance of return if you place one step wrong...
Crazy you say .... I totally agree! Gotta live though?!?...
We made It! Nice job, job!
Job and I with our trusty guide Felix ... thanks a heap Felix! I don't know how you do this crazy shit twice a week...
Walking back down was possibly more tiring than up ... we were exhausted! On top of that you can see the network of crevasses we were walking around the whole way up ... would not want to try this without a guide!
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