Ok I have been talking a lot about different things from the Uyuni trip to the people I have met but there is still something I would like to explain in details: the Huyana Potosi climb.
"Reaching the top of that mountain Huayna Potosi in Bolivia is one example. Reaching finally the top at 6088m after several hours of intense efforts in the dark, in the cold, and slowly moving up one (small) step after another I can tell you that for an instant you don't think about anyone else than you. You fight against yourself, you're talking to yourself, you're saying one more step, one more step... And when you do reach stop, when you finally stand on the top and you see the sun coming out you feel happy, truly happy. The pain is gone, you don't feel cold anymore, you don't think of anything anymore. You look around you, you look at the sun rays piercing through the clouds, slowly shining on the snow, and warming up your skin. You look at the city lights far far away..."
However I haven't talked much about how I got to do it. In fact it is pretty simple. A bunch of travel agencies organize 2 to 3 days climb. The 3 days one gives more time for acclimatation as the first day takes place at around 4500m for some ice wall climbing on the glacier. I estimated that I had enough acclimation after all the days spent at high altitude in Peru and Bolivia so I took the 2 days one. It is cheaper and I wanted to save a day to do something else.
So I went to that travel agency called travel tracks.
View Untitled in a larger map
It is really easy to find as it is that one street with all the travel agencies next to the San Francisco church. After some bargaining (you bargain for everything in Bolivia: food, meal in restaurant, shoes, traveling packages, etc. Simply love the spirit :D) I got the 2 days trip with food, transportation, one night in the refuge, guide, and mountain climbing gear for 650 Bolivianos, meaning around 65euros!!!!
Moutain climbing gears includes: the very well named spike shoes!!, the heavy boots that come with them, a piolet/axe, gloves, trousers, hoodie, jacket, overshoes, headlight and that's it i think. And you'll have to carry all that on your back.
Important point when you actually know that I thought that they will also provide me with a backpack for it when they didn't... So i ended up carrying all that sh... in a small school backpack that was already loaded with my sleeping bag (for the night up there) and water. Good thing is that there is always a solution so we just attached the boots to the side of my backpack. Not very convenient when walking uphill with the boots balancing but at least my bag was by far the lightest one hehe.
So how about the climb?
In short it gives:
-leave La Paz at 8am, take a taxi ride with the guide for 2hours across the countryside up to the foot of the Huayna Potosi (this is the first pic and also the banner pic of this blog)
-start climbing rocky paths from 4200m to 5200m. Climb takes 3 to 4 hours and is rather easy. I caught up with the group that was doing the 3 days climb at that point.
-get to the refuge by 2-3pm. Get lunch. Chill. Get dinner at 5pm!!! Go sleep at 6pm!!!
-the next day: wake up at 00am, breakfast, get ready, put all the gear on, and start climbing in the dark (hence the headlight..) and the cold (-15 to -10°C, hence the mountain gear...).
-After 6hours of climb through crevasse, steep and very steep hills, you reach the top to watch the sunrise which is around 7am
-Since we got there is less than 5hours... we waited on the top a bit but the cold made up go down before seeing the sun fully coming out. In the end we watched the sunrise on the way down which was also very nice.
-going down takes 1 to 2 hours. Really easy after all the efforts, and your body feels so light. Lunch at the refuge and then another 1 to 2hours to get down to the foot of the mountain. Taxi ride back and you're back in La Paz at around 1-2pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment