But anyway, I had been here 2 months already and it was time to go to a mountain. I decided to go to the 6088 meter, or 19,974 ft mountain named Huayna Potosí. Easy choice because I'd be going alone, in the off-season, and I'd been on the same mountain two times in 2012. It's also the closest big peak, and most popular in the country (La Paz is the center of mountain climbing in Bolivia).
I left home just before 3am on Friday the 13th. It was pretty nice driving through the empty, normally absolutely congested city. I could write more about the traffic here, but I would probably start crying, so I'm not going to. So, while mountain biking, I had discovered this new "road" that would take me to the high plateau and the mountains in a more direct way. I was really happy that I didn't have to go through the city of El Alto, which is the most dangerous city in Bolivia. Not a good place to in the middle of the night, even in a car. The new route was, however, a pretty steep gravel path with a decent drop on my right hand side. And as I got higher there was some fog, so it was a little bit spooky and very slow ride. At 4.30 I got to the police checkpoint at Milluni and had to wake up the two officials so they could take my information and ask me their questions. I got to the base camp (4750m) just before 5 am. The drive was barely 20 miles, but took almost 2 hours because the roads are terrible in the countryside and I don't want to ruin my car. I had some breakfast in the car, arranged my stuff, and put on all my clothes. I really felt cold because it was windy, and there was this really dense fog, which I actually think was a cloud, because it was kind of like rain but it didn't make me too wet. I thought maybe I'm not going to make it to the top, but at least I'd be on the mountain, which is still cool.
At 5.26 I started the walk. I tried to move fast. Because of the cloud, visibility was really limited and my headlight didn't help much. I just kept walking, and luckily every now and then I felt like I had been there before. At around 6 there was no need for the headlight anymore. Soon the weather got better. Getting higher, the rocks had like an icy transparent icing, and it was better to climb on the snow. I reached the high camp, where there is a hut for sleeping, really fast after just 1 hour 25 minutes including a few stops. In 2012 it took about 2 hours. The altitude here is around 5150m. I tried the door but it didn't open. I put on my mountaineering boots and crampons, ate some more bread, and headed up the steep snowy slope. I really thought there was nobody up on the mountain because the hut's door was closed and it was the carnival weekend, so there was a great sense of freedom: alone on a big mountain!
There was definitely a lot more show than I had seen before, and it was soft snow. In some places the landscape was truly different from July views. I could see that much fewer climbers go to the mountain in February. Then the fog took over again, but occasionally it was sunny for a moment. Sometimes all I could see was 50 meters (photo from the descent):
After some time I saw 3 people coming down. A guide and 2 westerners. As usual, they had started the climb super early, maybe at 2 am from the high camp.The guide told me there is deep snow and it's foggy up, and that if it snows it's better to turn around. Later two more guides told me the same. So there were a handful of people climbing, but nothing compared to July, and I had the high part of the mountain to myself.
There are some steep sections, including one that's maybe 20 vertical meters at up to 70 degrees.
Quite surprisingly it got hotter as I climbed higher. In a strange way, in addition to the sun and heat reflecting back from the snow, it felt like the fog also made it more intense. I never thought it could be so hot at that altitude. I left my backpack on the snow well before the summit and when I got back, it was hot to the touch! I got sunburn on my lips, which was the first and the last time. Because there was so much snow, instead of the final ridge, it was better to climb a nice 250 vertical meter/750ft mountain face at 45-50 degrees to the summit.
In 2012 the climb from high camp took me 7 hours, but now it took only 3 hours and 19 minutes including a few quick stops. And the snow conditions now were "slower". Maybe it was my unconscious mind wanting me to get fast up and down because I was by myself. Also, I had done multiple hill walks on steep slopes at home for training, which must have helped. I drank a lot of Tampico juice and ate chocolate during the climb.
Indeed, when I realized how fast I had been going up, I wanted to go down fast as well. So when I got back to my car, my Garmin showed average heart rate 125 for total moving time of 6 hours 13 minutes in less than 8 hours. Pretty good exercise!
