Ver mapa más grandehuayna potosi is 6088 meter peak about 2 hours north of la paz. i had no idea it existed until about 2 years ago when messerschmidt traveled through bolivia and
posted some amazing pics from summiting. he said it wasn´t too bad, and the mountain is known as the easiest 6000 m peak in the world to summit. anyone with $100 usd can hire a guide and equipment to try it. so i had been scheming to do it for the last 9 months of this trip. lkm, however, wanted nothing to do with it. fortunately, the timing worked out that my brother had 3 days free and a decidedly mild interest in seeing the mountain, so we took a shot at it.
got off to a bad start.
huyana potosi in the background. 19,975 feet!
the actual peak is the one on the right in the background. our guide says some folks do ski down the near face. next trip.
ice climbing at a glacier near base camp on day 1. very very fun.
bsmith as we got to high camp - about 5,200 m - on day 2, grumpy and tired.
talked with the guides and got a run in on their 1980 ski setup. the only catch was we had to hike up the hill. at 5,200 m, this takes a significant effort.
started the ascent at about 2am. full moon. no need for headlamps. better this way, so as to not see the bottomless crevasses we were stepping over.
not much to say about the hike up except that it sucked. after 5 hours of sucking rare air, we were approaching the summit.
summited right at sunrise. august 6, bolivian independence day... making you proud, mom.
also making lucha libre proud. our guide loved this. he kept wanting to take more pictures with "ray misterio jr." from the wwf. our guide was tremendous - we got to the top only because of him. he kept us at a steady slow pace for the climb and kept us within our limits. he grew up in a village at about 4,500 m, so he was born acclimated.
bsmith, powered by m&m´s. unfortunately, no frijoles were to be found.
sun was up on the way back down... it was a tiring, precarious haul to get back.
on the way down, we saw the crevasses that we had crossed earlier. when you peer over the edge, you really can´t see a bottom.
got back from the trek and slept for about 18 hours. the trek was well worth it. vale la pena.
lkm and i left bolivia on august 8, a year after the ankle surgery. 9 months goes quick... too quick. we have a few days on a carribean island, and then home to california. see you all soon.
