Alpine Start!!

So, me and three of the boys I´ve been travelling with thought it would be a good idea to climb a mountain here in Bolivia. We set our sights on Huyana Potosi, 6088m (see pic above) and one of the easier peaks in the Cordillera Real, which surrounds LaPaz. The day before leaving, we biked the "world´s most dangerous road", a 60km stretch of highway on the side of a cliff that descends 3500m. The ride was great, but I inhaled a little too much cold air, and as a result had the great pleasure of starting a high altitude climb with a cold :(

We were representing Canada with our group of 3 Canadians and one honorary Canuck from Colorado. The area was soooooo gorgeous... I had a hard time deciding which pictures to put up. The first day our guides were to give us an overview of mountaineering technique. I was thinking self-arrests, how to walk in crampons, that sort of thing. No, actually we went ice climbing on a glacier! Little did I know that this was to prepare us for what was to come!!

The day of the climb we got up at 1am (my first true alpine start) and climbed for 6 hours to reach the summit. There were 3 sections of the route that felt like vertical climbing on snow (well, especially in the dark after 2 hours of sleep!) The final push was a 250m section of more than 50 degrees (see final picture) where the ice axe became essential! I was last so I got totally bombarded with big chunks of snow!

At the top we were rewarded with incredible views of LaPaz, Lake Titikaka, and the surrounding mountains. The air gets pretty thin up there! I was kind of doubting I would make it since I was pretty sick to begin with, even before we got high up. But I guess being stubborn pays off sometimes! Now however I´m sicker than ever with a really bad cold... looking forward to a few days of R&R!

Kate