Huayna Potosi tops out at 19,974 ft and is probably the easiest 6000m peak in South America. There are a dozen companies selling guide services up this and other peaks out of La Paz and most seem willing to take anyone. I was planning on using this lightly technical summit as a warm up to something more interesting like Illimani (6,438m / 21,201 ft) but despite my best prep, I got severe altitude sickness from the jump on summit day. I still struggled my way to the summit under extreme nausea but I’d call it a summit in very bad form.
Choosing a Guide
We went with Hiking Bolivia as a guide service because the woman who admitted us actually asked in detail about our experience and our acclimatization. They said they’d prefer to wait on a more technical peak like Illimani after seeing how we did on Huayna Potosi. A desire to ensure we are properly prepared was a huge green flag compared to other companies which just quoted us cost. We chose a 3 day ascent so my traveling companion could get some instruction / practice in crampons and some ice climbing in.
However, after my traveling companion got sick and we couldn’t make the date, the administration said we would forfeit our hundreds of dollars as a “no show” instead of rescheduling us. Yes it was last minute, but it doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars in non refundable logistics to stay in basic mountain refugios, at the end of the season, in a very affordable country…
Eventually, after 20min back-forth, she charged us an extra 1/3 of the price (1000 Bs / $85) to reschedule.
Their big pitch was they had the best gear and upon arrival I realized that only meant their boots. The glossy photos in their promotion material made their gloves and jackets look hard shell and expedition-level, so better than what I had. In reality, the material was more like a soft shell rain jacket and the gloves had pretty thin liners. It was essential to get a real pair of under-gloves for 35 Bs (~$3) at the tienda on our drive up. I should have known better to always bring my own gear (if I have it) to compare. I mistakenly assumed a 6000m outfitter who guides primarily in early Spring would have good stuff if they claimed such an advantage of quality gear… lesson re-learned.
I will say the boots and the crampons I was given were actually quite good and fit me well.
Day 1: Transport and Training
It took a couple hours of driving to get to the base camp refugio (4,700m / 15,400 ft) at the end of the road just inside the park gate. After a short wait, we went out for the day of instruction. The instruction was in Spanish and the guide was kinda impatient and treated my female travel companion who didn’t have perfect Spanish kinda like an idiot at times, often rushing her or holding her hand if she took longer at doing something. I did my best to augment the instruction and provide feedback but it felt kinda chaotic.
After a very brief ice climbing demonstration, they set up top rope on a steep vertical wall with soft ice from a two ice screw anchor. It wasn’t really a good training environment and one of their ice tools was straight with no hand catch, so it was hard to use the tool well in a vertical or “more than vertical” setting. The Jiwaki company guide actually had the correct, nice ice tools next to us (so much for the best gear…) for the steep terrain. I know I’m out of practice ice climbing but I found it hard to get my crampons into good ice and not slip on the crystalline outer layer. Sure, we are probably just here for an ice climbing photo and not actual training / practice but the poor choice of route was annoying.
After one rep of ice climbing, they took down the rope and led us back to camp at 4:15p for a lot of downtime until dinner.
I had kinda hoped we would actually go over self arrest instead of just how to walk in crampons in different scenarios (since that is what an ice axe is for on a rope team) but we did not. Maybe the icy head of this glacier was not the best place for it but if you are roped together, everyone should know how to self arrest in my opinion… The “instruction” part of this trip is about what I expected, more about rushing through a checklist than teaching skill. Which is kinda annoying and frustrating since I’m someone who teaches outdoor skills a lot.
At basecamp, I played some games with Callie and Paul but eventually got ansy and went out for an off trail hike in the cloudy mountains (1.5 mi., 1000 ft) to 16,600 ft.
Day 2: High Camp
The next day we had breakfast at 8am and then had some shuffling waiting around for groups to come down and us to go up. We strangely had lunch at 11am. At noon we hiked up to high camp (5,200m / 17,000 ft). I hilariously hauled up everyone’s sleeping bags because they didn’t fit well in everyone else’s backpacks, but I was feeling great so it was no big and the distance short.
It took two hours to hike the 1.5 mi, 1,200 ft to high camp up a rocky moraine in lightly blowing snow.
The Refugio was a sheet metal structure that we three had all to ourselves but it could sleep 20 people side-side. There were other guided parties on the mountain, so I guess many more such high camp structures exist for each guide outfitter.
After an early dinner, we tried to sleep (6:30pm) but mostly I was awake until our 11:30am wake up time.
Summit Day (Night)
I woke up with a bad headache and feeling very warm. I tried ibuprofen, cooling myself down, water, food and then coca leaves but could not get rid of this headache before starting up the route around 12:30am. A short 10min walk brought us to the glacier where we crampon’d up and formed our three person rope team. (The rope team was more in case someone fell since there were no real glacial crossings.)
The climb itself was often a very easy walk with little technical crampon work. There were a couple thiner walkways on ridges that later descending you could see were above a cravasse. Ascending in a cloudy darkness with light snow, there were probably 15 people in total ascending this shoulder season day. All of these teams passed my rope team as I was slow while fighting an intense nausea for the entirety of the six hour ascent. The last 600 ft to the 19,974 ft summit took an hour all on its own with one exposed rock traverse requiring crampons on rock (which can feel pretty slick your first time).
Reaching the clouded summit, I couldn’t believe I had not thrown up and I was miserable. Unfortunately we only caught glimpses of a view through cloud cover.
Mostly though, it was the daylight descent that really showed the beauty of the glacial cap on Huayna Potosi. Our guide tried to hustle us down, but we still got some great photos.
My altitude sickness abated only a little, but my headaches come with light sensitivity and it was now daylight on a glacier. So that increased nausea, counter actively. Then it continued to get warmer, so I became overheated as well which exasperated things. So my nausea and headache kinda remained at a high level. At high camp we got 45 minutes of rest and soup before our guides again hustled us down (literally trying to pack for my friend, making it actually take longer) so we could wait at base camp for our transportation back to La Paz.
Reflection
The biggest surprise to me on this trip is that despite all my cardio training, time spent jogging at high US elevations (13-14k), climbing at altitude in Peñas, doing a 17.6k acclimation hike, spending days at 13-15k ft in the SW and hiking up to 16.6k the day before the ascent… I did everything right and still got altitude sickness. It was my first time at this altitude, but I felt more prepared and more in shape than most people so it was strange to have my body fail me so spectacularly in a non-strength or endurance way… I also found the mountain much warmer than I expected and I probably shouldn’t have worn my thermal layer since I run hot. I do wonder if sleeping overheated, in my thermal layer and zero-degree sleeping back helped bring on my altitude sickness.
I haven’t felt this physiologically bad or been such a weak link on a team objective like this in a decade and I’m possibly the most physically fit I’ve ever been in my life… so it’s hard to know what to think.
I spoke with a local IFMGA guide and he was surprised given my fitness and said sometimes these things are just one-offs and its not abnormal to feel this way the first time at this altitude (even though I was the most sick on the mountain, despite having the most experience of the non-guides). I guess I’ll try some new things and see what my high-altitude glaciated volcanic peaks in Ecuador have to teach me.
The mountains can be a humbling place.
