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It is hard to write about everything what I do at the moment. There are so many activities in the environment of L a Paz. Hence I focus on the most special activity for me: The mountain Huayna Potosi which is 6088 meter high and is close to La Paz.
Everything starts in La Paz, where I book a tour at one of the various agencies. At a Tuesday morning at 8:30 I am waiting in front of my agency. Everything is closed due to the carnival in these days. Another two people from the UK are waiting on the pavement. A mysterious guy arrives 15 minutes later and asks me, if I am Leo (my name here in South America). He offers me to go one day later, which I refuse, and the problem starts…
I have to wait more hours and another agency is asked to take me to the mountain because the first one has no equipment and no other people. Then the two agencies have to find a price for the deal. My task is to run between the two agencies and to moderate. Finally they find a price but the next challenge is to find a guide and a driver because most of them are drunken (yes really). Half of my first day is over and I am still in La Paz. I am already tired in order to organize my adventure. With regard to different equipment of the other agency I have to buy more things like socks and a bonnet. After spending more money and another negotiation round because I will go only with a guide on the mountain, a funny old Bolivian guy drives me with an even older Toyota to the base camp of Huayna Potosi. Additionally we listen to music from the 80s and I enjoy the mountain panorama with llamas.
Immediately after arriving at the base camp, I start hiking to acclimatise. It is cloudy and in the end I get lost therefore I decide to return to the base camp. At the base camp I find out that the plastic bag of my cloth which should stay in La Paz and the bag with the food is interchanged. The family I stay with at the base camp is extremely friendly and they show me how to use my equipment (shoes, crampons, axe).
The next morning I wait in vain for my guide Efrain and decide to hike alone to the high camp due to the good weather conditions. According to the family the way is easy to find and in fact I make it in less than two hours to the high camp. On the way plenty of guides who come back from the mountain ask me why I am hiking alone and promise to guide me on the mountain later. It is a new experience for me to hike up a mountain with all the equipment in my back pack, especially in an altitude of more than 5000 meters. Afterwards I try my equipment and how to walk on a glacier with crampons. In the afternoon other groups arrive and finally also my guide appears. We discuss the most important things and after dinner it is time to sleep. Unfortunately I cannot sleep one minute.
At midnight it is time to prepare all the equipment, to eat some bread and to drink a coca tea. My stomach feels not good but some minutes later we are on the way to the summit. Step by step in the darkness we walk up the glacier. My guide and I are connected by a rope and we move slowly forward. The altitude is no problem for me and I am always following my guide. Sometimes I have to concentrate extremely in terms of the small path. Further and further upwards, the lights of La Paz appears far away. My guide gets problems with the altitude. I feed him with chocolate and hope that he will not give up before we reach the summit. However his pure presence gives me security. Then he tells me that we have to climb an ice wall with crampons and the axe. I always wanted to do it but here. Now, really? By the way he forgets my helmet. Luckily, we make it but it was exhausting. We continue and the coca leaves help me although I cannot eat or drink anymore. My stomach makes weird sounds. At the last part I am also tired and need breaks to breath air. 20 meters walking, break, 20 meters walking.
Finally we reach the summit and the sun rises. I fall on my knees and am one of the happiest persons. I hug my guide. My guide calls his girlfriend. Although it is really cold, we are enjoying the view and the sunrise before we go down again. Now it is also exhausting to go down, I have a headache and my body does not want to work anymore. I walk fast because I want to come to a lower altitude. On the way back we stop for making pictures. When the climbing part comes I have luck that falling ice does not hit me on the head. Then we reach the high camp. Unfortunately no other group makes it on the summit. I eat and take a short nap before I go down to the base camp and from there back to La Paz.
