Huayna Potosi in Spanish translates to ‘Thunderous Youth’, a very apt way to characterise my behaviour the night I summited this mountain. The climb started at midnight, and I pushed on to the summit despite the storm weather warnings. (The full story of that experience can be read here.) This post focusses on some of the amazing views seen throughout the three day adventure. Sadly the storm obstructed some of the views at the summit, but there were still breathtaking views during the ascent and descent that are shown below.
La Paz in Bolivia: the journey starts in the city at 3,640m above sea level.
Cemetery: Ominous thing to see on the way in.
The 6,088, mountain in all its glory.
My mountain guide hooking up some gear for the group.
Getting revved up for a few wild nights on the mountain. (Approx 4750m altitude)
Training day on the ice.
Preparing for the ice vertical by training at lower altitude.
Last look at the training site.
Plenty of coco leaves needed to be consumed. (Helps with altitude)
The beautiful surrounds of base camp.
Appreciating the Cordillera Real.
My trusty bag on route to high camp at 5,100m.
My view at dusk before starting the summit climb at midnight. A few moments for reflection.
After a night of climbing in the dark, here you can see us just after making the summit in dense cloud as the sun starts to poke through.
White everywhere.
On the way down the the storm conditions started to clear.
Clear of danger, but exhausted.
The summit! Hard to imagine we were up there only an hour before.
It is a truly beautiful place.
My climbing buddy Charlie enjoying the mountain.
We’re looking tough here but we were shitting ourselves an hour earlier.
The freshly snowed on mountain.
One last look, and utter shock the weather now looked perfect.
Until next time..
Video: Some footage of the summit climb.
Made some pretty brave (and stupid) choices up there. A life lesson. Felt satisfying to summit a big mountain though. Beautiful place too.
Digital stuff:
Sony RX 100mi
GoPro Hero 4 Silver
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