A new peak of exhaustion
Trip Start
May 26, 2007
1
61
89
Trip End
Ongoing
Huayni Potosi,
Bolivia
Monday, September 24, 2007
Tell me why the best experiences always have to be the hardest. And let me tell you that Huayni Potosi is by far, single handedly, the absolute hardest thing i've ever done in my life. My first few days in La paz at an altitude of 3500m or so had me struggling to climb up a set of stairs and gasping to inhale whatever oxygen i could find at the top. I still wonder what went through my head when i accepted the offer to climb to 6088m. Not a lot i guess. Maybe i didn't have enough oxygen in the brain...
The tour started in the usual fashion, me bargaining my way to victory. In this case getting the price down from 115 US to a mere 70US for a three day hike (god damn i'm good). This included the guide, the food, the accom in the two refugios, the equipment (jackets, gloves, pants, boots, gators, headlamp, cramp-ons, ice pick and maybe more) and transport. We then got up first thing in the morn to find that me and linz both had a bit of a case of the grumbly bellies/bowels, no doubt from our severe lack of hygiene (this might be a good time to point out that i shower about once a week (maybe), i haven't owned, let alone used, deoderant for about two months and i'm currently growing a moustache). We thought about not going, but then thought that would make us poofs. So in order to keep my sexuality i decided to go, grumbly belly or not.
Our first couple of days were easy, despite the fact that i was a little scared of the possible consequences of farting.
1 gettin high...
The first day was hiking to a glacier at about 4700m to practise using cramp-ons and an ice pick to climb ice walls. The second day involved hiking from 4700m to 5200m. It was meant to take 3hrs but we did it in 1hr 40 cause we are the toughest guys around. I don't know exactly what we were being fed up there but somewhere along the line our belly problems changed from bad to... different, i guess. On the second night we were expected to get to bed at around 630pm, thus allowing us to get almost 7 hours sleep in before getting up at 1am in order to reach the summit by sunrise. Attempting to sleep at this hour would be difficult enough as it were but unfortunately we made this even harder because for some reason our belly processing system went from producing solids (arguably liquids) to gas. I could honestly estimate that me and linz would have averaged at least a fart a minute between us the entire 7 hrs. This, along with the girlish giggling we subsequently produced, kept not only us awake, but most likely the entire room of people (about 10-15 people).
So after 7 hrs of lying down, possibly dozing off for an hour (2 max) we were up, dressed, ready and raring to go. Me, linz and josh walked outside into the clear atmosphere, looked down onto the clouds, farted, found our guide, all got roped together and formed what was known as team flatch (short for team flatulence). we started our hike up the first hill and within the first 3 minutes of walking i was absolutely stuffed. Couldn't walk, couldn't breath...stuffed.
2 We made it to high camp
Made the unfortunate realisation that my arse was probably breathing better than i was. But i had to push on. 3 down, 357 to go. we started getting into a rhythm... "left, right, left, right"... each footstep landing about a big toe length in front of the previous one. Without this rhythm i had nothing. My mind kept telling me that this is too hard but it would be too much of a pain in the arse to break the rhythm and thus i was able continue. This frame of mind lasted the entire time. The desire to give up but a will to keep going. Then the snow came down...You would think that a climb from 5200m to 6100m, trudging through the snow, in the middle of the night would be hard enough, but no, fate insisted that it start snowing (needless to say i had a few words with fate after the hike). i honestly hadn't even noticed it had started snowing until we came to a short break where me and linz started laughing at each other (laughing is incredibly difficult at this altitude). Our focus had kept us from the fact that our hair had completely frosted up and linz was even getting icicles in his beard (my mo is not quite strong enough for stalactites...yet). But we kept on keeping on.
There were a couple of points where the mountain got to a point of steepness where you would have to use the ice axe to pull yourself up a cliff face. Only about 70 degrees or so, but on a surface of ice, that may as well be an invert. these were actually kind of fun, despite the exhaustion, especially cause it broke up the trekking.
3 The not-so-private toilets
And also cause it gave the mind a change from thinking "left, right, left, right" to "left, right, pick, left, right, pick". The last 100m or so ascension was probably the hardest. It was real steep (had to abseil back down), the air was thin and everyone was on the brink of colapse. But we pushed on and before we knew it we were there. At last.
the top.
My body was filled with a feeling of joyus satisfaction. Unfortunately the snow had caused a bit of a white-out and we couldn't really see the view we were hoping for. It also sucked cause we had planned to nude up and get a photo and send it into guiness world records, attempting to become the worlds highest nudes, but the photo would have looked like a couple of pink bodies with a white back ground (somewhat like a strawberry and cream?), so we didn't bother.
And then came the trek back down.
Although it was by far a lot easier, it was arguably harder, due to the fact that you had no aim. Trekking trhough those conditions really requires you striving towards an accomplishment. Without that the mind wanders into the negative thought patterns. I could have been a goner, but luckily i had linz to keep me in the positives, and he did it in the most entertaining way.
The whole way up he was the chirper. We agreed to share the bag that held snacks, water and extra layers if need be. Josh couldn't carry it anymore after about 15 metres and i had opted to leave the bag in the snow and get it on the way back down (happily risking losing it) just to avoid carrying it... Linz carried it the whole way. it was a feat of strength unbeknownst to mankind. At the top of the mountain i was willing to put him in the same category as superman. By the bottom he would be lucky to be in the same category as a pudding. This is all thanks to his foot work. it went from mountain goat to mule solely due to the change from ascension to descension. He did not stop tripping the entire way down. I actually lost count of the amount of times it happened due to the fact that i haven't learnt numbers that high yet. It was incredible. One time he even slipped off the edge of the path and started sliding down a hill toward a big hollow crevase, almost bringing all of team flatch down with him (remember we were roped together). Although we were able to dive to the ground and dig our ice picks into the snow and pull him back up. This lack of coordination, much to my appreciation, kept on once we had finished the snowy section and hit the rocky section. He would fall from rock to rock, one time belly sliding head first down a pile of rocks, hitting his enchanted shin on the way. It was hell for him but it made the journey a lot smoother for me.
Anyway i think thats about it. Sorry bout the length, but it was pretty exciting for me. Don't worry, you won't be getting anymore blogs like this cause thats the last time i do anything like this ever again.
