Summitting Huayna Potosi

So yesterday I cycled the "Death Road", a forty-three mile road from La Paz to Coroico. It was closed three years ago to normal traffic because it was so dangerous and descends from 4650 to 1200masl (metres above sea level). It is probably one of the best mountain biking routes in the world due to spectacular scenery and the fact that it is downhill all the way. Only about 25 cyclists have died here since 1998 and several of those were because they stepped backwards too far to take a photo and fell off the edge. So unless you were an idiot you would probably be fine. At the start we biked through bitter cold and freezing mists that crept up the mountain, then this slowly gave way to humid jungle and waterfalls crashing hundreds of metres onto the road. My hands are now shattered from rocky pounding of the handlebars and my arse resembles papier mache but well worth the incredible ride.

On to a more exciting adventure, this Tuesday I will be making an expedition up the mountain Huayna Potosi.

La Paz is already the highest capital of the world at 3600masl. This is high enough for the lack of oxygen to cause altitude sickness and in fact many tourists experience this. Headaches, insomnia, nausea and shortness of breath are not uncommon. When I first arrived here I almost passed out a few times after standing up too quickly.

The medical community classes heights above 5500masl as "extreme altitude" and at 6080masl, Hyayna Potosi is a different story. At that altitude, the atmosphere is less than half the pressure than it is at sea level, giving an effective oxygen percentage of only 9%. Lack of oxygen makes breathing laboured and hard, if you are not acclimatised then altitude sickness can be deadly. Thinking becomes confused due to lack of oxygen, hallucinations can occur and have caused the deaths of many high altitude climbers. Permanent human habitation is impossible above this height, you simply start to slowly die where the air is this thin.  I have spent a month and a half at about 2000masl in Sucre and Cochabamba, and a further two weeks in total at around 3500m in Potosi, Uyuni, Tupiza and La Paz. This is not enough time for the body to acclimatise completely but I'm hoping it will be good enough.

I am leaving with a group of climbers on Tuesday to start at base camp of 4650masl. The first day will be spent practicing ice climbing a glacier with crampons and ice picks (I've never used these before, should be fun). The second day is an easy climb to the high camp at 5200masl and the final day is a gruelling 8 hour grind to the summit, starting at 1am. Of the last climbing group to leave, fifteen set out and only two made it to the top, all of the others had to turn back due to sickness, dizziness or cold.

I will be one of those guys that reaches the top. Edmund Hillary said it best:

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

I am hoping all the mental discipline I learned from doing crossfit will pay off here even though the physical benefits have long since disapeared (I'm a skinny beanpole now). However, I am in good enough physical shape to tackle this and the only reason I could fail is through mental weakness and giving up.

Confidence is faith in oneself. How do you develop faith in yourself? By continuously pushing yourself through incredibly difficult circumstances and realising you can handle it. I want to discover the part of myself that can handle this.

I will keep a journal for the three days and record my experiences. Stay posted.


"The stresses of high-altitude climbing reveal your true character; they unmask who you really are. You no longer have all the social graces to hide behind, to play roles. You are the essence of what you are."
-David Breashears