Huayna Potosi - Craig´s report

This is the climb from the refugio at 5300m (see bottom left tiny house) to the North peak at 6088m in the top right corner. You can see the trek crossing the ice field diagonally to the right.
We set off from the high camp at 01.30 - stepping out onto the ice wearing crampons in the pitch black was truly exciting! Little did we know what was in store for us...

The climb was the hardest physical challenge I have ever undertaken. Walking in the dark on ice, struggling for breath, ever upwards from 5300 metres to 6088 metres at the top. This is the first ice climb - from left to right through the small gap in the ice...

After 6 hours walking we (me, Jeroen and our guide Miguel) arrived at the final climb. My heart sank as I saw how steep it is - knowing that we were both close to complete exhaustion. But somehow we managed it - climbing for an hour on all fours up an icy slope of up to 75 degrees - reliant on the ice axe to keep us pegged to the mountain. Axe, left, right, rest. Axe, left, right, rest. Little by little we progressed up the mountain until finally - unbelievably - we were at the top. It was an exhilarating feeling to make it to the top and - after managing to get some oxygen into my screaming lungs - enjoy the incredible 360 degrees view of the surroundings.

Unfortunately that was not the end of things - as we still had to get down again. You can see how steep it looks from the top...

By this time the ice was getting unstable as the sun had well and truly risen by then. Slowly we inched down the mountain again - using as many points of the crampons as we could make stick in the ice. Somehow I managed to get one foot caught on the other and before I knew what was happening I was sliding down the mountain at speed. Fortunately we were tethered to Miguel for safety. And the safely rope held! Very scary!

On the way down we could see the beautiful ice sculptures that we didn´t see in the dark on the way up. After 2 hours we made it back down to high camp - to the delight and relief of everyone. After a short rest we packed up and headed down again to base camp. If was a tough walk down after the long climb and I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we finally made it, but very happy to have successfully completed my first real mountaineering experience - though I´m not sure that I will be doing it again any time soon...

Tanja: If you look closely at the picture you can see three little black dots on the left of the icefield. That is Craigo, Jeroen and Miguel coming back down to basecamp! Boy was I happy to see them! and so proud!

This is the happy couple after arriving at the base camp, still all smiles and feeling really cool and confident in our orange ice outfits!


This is the team at high camp, our last meal before the ordeal (pasta and sausage). Debby and Jeroen on the left, us two on the right. It was freezing up there!