An Unexpected Guest

Putting the little gas hobs on to boil water for coffee was both a good and a bad thing. On the plus side, we all got a hot drink and the air in our tin shelter warmed up sufficiently enough for us to shed a couple of layers. On the other hand, all the ice on the roof started to melt causing a light rain to patter on our heads as we drank. It was worth it though, a little heat after hours of trudging through thick snow, ice and biting wind made me start to feel human again. What really annoyed me was that Amanda hadn’t even been given the opportunity to try to make it up this far, we were officially over 5000 metres above sea level, the highest I’d ever been and I only had two sweaty tourists and a couple of guides to share it with. I even missed someone insisting we wait for 20 minutes to take reams and reams of pictures of the surrounding snow from various angles. It just wasn’t the same.

Then, after a couple of hours came a commotion at the door, a familiar voice loudly expressing dissatisfaction at the state of the toilet facilities (not even a bush to go behind) and a shifting of the door. Liberally spraying snow as she opened the door, Amanda strode into our little hut, face red as a beetroot, nose glowing a path in the fading light. Somehow she’d made it up to the midway camp; I was overjoyed, really very, very surprised and proud. It had been hard enough for me to get up there; she really had done very well to follow.

Amanda reaches base camp.

After we’d said goodbye to each other lower down the mountain she’d gone back to the refuge in a foul temper, all tears and rage. One of the other guides had found her in this state and found out what was wrong… “no problemo” he told her, “lets go now”. So, shouldering her backpack once more she set off again, this time at her own pace, to catch us up. It took her about five hours to get to where we all were, innocently waiting to carry on, but she made it. The guide that had said she couldn’t was looking a bit guilty as she crashed through the door but recovered quickly, brewing up another cup of tea and talking quickly to his friends about what had happened. I was just pleased to see her. Most of what we are doing here is doubly special because we have each other to share it with. Even getting this far would have been a little soured by the fact that I only had four other guys to celebrate with, Chris, Niels, another Dutch guy and an Italian. She told us all she had no intention of going any further, but that didn’t matter, getting this far had been achievement enough.

After a dinner of super noodles and goo, we all successfully braved the blizzard for long enough to find our own space to call a toilet, then, tucked warmly in our sleeping bags (and most of our clothes to keep them from freezing solid) we bedded down for the night. As it was we’d have to be up and out well before daybreak in order to get to the top before the sun came up and made the snow and ice too dangerous to walk on. This didn’t give us much time to sleep, not that that mattered, we were so cramped in our little tin shed that I only managed to grab about half and hour of fitful shuteye anyway. Niels, the Dutch lump next to me kept elbowing me in the face and my legs, already tired from so many miles uphill struggle began to cramp and seize. On top of all that, the altitude had started to get to me, my brain felt like bursting out of my skull through any available orifice. By the time I managed to fight for an inch to call my own the pain was too much to allow any sleep anyway. I ended up just lying there with my head in my hands moaning quietly to myself. It was like the worst migraine you ever had times a hundred.

Shall we brave the Blizzard?

Eventually the time came to wake up and leave or it would have come had there not been a blizzard outside. All the guides agreed that it was too dangerous to go out, we’d all have to stay put and hope it cleared up in time to allow a rushed ascent. Seriously doubting my ability to walk anywhere I waited with everyone else for just over an hour, hoping the altitude sickness would abate enough for me to make a bid for the top. Unfortunately it just got worse. In the end I had to let the others go on without me and wait for them to come back in the shelter. Never mind, at least it meant Amanda and I had a bit of quality time together on the mountain. Though we spent the greater part of it stretched out in our newfound space, sleeping soundly.

Conquered…..5600 ft

Hours later Chris and Niels returned, un-triumphant, the weather had just been too bad for them to get very far. The other two had carried on, spurred in no small part by Felix, their guide and his unrelenting pace. In ten minutes we were all packed up and on our way back down, this time in a slow and leisurely manner. My head was still throbbing and Amanda wanted to use the opportunity to take as many photo’s as was humanly possible. Why not, she’d really outdone herself getting this far, she deserved it. I was a little disappointed with my performance, knowing that on a different day I would have made it all the way, Maybe I hadn’t been as acclimatised as I’d thought to the altitude, you never know until you start going higher what’s going to happen. I managed to stop it spoiling the incredible scenery around us though as we made our way back to the refuge, Huayna Potosi might have beat me this time, but we’d be in the Himalayas at some time in the future, more determined that ever I decided to regroup and give it another go when we got there.

View from our tin shed

The hero

None of our group made it to the top. Not one of the team of mountain climbers had made it the night before either. 6 hours after we had finished our soup at the refuge, the Italian from the tin hut the night before was spotted in the background. We rushed over to greet him. He was triumphant. He had reached 6088ft. A great achievement! Huayna Potossi is not to be under estimated, Blizzard or no blizzard.