Activity Summary
Friday 13th October - Day 374
Nicola unwell
Luke La Paz walking tour:
Sucre Square
Mercado Rodríguez
The Witches' Market
Basilica of Saint Francis
Plaza Murillo
Changing of the guard
Bolivian pub - Bolivian Pisco = Singani
Saturday 14th October - Day 375
Nicola mega unwell
Luke Death Road tour
Sunday 15th October - Day 376
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 1
3D2N tour with Jiwaki
Drive to base camp
Mountaineering lesson
Ice climbing
Nicola:
Covid
Monday 16th October - Day 377
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 2
Hike to high camp
Nicola:
Covid and interviews
Tuesday 17th October - Day 378
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 3
Huayna Potosi summit - 6,088m
Drive back to La Paz
Nicola:
Ladies wrestling
Wednesday 18th October - Day 379
La Paz chill day
Thursday 19th October - Day 380
Taylor Swift Eras Tour
Night bus to Sucre
Summary
La Paz
A surprisingly small city with little do in it but at 3,600m it is very high.
It’s not a very pretty place and there is a constant smell of piss in most places so the Selina was a great choice to kind of hide away from it.
The activities from the city are pretty epic however. In addition to these, the crazy Dave tour at 2pm from the square is supposed to be amazing and riding the cable cars around the city is also a good activity but despite being here for 8 days we full on ran out of time due to illness and energy levels.
Huayna Potosi
Simply epic and so challenging. Claimed to be the easiest 6,000m+ mountain simply because of the lack of technical elements, it is anything other than easy hiking on ice and snow at such high altitude.
It has plenty of spice to it, jumping crevasses and walking on ledges in crampons with lovely sheer drops so it is not for the faint hearted.
Jiwaki was a really good company to go with and I was very happy I did it. Not sure ice hiking at altitude is the one for me going forward.
Transport
La Paz
Taxi from hostel to White Anchor
6pm Bolivia Hop bus to La Paz
Dropped off at hostel
Accommodation
La Paz - Selina
Number of nights - 8
Price per night per person - £12
Positives:
Food in the place was good, affordable and so easy
Comfy rooms
Private bathroom
Hot showers
Decent WiFi
Nice hide away from La Paz
Activities from front desk
Negatives:
More expensive
Recommend?
Yes
Diary
Friday 13th October - Day 374
Nicola continued to deteriorate and would spend the whole time in La Paz bedridden or with half attempts to make it outside before fatigue and illness sent her right back to our hostel.
Meanwhile Luke seemingly managed to avoid everything that was plaguing Nicola which was great considering he wanted to go on a 3 day ice hike that would end up being the hardest thing he’s ever done.
The morning trip to the supermarket set the tone for Nicola’s week. There was a decent supermarket down the road from the hostel and in the time it took to walk there and get two items, Nicola was wiped out and ended up sitting down in the middle of the supermarket waiting for Luke to be done with the shopping. She looked so rough that a super nice local girl got worried about her (must have been a teen) and was making sure she was alright. Luke was pretty confused by the interaction and after a finger pointed his way confirming he was in fact responsible for the seated cretin, she was reassured and left her to die slowly in a Bolivian supermarket.
With Nicola safely in bed, Luke went out to do a walking tour of La Paz on his tod. For the first time this required an up front payment (only £3) for the tour which was a surprise. Did mean any form of meaningful tip was likely lost, Luke simply doubling the fee and that being that.
There wasn’t a whole lot to see as part of the walking tour in La Paz. No bad thing really but it wasn’t one Nicola missed out on by being ill. The guide was decent enough.
Sucre Square - meeting point for the tour. Most of the talk here centred around the crazy La Paz / Bolivia prison system where a nearby block acted as a prison but also a community where people’s families lived. Essentially a massive bribe system that exists and was apparently a popular tourist spot until someone was killed and now is back to being regarded as super dangerous.
Mercado Rodríguez - a market where no one wants pictures. It seemed most of the tour was a very slow saunter through this market and didn’t need to be so drawn out. The highlight was a purchased passion fruit snack.
The Witches' Market - rather than the black llamas being where the voodoo is, it’s now baby llamas. An interesting story about how new buildings required live burials of people underneath for good luck shocked a few, to then be told it doesn’t happen anymore and then Luke be told the next day by the biking guide it does still happen, where homeless are tricked and drugged and then buried. Savage.
Basilica of Saint Francis
Plaza Murillo - the large square centres around government buildings. Plenty of fully armed police officers made this square feel a little uneasy, almost like something would kick off.
Changing of the guard - a nice few minute routine every hour.
Bolivian pub - looked a bit like a river pub in the UK and where we got to try Bolivian Pisco, called Singani. Rather than the sour side, it’s mixed with orange juice and tastes like university bad decisions.
With the tour done Luke went via Jiwaki, got some additional information about his Huayna Potosi hike, pick up time and ease his mind somewhat about the challenge. On the way back to the hostel he managed to find the single nice street in La Paz, which lasted a sum total of 2 minutes walking.
Luke cooked gnocchi for Nicola and we called it a night.
Saturday 14th October - Day 375
Nicola continued to be mega unwell and did nothing with her day.
Luke story time:
In what could be considered a risky biscuit activity prior to a 3 day hike, I decided to do the Death Road downhill bike tour today simply because I didn’t have any other day I could do it. I booked with the Selina and the company was Barracuda. Much cheaper prices than online but it turns out I got ripped off still - but it was easy for me.
Hostel pick up was at 7am and there I met an entertaining Dutch girl called Fleur. As much as I enjoyed her company over the day, especially because like me she wasn’t getting boozed when the biking was done, she was mighty ill and I’m pretty sure that’s what hit me during my Potosi hike. Everyone is bleeding ill.
Surprisingly there was a really decent breakfast stop. A nice avo sandwich and massive mug of black coffee meant my pre-made chicken sandwiches would not be needed quite so early.
It wasn’t too long a drive to the start of the death road tour and at the lay by everyone got kitted up and tried the bikes out. Pretty decent bikes with savage front brakes and the van drove the road with us so no bags were needed while riding.
For me, the most fun part was the start. The first 30 minutes or so were on well paved tarmac without much need for swerving past potholes or lumps in the road.
Zero peddling was required and minimal focus bar the occasional car overtaking or having to overtake slow moving lorries. I could simply tuck and roll, the only annoying thing being the oversized biker jacket that acted like a wind sail and slowed me down massively. Good fun but much more akin to road biking.
With a couple of stops we had some nice views over the barren mountains and road below.
The last part of the road cycling ended when we hit a gravel route around a tunnel before being picked up in the van and driven to the official start of the Death Road. Did enjoy the constant snacks and drinks throughout the day.
From this point the aggressive downhill part began. It wasn’t steeper than what we had done previously but the road quality was non-existent. Large rocks and loose gravel lined the road which made pelting down it pretty risky for catching a tire and coming straight off.
Added to that, the aggressive drop offs on the side of the road were instant death to anyone who fucked up.
The start of the road was fairly cloudy and grey so the views weren’t exceptional when we started, although not that when bombing downhill anyone paid much attention to anything other than the road in front.
I started pretty quickly, matching the pace of the guide and another German guy who was pretty decent on a mtb. My cajones shrunk massively however when this got all too spicy and I caught my back tire a couple of times on some dirty rocks.
So wanting to maintain my collarbone, I slowed down massively and sat comfortably behind the faster 5 people.
As with any tour the experience is only as good as the insta shots. So we had a couple of stops to make sure these cringe fest pics were captured.
My mountain bike in the air was a little spicy for the guide so close to the edge.
The longest photo op came at the most picturesque part of the ride but the queues for the spot were ridiculous. Some tool was there for well over 5 minutes talking selfies and I ended up having to tell him to fuck off in order to speed this along. Our 40 strong group didn’t make this easy.
A ham sandwich and coke lunch spot was decent.
While the gloves were pretty good, my hands were absolutely wrecked by the time we were done. The vibrations along the gravel road were seriously aggressive plus also clinging onto the brakes for dear life meant they were in quite a bit of pain the next day when ice climbing.
I was therefore pretty happy to be done with the downhill experience and had made it one piece. The last part of the ride was a pretty small uphill section to the pool and ‘lunch’ place and I enjoyed burning all those who had pelted it down the quickest / now were walking their bikes uphill. Not the fastest downhill mtber but was certainly the best hill climber.
Strava stats:
Distance = 50km
Elevation = 157m
Highest point = 4500m
Lowest point = 1,250m
Moving time = 2hr 16mins
Elapsed time = 5hrs 2mins
The talk of a pool party once done with the biking was grossly over egged. By now the sun was well and truly in, it was getting late in the day and there were tons of mozzies knocking around. Getting in a not so impressive pool for a few hours rather than going back to La Paz didn’t appeal.
But after a beer and chatting with the group I was a little more relaxed. We were only in the pool for about 20 minutes before the buffet food was ready and that turned out to be pretty decent.
The local town just so happened to have a dirt bike race going on so in order to not get stuck for hours, the bus had to make tracks early and then we walked down the road to it. It was a little sketchy trying to walk down this dirt track and on hearing a bike in the distance, hug the walls and verges to avoid getting hit.
The 3 hour bus back was pretty entertaining. Fleur and I kept ourselves to ourselves as the rest of the group began getting hammered, stopping at various places along the way to stock up on booze. The most aggressive was the 96% proof local drink that cost 50p. Our guide had necked the 350ml bottle for money when a younger and more foolish guide, and apparently wiped him clean out. The group were a good laugh and had Huayna Potosi not been calling I probably would have joined them.
I was back at the Selina sometime after 9pm and then spent the evening packing for my hike.
Sunday 15th October - Day 376
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 1
After spending what had seemed like an absolute age trying to avoid being struck down with whatever Nicola had been battling I sadly woke up with what was the start of a cold. With a sore throat and snivelling I had to have a serious sit down for a few minutes and debate whether going up to a mountain at 6,088m not feeling 100% was a good idea.
But fomo well and truly got me. The thought of spending 3 days in La Paz with nothing to do was well and truly too boring and this was going to be my one chance in this trip to do a 6,000m plus mountain in a setting that is considered ‘easy’. More on that later.
After flapping around and accidentally waking Nicola up multiple times I was picked up by the Jiwaki tour driver at 8.15am. Really happy with the later start compared to Cusco activity start times…
Me and the driver were first at the closed Jiwaki office and then slowly began meeting the epic team of gringo travellers that would make the 3D2N Huayna Potosi hike one of the most fun things I’ve done on my travels.
Our ‘good vibes only’ team consisted of:
Mike - an American who was working in La Paz for a few weeks and had great experience hiking, travelling all over the world and mountaineering. Fluent in Spanish he became the go to to communicate with our guides and definitely the person we relied on for guidance in pretty much everything. The amount of knowledge he had about literally everything made for some really interesting conversations.
Rowan - an Australian backpacker who had only recently parted ways for the last stint of his 2 month trip with his fiancée as she had to go back to work post travelling a month in Patagonia. Big trail runner, nerd and with a great sense of humour who ended up being a fundamental part of me being able to summit and survive the journey down. Legend who will not be forgotten. Sadly Nicola and I were not able to hike Patagonia with him and Sal - would have been great company for our month and half down there.
Katie - another American who had an immense résumé of long distance hikes, activities and runs to her name. While being incredibly active she embodied the GVO motto of our group with unwavering positivity, smiles and laughs that carried us through our struggles. Hilariously still seemingly positive when describing her dry hurl moments and savage journey back down from summiting.
Emilie - one half of the only couple on the trip and Danish. Lovely person (kind of expected from the Danes) and seemingly has no filter for fear, minus an understandable dirty crevasse jump in the middle of the night. So much respect for her, leading team Dane to the summit despite her own difficulties.
Andreas - the second half of team Dane. Great guy and a person I could talk to Arsenal about all day - Emilie and Andreas hit me up when you’re back in London. Seemingly had the same struggle city experience summiting as I did so felt like brothers in arms throughout. Pretty sure he’ll only remember my blunder about the famed Danish remoulade which I thought was cheese. 3 days of trying to crack jokes and this was what made him laugh the most.
I could not have asked for a better team to spend the next 3 days with. Everyone got on so well, the team bond and spirit there continuously. Whenever anyone was struggling someone was there to provide support, drugs and advice to see everyone through. For 3 days solid everyone was chatting, laughing and helping everyone get to the summit and down as a true cohesive team unit. I brought the team name ‘good vibes only’ as a joke at the start of the trip but it ended up being a great summary of the team atmosphere.
I have had some good experiences with hiking and the people on those trips, plus some not so great ones, the Salkantay being the most recent example of having an alright experience with the people on the tour. These guys were well and truly great and I thank them all for their company, support and great vibes throughout. So proud of them all.
Once the Jiwaki office was open we had the first of our equipment checks and provided the warm layers required to summit in minus degrees. Most importantly we tried on the the lime green Jiwaki branded jumpsuits so we can be easily identified on crevasse death as a ‘Jiwaki fuck up’, or success story once alive and safe down the bottom.
In total the layers provided were thermal trousers, jacket, joggers, fleece and face buff. The joggers made for some nice evening wear but otherwise not needed and my jumper plus Rab coat made the fleece obsolete (personally, I know others ran a lot colder than me).
At this point I had to pay the balance and as per usual, because I’d booked only my $155 balance plus B50 for sleeping bag rental ran about $25 more than everyone else booking in person. The trade off was obviously securing a spot on my tight La Paz schedule so C’est la vie. Interestingly the BCP bank allowed withdrawals of B1,400 in one, didn’t charge a fee and allowed my Mastercard rather than requiring to find a Banco Nacional.
With everyone in the van it was a short drive to the boot pick up spot. Sadly this proved to be more of an ordeal than it needed to be, the guys seemingly unable to understand simple size requests and requirements and it drove me nutty. They kept giving me boots that were too large or some that were in such bad shape they would have wrecked my feet. After walking a great deal in the boots I did choose, having some that fit well to the sock combo that will be used (not too large and defo not too small) and also being in good nick is fundamental - telling them to shove some of the crap they were trying to pass off was one of the best decisions I made on the trip.
We spent a bit of time post-fitting to get some supplies for the trip, personally going for a sprite to try to soothe my scratchy throat.
It was very easy to get to the base camp for Huayna Potosi. It was only a short drive and we had a nice stop off to overlook the mountain and desolate surrounding leading up to it.
Base camp was a welcome surprise. Sitting at a cosy 4,700m, Jiwaki had a very well constructed fixed building set up with dorm room for the tourists, private accomodation for the guides and kitchen staff and comfortable kitchen / chill area. The solo indoor toilet was an absolute gem.
The dorm room could accommodate 20 people (same as high camp) but fortunately for us we were the only 3 dayers, had the place to ourselves and were able to spread out. The operation at Jiwaki is a well oiled machine; as we arrived the previous days 3D’s were just about to make the hike up to high camp, and we also got a short interaction with those who were 2 days ahead and had just returned from the summit. Some advice from those that had finished wasn’t the best, suggesting a massive carbo load the day before and not eating much on summit day I took too literally and it didn’t benefit me at all. But they seemed cheery enough which was good to see.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner was all provided throughout with plenty of food and endless hot tea options, the most important obviously being the altitude busting coca tea. The food wasn’t bad but certainly was not gourmet. As is always the case on South American tours, the soup is always a starter.
Post lunch it was time for the day's activity; introduction to mountaineering. Everyone got kitted up with the jumpsuits and plastic fantastic boots. Rowan was so excited he managed to rip his laces and also tear some holes in his hands. The use of the alcohol based hand sanitizer would be a constant reminder of his blunder for the trip. Nobhead.
Here we were provided the technical gear a number of us had never come into contact with. The crampons, ice axe and harness combo started the feels of a spicy trip to come. Mike was immensely helpful as a translator and assisting with gearing up with things such as gators.
The mountaineering for dummies began at the old glacier. It was a short walk from base camp to the glacier which was simply stunning and I was so gassed before we’d even done anything.
The weather throughout the trip was incredible; sunny, clear skies and not particularly windy.
The views of Potosi as we walked up were glorious.
The only spicy part of this short hike was a jump across the flowing glacial lake. It was running pretty fast with his water levels and cocking this jump up would have been very unpleasant.
At the old glacier we could already see a number of people from other companies having a jolly. Some seemed exceedingly high.
At the base of the glacier we got our first intro to crampons. Having only put them on once before for our NZ Tasman glacier hike, I needed a refresher from our guides Eulogio and Jose.
So began our first ice hiking experience. Eulogio led the charge and thought us the 5 ice hiking techniques, appropriately numbered:
1 - Simple walking in a straight line with a wide enough gait so as to not trip and nose plant the ice
2 - Walking at a diagonal, using the base of the ice axe as a plant and crossing over and up making sure the whole of the crampon is planted rather than towing it
3 - Steeper now and requiring use of the ice pick rather than the base to climb, incorporating technique 2.
The step before ice climbing. The ice pick well and truly in use and now using the front 4 spikes of the crampons to climb up an inclined ice wall
5 - Just casually picking up a sheer ice wall.
It was pretty good fun getting roped up and walking up and down the old glacier.
There were also great views from up high over the glacier and the lake below.
The last activity was by far the best. Trying our hand at ice climbing. Eulogio led the way, effectively free soloing up the 25m ice wall until screwing an ice screw half way up and then the last at the top. He was a pretty old guy and this was pretty impressive.
First of the brave team members was Andreas. Without realising until seeing up the wall, he certainly had it the hardest out of all of us. Next to us were a couple of other groups and they had it pretty easy, seeming to have carved out footholds and natural ledges that provided stability while ascending.
Poor Andreas on the other hand had a sheer 90 degree ice wall with none of this softer ice/snow and ended up having to put about 15 minutes of work in to carve out every foot and pick hold from scratch.
Team GVO was unwavering in their support for Andreas, certainly out showing the other groups there. Not that our attempts to provide technical support was particularly good but we tried our best. The guy really put in a shift and we were all super impressed he finished it.
Everyone found the climb a whole lot easier, now having some grooves etched into the ice.
My turn was around the middle of the pack and I had a great time of it.
My technique was bloody awful, made much clearer when Mike took to the ice and nailed it. I slipped a few times and adopted the praying mantis approach to climbing far too often so that my ass was hanging out and had all the strain on my forearms. I did appreciate the supportive cat calls coming from Rowan.
Really good fun but jeez ice climbing is exhausting. Thankfully the ice climbing was just a fun end to the course and wasn’t actually required to climb Huayna Potosi, a fact I was completely unaware of until someone corrected me.
The hike back to camp was all downhill, pretty easy and everyone was super gassed (if not quite tired).
We were all done at about 5.30pm so had been out for about 4 hours; 2 hours hiking and 2 hours on the ice.
Distance = 4.23km
Elevation = 349m
From = 4,800m
To = 5,000m
Elapsed time = 3hrs 46mins
Walking time = 1hr 28mins
A warm popcorn snack was immediately provided for us on our return. The discovery of the Dulce de leche and its gloriously sweet caramel flavour was a game changer. Although I got berated by the Danes for my lack of salt - typical Nordic folk and their love of all things salt. That said, salted caramel sounds great.
Dinner was provided in the evening where we chatted away for a number of hours before hitting the hay pretty early. We had nothing urgent to get up for the next day but everyone was pretty tired and getting used to the altitude.
Sadly the altitude and illness did the dirty on me in the evening. I ended up with a splitting headache all evening that paracetamol couldn’t cure (standard altitude problem for me) and the fever dreams meant I was tripping balls for most of the night.
Nicola:
Spent all day in bed with covid
Monday 16th October - Day 377
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 2
I wasn’t very well rested at all, despite the potential of getting a solid 12 hour sleep until wake up time at 8am. It was a mixed result for others, ranging from absolutely KO’d to not being able to sleep and getting up all through the night needing to pee continuously. A product of copious amounts of tea and altitude again.
But everyone was in good spirits and despite still having a headache I fully believed that it was just a result of me being ill and lying down not being optimal. On the Salkantay I found lying down on day 1 to be problematic and the headache disappearing once coca tea’d up, vertical and having some time to let it dissipate. It had seemed the same trick was working this morning but to make sure it did, Katie was amazing and gave me one of her altitude sickness tablets which well and truly confirmed my return to the table ailment free.
The morning schedule was 8am breakfast, an hour to pack for our high camp walk, unknown free time, lunch at 10:45am and start the hike to high camp an hour later.
Breakfast slapped. A massive array of fruit, pancakes and the sweet sweet taste of dulce de leche proved to be the best meal of the trip (for me anyway). The second pancake offering was never going to be turned down.
It did however make trying to eat lunch only a few hours later not particularly easy. Nobody seemed to be able to quaff much of what was provided though.
It was a nice chill morning and by the time we had our bags packed, leaving extras not required for the summit in a bag at the camp for when we returned, we were ready to ascend post saying some hellos to the new guys replacing us at this camp spot.
I was full of energy now that I was in my normal hiking boots, headache free and seemingly all good with the altitude. My 65L Osprey backpack was getting its second outing as a piece of hiking kit rather than my enormous backpacking bag and I was pleasantly surprised with its functionality. It’s very tall to the point that it surpasses the back of my head when full but not overly deep as a result of the arched back to allow air gaps for my (usually) incredibly sweaty back. To accommodate all the provided hiking gear, water plus what little things I needed from my personal stash for the summit hike, the bag was full to the brim for the day 2 hike.
Personally I prefer carrying an excess of water and I took about 6L up which was most of the weight. Probably weighed in at about 20kgs but was pretty comfortable thanks to the tight waist straps, stretched out length of the bag allowing better distribution and large shoulder straps. Usually when hiking with Nicola I would be carrying the same water levels but with much more aggressive weight distribution on my shoulders.
I found the walk really good fun. I had bundles of energy and the scenery was great. I certainly enjoyed some of the ridge line walking with views over the glacier.
Rowan on the other hand was in dire straits. His stomach was not playing ball and after suffering with it for the first half of the hike finally shared his struggles and I was able to Imodium him back to life. The guides really did not like the self medication, looking at us with serious mistrust and then would proceed to ask Rowan all evening whether he was alright. To be fair to the guides, this approach was appreciated rather than blindly allowing all to try the summit when they should clearly be benched.
We stopped a couple of times along the way, the most lengthy being the base of the largest switchback climb to high camp. The stone wall to allow urination privacy was appreciated by those less used to nature weeing. A girl from the ice climbing the day before spent about 20 minutes trying to find a spot to pee, slipping around because she had taken off her crampons, arguing with her guide who could not have cared less where she went (just that it wasn’t down a crevasse) and using Mike for support all because it was her first time peeing outside and struggled with the publicity. Not sure if she made it the whole way but it was funny to watch the ordeal play out without success for her.
There were plenty of people making the ascent from other companies so it certainly wasn’t ever an isolated trip.
We reached high camp at 1:30pm and the views were stunning. As everyone made for cover I went straight for the views, photos and videos of the surroundings.
Distance = 2.58km
Elevation = 359m
From = 4,800m
To = 5,150m
Elapsed time = 1hrs 48mins
Walking time = 1hr 16mins
Once again, high camp exceeded all my expectations. We were once again sheltered in a building with a dorm room that served as both bedroom and dining room. Sadly the toilet was outdoors and a fairly spicy walk down some rocks to get to, but based on the smells that came from the dorm room all night that wasn’t a bad thing. Just unfortunately was an incredibly loud process to pull open two metal doors, get out and back in again.
The team spent the evening chilling, chatting and eating. Our cosy 6 person experience came to an end when the 12 strong 2D tour group turned up having driven from La Paz at 3,640m and hiked up to the 5,200m high camp in a day. Having only just met each other, they didn’t seem particularly friendly with each other and they had had a pretty big day in terms of elevation gain. I had met a number of people who had attempted and successfully completed Huayna Potosi and some friendly advice was to avoid the 2D. The altitude needs respect and the only guys I met who tried this approach failed. Those that arrived did not look happy from the day's ordeal and certainly not compared to our jovial GVO socialisation in the corner of the room.
Dinner was at 5.30pm and after a briefing from the guides, we were told that bed time was at 6.30pm for a lovely ‘morning’ wake up at 11pm. Our plan to finally play the card game ‘500’ that evening well and truly went out of the window. I still have no idea what it is.
The briefing was pretty helpful. While Huayna Potosi is often considered the ‘easiest’ 6,088m mountain to climb, it’s still a 6,000m+ mountain and is definitely not easy. The easy title only has arisen because it doesn’t require any technical skills to ascend, therefore no roping, ice climbing or other technical jargon that I don’t understand. Interestingly he did say that Huayna Potosi is only able to do so in such a short time frame because of the height of La Paz and neighbouring high altitude areas, otherwise the required acclimatisation for the hike would require a week.
Going to bed at 6.30pm at such a high altitude was a struggle, even having not really slept much the night before. Sadly my lower bunk bed partner was the noisiest in the room, having passed out almost immediately when hitting the pillow (he was absolutely shattered) and delivering a lovely performance of heavy breathing, snorting and snoring in a completely irregular pattern. My attempts to listen to Wild Fell didn’t do much to help me fall asleep and the ear plugs did little to block out this guy's noises.
I didn’t really mind as I didn’t think I would be able to get much sleep in the 3.5 hour window. I was just happy that I hadn’t had a headache encroaching on me as I lay horizontally and didn’t feel like the fever from the night before was as prevalent.
Nicola:
Managed a job interview and went to see the Cholita Wrestling (ladies wrestling) in El Alto (the highest city in the world). The wrestling wasn't as good as Mexico City, but was fun and a nice distraction.
Tuesday 17th October - Day 378
Luke: Huayna Potosi - Day 3
It turns out it might have been better if I hadn't slept at all. I got about an hour and in that time a nasty headache had decided to materialise. Sitting up, eating and drinking coca tea helped but it still lingered in the background and I was very nervous about what would happen with the aggressive climb to the summit without having more time to reset. Katie again was my saviour by providing me an altitude pill for later if needed.
Being the first awake at 10.45pm meant I had the first unfettered use of the bog. It was seriously pleasant not having stomach problems for the first time in a while, although headache issues come in second on the list.
At 11pm everyone was woken up by a guide and everyone got their shit together. The clothing advice for the hike was 3 layers for the bottom and top halves (including the jumpsuit) plus kitted head to toe in harness, plastic boots, gators and helmet. It was not particularly cold outside of camp and it was easy enough to get air flow with an open jacket but once hitting the ice, these layer suggestions were spot on.
My hiking trousers, waterproof trousers, merino t shirt, jumper and jumpsuit were a good combination throughout the hike. The only kit that went up in my Osprey bag were layers, some food, 2.5L of water (1.5L was a sensible amount) and sun cream so it was pretty light going.
Breakfast was a simple array of tea, bread and passion fruit pastries. Mistake number 1 - I did not eat enough food at all. I had a banana (carried from day 1 for the summit) and some pastries which did me well for the first quarter but I should have eaten so much more, deciding against this based on the advice from the guys on day 1.
But I started out in good spirits. Rowan and I would be with Jose, the 34 year old guide who had been with us since day 1 and didn’t speak much English at all. But I managed to communicate with him with my crappy Spanish and he brought good energy with him.
For the first 40 minutes it was a pretty brisk hike up a narrowish mountainside in the dark, with nothing but our head torches guiding the way. Mine decided to have a melt down as we climbed, fortunately able to rip out one of the metal conductors, force back in and get it working again. The head torch would last right up until the sun started to set before dying - goodbye Walmart purchase.
The stars were out on a very clear night but I was actually a bit disappointed with them. Not as impressive as I’d expected, Baru in Panamá being far more impressive despite much lower altitude.
Once we hit the ice, it was crampon time. At this part of the hike I had enough energy to put them on myself, Jose even telling me I was a pro. This initial aptitude well and truly failed me later on, struggling massively to bend over with the blood rush to a throbbing head and making me nearly pass out. Jose, clearly used to this level of gringo weakness, was a saint and would help take them on and off without asking.
It turns out hiking on a glacier in the dark is really fucking hard work. The required 1,000m plus ascent is one thing (easily factored into a hike up a mountain) but the act of hiking with crampons is straight up exhausting. The terrain requires a lot of force to sink the crampons into the ice, especially when traversing narrow paths and trying not to catch crampons on anything other than ice. Mentally exhausting and physically tough.
It’s really difficult to piece together the route and terrain traversed when doing so in the middle of the night. Looking side to side with my headtorch I could see some pretty cool and terrifying ice structures, the path ahead always requiring care as we jumped across and up many a crevasse.
A large proportion of the hike seemed to be along a well defined glacier path and allowed small and simple steps up which conserved energy, despite the aggressive steep incline.
The rest was downright difficult and now reflecting on it, pretty terrifying.
It was pretty challenging to quite comprehend what we were climbing and only really became evident when descending down in the light of day. So working in reverse order using pictures taken on the descent the route went as follows:
As expected with the lowest part of the glacier, it’s not a particularly nice route. The constant freeze and thaw created a pock marked landscape that required a fair amount of care and stepping up and down.
This gave way to the first even part of the route. Still steep but the simple one foot in front of the other was always a welcome break.
The only rope section in the climb was a permanent fixture and had a sizable drop off. Doing in the night we were none the wiser.
Various sections that had some lovely sketchy drops either side of us.
One lovely long stretch of glacier that had a clear walking path through it, with the natural jagged ice formation all around us.
The final part of the ice hiking before ascending the rocky summit peak was deemed to be the most dangerous. There were numerous crevasses here and required us to climb and jump up incredibly precarious stretches of ice. Open chasms were everywhere and made for some interesting discoveries on the way down.
This section was of the most concern to our guides. The reason we started so early in the morning was to summit early, spend a little time at the top and get down before the heat of the day caused problems with widening crevasses or destroying the snow & ice bridges we had used to traverse to the summit. A little spicy.
The format of the night hike was simple. At each 100m or so of elevation gain we would break, drink water and consume some snacks. I was pretty comfortable with this for the first 500m or so but then my energy levels just crashed like I’d never had before.
The morning headache did not disappear. The magic pill Katie gave me was taken pretty early doors after getting some decent advice from her that in full struggle would be too late. The pill helped massively but it didn’t clear the headache for the whole of the hike which really sucked.
The breaks we had felt like the best thing since sliced bread. I would just collapse on the ground with relief, swig some water and try to eat some snacks.
There were quite a lot of people on the hike, mainly our company and another in reddish jackets. On the way up there were altitude casualties everywhere. We passed a lot of people that were voming on the side of the path and having spoken to a few back at camp some had an incredibly tough time. Eulogio said that about 80% of people make it but that number seemed pretty high compared to what we saw.
Another not so pleasant part was the smell of shit in the half decent places to stop for a break. If you gotta go you gotta go but it seemed this hit people hard and fast so that avoiding the walking route was a challenge.
Crossing paths with the other paired teams of GVO was a welcome distraction. Mike and Katie were flying and seemingly having absolutely zero problems ascending with Eulogio, Katie her normal happy self.
Andreas and Emilie went through the ringer on the ascent. Andreas was in the hole just as much as I was, every time we crossed paths he looked just as destroyed as I felt and was as vocal as well. Emilie kept him from giving up who herself got hit twice with some savage stomach problems on the way up that could not be avoided. Added to all that, their guide decided to take them the sketchiest route of the hike that required a full blown jump across a large crevasse. As expected they were incredibly unhappy.
Rowan was an absolute legend. Being the middleman roped to our guide he kept Jose going at a sensible pace when ascending, providing encouragement throughout and some sort of strawberry carb sweet that took my mind off of the slog for a good hour or so. Unlike the trials of the day before, he was back in the game and seemingly had loads in the tank for the day. I had to apologise to him for my lack of company for a large part of the hike. I was so spent that talking was so difficult apart from on the breaks and I have to commend his patience - it wasn’t like Jose was able to talk to us properly.
After about 5 hours of hiking and ice climbing, we reached the unexpected rocky base of Huayna Potosi. It was a strange relief to be done with the glacier trekking, remove the crampons and begin scrambling up the mountain. I was pretty shattered by this point but it felt pretty natural to me for once and I welcomed the change. The only bad part was that it was incredibly steep and my relief didn’t last long.
As we ascended we passed Katie & Mike, the former who got some great action shots as we crawled past on top of the clouds with the sun rising.
The last stretch to the summit required our crampons to be reattached. My energy levels were so low at this point l I could barely complete this task, the bending over causing me great discomfort.
Once attached, it was thankfully not a challenging last stretch to the summit. The summit route was quite narrow so still required care when walking across but it was not steep.
The summit was pure chaos. There weren't a lot of people there but all the guides were in a mad rush to get pictures and down as quickly as possible. This was the absolute opposite of what I needed once at the summit.
Jose was infuriating at this point. We were roped up to him and he immediately started directing us around the summit to pose for pictures using both his phone and ours. This approach of quantity not quality was painful and the pictures taken at the summit were pretty terrible.
After 5 minutes of being carted around I lost my shit and told him I needed some time to myself. At this point I managed to get the best photos and videos of the beautiful summit while also getting a chance for a breather.
Rowan managed to get one of me where I don’t look half dead.
With a bit more energy some better photos of us 3 were taken at the 6,088m summit.
On arrival the sun hadn’t fully risen and cloud cover extended pretty far over the glacier route we had walked up.
After a short while, Mike & Katie joined us for a group photo which again, left a lot to be desired from the cameraman. These guys may be absolute machines when it comes to hiking up tall shit but they are useless with a camera phone.
Emilie & Andreas made it just as we finished but they were so tired they opted to go straight for a chill and private photo shoot. Completely understood their moods. The photos of Andreas were absolutely hilarious, being so tired he physically couldn’t smile and gave us all a great laugh once done and dusted at camp.
With the sun rising, the jagged views back towards the way we had ascended were stunning.
From the other side of the mountain the views were much clearer without a cloud in sight. To get these views we had to half scale up a tall sheer patch of ice and the drop off was mighty spicy. Very different to the ice covered fields we had just come from.
Now all wrapped up with the summit, we began our descent.
The first ice walk back the way we came was pretty stunning. With the sun up and the clouds dissipating we could clearly see where we’d come from and it was pretty ridiculous.
Back at the rocky climb, we de-cramponed and climbed down. Sadly there was now a role reversal on the way down, me leading the group of Rowan at number 2 and Jose at the back. I was absolutely shattered and now having to route find down a less than obvious rocky path was not what I needed. When I went wrong Jose was not great at communicating corrections, often messing up his rights and lefts. So after standing still looking blankly at him, he adopted the ‘throw a rock’ approach to lead me right.
At the base of the rock it was time to crampon up again for the last time. As much as I would have loved a breather I was told this part of the ice hike needed to be done quickly, being the most dangerous where the widening crevasses and potential collapsing ice bridges existed. It was a whole lot of yo-yo’ing up and down narrow ice pillars and just trying to keep my feet from falling over each other.
Once through this bit however I got my all important longer rest as the glacier terrain flattened out leaving a clearer simpler path for the foreseeable distance. I full on laid down for 5 minutes, closing my eyes and doing sweet sweet nothing.
I had been woeful with my fuelling for this trek. The sum total of my food consumed to this point was a pack of biscuits, a gummy provided by Rowan and a coca candy. At this point I had the energy to pull out a banana from my banana box, which made Jose and another guide laugh at me but I was so exhausted I couldn’t even respond. That banana did me a solid but it was about 3 hours later than it should have been. Lesson learned.
It was a much needed 10 minute stop and then we were back on the route. Wobbles were now coming hard and fast, this time Jose telling me I needed to go faster down the easier snow path. I full on lost my shit, quote (to a similar extent) ‘I haven’t fucking eaten anything for hours, I absolutely exhausted and I’m going as quickly as I can’. My speed did pick up but I didn’t get any further hassle from Jose…
The views were incredible over the ‘flat’ glacier plane.
Getting to the rope climb section, the views with the barren rock in the distance gave me some sense that we were nearing the end. This really wasn’t the case.
But it was pretty easy to scale down.
From this point the terrain turned mogully and required a fair amount of concentration I just didn’t have.
Finally we reached the end of the glacier, did away with the crampons and had the last descent down to high camp.
The joy of being at the end of the hike was pretty muted. After dumping my bag I immediately went for a lie down to try and soothe my head. Everyone from team GVO had made it, Mike & Katie flying ahead of everyone by about 30 minutes while Andreas and Emilie were a short distance ahead. Stellar effort from everyone.
The Huayna Potosi summit day was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Previously this was the Brighton marathon I did without training but this was well and truly exhausting. On paper the distance is so manageable but the technique for walking on ice, physically forcing the crampons down onto the surface to ensure traction, is physically so tiring and the impact on speed is savage. To add to this, the altitude makes breathing really difficult and in my case the headache was really not needed. As my heart rate increased, blood flow to my head was agonising and to top it off with my cold I wasn’t able to breathe properly, snot balling continually as we trekked up and down the glacier.
What would I do differently? Fuel infinitely better and do the hike without a cold. Take with me altitude pills and hope that my weakness was as a result of illness rather than having an affinity to higher altitude.
Distance = 6.87km
Elevation = 1,014m
Highest point = 6,088m
Elapsed time = 9hrs 9mins
Walking time = 3hrs 27mins
The soup with chips in it and the coca tea loaded with sugar was immensely helpful in giving me the energy to pack my bag. After arriving at 9am we were due to be leaving high camp at 10:45am which was not a fun thought.
Despite aiming to walk to the low camp in silence this didn’t actually materialise. Everyone else was in pretty good spirits so I ended up joining in the party as best I could. The one uphill section absolutely wiped me out so I did have to have a sit down break.
It felt amazing to be done with the hiking. At the low camp we dumped all our Jiwaki gear and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent sitting down waiting to be told that we were leaving. Rowan and I parted ways with Jose who was kind enough to provide action shots he had taken the next day. These turned out to be alright but he has a lot of room for improvement…
Distance = 2.27km
Elevation = 11m
From = 5,200m
To = 4,700m
Elapsed time = 1hrs 5mins
Walking time = 53mins
With our goodbyes said to Jose and Eulogio, we were boarded into a van and driven back to La Paz via possibly the bumpiest road known to man. Not particularly fun but we managed to share pictures and numbers with each other. Post that I closed my eyes and waited until surfacing in the city.
At the Jiwaki office it was time for us to say goodbye to each other. Legends who absolutely made my trip to Huayna Potosi.
The walk from Jiwaki to Selina isn’t a short one but at least it was downhill. I was finally reunited with Nicola at around 2.30pm.
Team travels:
Luke was all smiles but inside he was dead. A shower did him good but the food downstairs in the Selina tasted like the best meal he’d ever had. A massive burger, chips and Nicola’s sourdough crusts plus pickled chillies she accidentally ordered will go down in his memory as an iconic meal for a long time to come.
Luke was absolutely knocked out by 8pm. His blocked nose and pure exhaustion naturally meant he was snoring in parts, Nicola requiring to push him to his side and he was completely none the wiser.
Wednesday 18th October - Day 379
It was a lovely 12 hours of sleep for Luke. Nicola not so much who definitely got sleep envy and was required to push him twice to stop the snorefest. He felt absolutely nothing.
Our previous ambitious plan was to be on the move today to Cochabamba by night bus. The things Luke had outlined for the city was another big hike called Pico Tunari and since Nicola still wasn’t well, another night bus didn’t appeal to her and the thought of a full rest day in La Paz for Luke sounded great so we scrapped that plan.
So we had a nice chill day; Nicola still coughing up her lungs, Luke writing and reminiscing about Huayna Potosi and barely leaving the Selina. Luke’s a big fan of the food here.
Our one outing was to pick up a sim card for Nicola and show a few of the sites Luke had experienced on the walking tour. It turned out to be a challenge for her and Luke parked her in the main square as he went to buy bus tickets to Sucre for the next day as for some reason this wouldn’t work online.
Nice rest day bar the outing pooping Nicola out.
Thursday 19th October - Day 380
Our morning started nice and slow, continuing the lie in theme and after checking out at 11am had brunch and a chill few hours at the Selina.
The big day's activity was to go and see Taylor Swift in the cinema for her Era’s tour. Yes it was Nicola’s idea and yes Luke was happy to go along.
Stocked up with supermarket snacks we spent the 3 hours or so at the cinema. Decent enough movie / gig to kill some time but the 2.5 hour run time is pretty long.
The cinema complex was pretty good and seemed to be a popular lunch spot with tons of fast food, mainly fried chicken. The Bolivians love some fried chicken. Sadly the arcade didn’t have Time Crisis so goes down in Luke’s estimations because of that.
Post Tay Tay we spent some time back at the hostel, had some food and got a hostel arranged taxi to the bus terminal at 6.45pm. An Austrian girl was also going that way and joined us in our taxi but had failed to take into account the La Paz traffic at this time. After some terribly sketchy driving from our taxi guy, we arrived 5 minutes before her bus was due to depart but Bolivian time meant the bus didn’t leave for an age afterwards so she was fine.
Finding out where ours departed from was a pain as there were no signs or times anywhere and we had to ask someone from the bus company who were inundated with customers. Pretty chaotic.
At 7.45pm we were on board our first ‘full cama / suit’ night bus to Sucre.
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