27th of June 2001
We wanted to climb the normal
route on Huayna Potosi as an acclimatization before an attempt on
the west face.
We managed to get by all the
blockades and demonstrations in El Alto, the suburb to La Paz, and
arrived at the refugee at Huayna Potosi at 10:00.
12:00 we departed for
high camp, Campo Argentino 5500m and we arrived there without problems
at 15:30. We were though the only ones who did not use porters so it was
quite hard. At Campo Argentino there was only one tent and it belonged to two
Americans, Scott and Lee McCook who had arrived there the day before. We
spoke to them for a while and then we made camp, cooked some food and
went into our sleeping bags. We wanted to go to the summit the next day.
28th
of June 2001
We woke up at 03:00. It was snowing, wind gusts was blowing, and there
was no point in trying to reach the summit. We stayed in the tent,
vegetated (a word we learned from Scott and Lee) and waited for better
weather. Mike was sick and did not feel very well.29th
of June
2001
Again we woke up at 03:00, storm winds was blowing. What had happened to
the nice climbing weather that was supposed to always be in Bolivia? Mike
was feeling very bad and decided to go down when the weather calmed
down later in the day. Scott also decided to go down. Lee and Olof
decided to stay and team up for one more night to see if the weather
gods
would change their mind. The evening was spent discussing how to find
the right girls (in climbing gyms was the result of the discussion), old
climbing stories and life in general. Dinner was cooked by Lee who made
an incredibly good casserole on noodles, tuna and parmesan. Olof wrote "please
summit" in the snow with big letters during the day to calm the wrath of
the mountain gods and "Pacha Mama" (Mother Earth). 10-15 other climbers
arrived to Campo Argentino. One American girl together with a Japanese
girl, three Swiss, a mother with her two daughters and a bunch of
Americans.
30 of June 2001
Lee and Olof woke up at 03:00
once again and this time and attempt for the summit was possible. The
weather was calm and clear. We left Campo Argentino at 05:10 and were
the last to leave camp, but we had plenty of time. A long serpent of
lights was moving up the glacier. We ascended the ridge and there we had
to do an icy traverse. Olof led and put a couple of snow pickets. By then
we had bypassed a couple of persons that turned around and the American
(Lisa) and Japanese girl (Nuri). We had no problems with the traverse
but noticed already then that the Japanese girl had problems, was tired
and was about to cry. Then there was a pitch of 50-55 degree snow/ice
that led to the top of the ridge. Olof led and Lee followed without
problems. Then there was a short walk on the ridge that led to the upper
glacier where we took a break. Lee was not feeling well, cough up hard
mucous (that later on was colored with blood though it was not pulmonary
oedema), and was mowing slowly on sheer will. On the way up to the
summit face we met two of the Swiss who had summited early and were
descending.
One of the Americans in front
of us had stepped into a crevasse but was alright. Right behind us
was the two girls.
At 10 we were below the summit face (200m, 50-55 degrees) and we took a
break. On the face was the mother and her two daughters, two Americans
and the girls who passed us. Olof started leading the summit face next
to the girls who was moving slow. At the same time the mother with her
two daughters abseiled down the face after they summited and right
behind came the to Americans who also had summited and down climbed. Olof
reached the summit and shortly after so did also Lisa. Then Lee reached
the summit after he had been fighting a mean cough and then came Nuri
who was crying and gasping franticly. The time was 13:00 and it was
getting late. Olof proposed that Lee and the two completely exhausted
girls abseil down and then Olof would take out the snow pickets, release
the rope and down climb. At 13:30 we started to descend. Two ropes were
tied together to make it possible to abseil 100m. Lee and the girls
abseiled and Olof released the rope and soloed down.
At 14:00 two
abseils had been made and we were standing below the summit face as bad
looking clouds was closing in... white out. The girls had two com radios
that they used to communicate with with the other Americans and Olof was
given one so also Lee and Olof could hear what was going on. We arrived
to were we had taken a break on the way up, just before the ridge. There
was supposed to be a faster way down there but none of us had seen it so
we took the same way that we came up. A worried Scott who did not know what
was going on up on the mountain managed to find a com radio and talked to
Olof and heard that we had summited and was descending. Lee could not
talk since he was about to loose his voice. A lot of hefty conversations
and arguments was heard on the com radio. At the steeper section Lee and
the girls abseiled and Olof down climbed. Then Lee led the icy traverse
and Olof and the girls followed. Nuri started crying again because she
was so tired and did not trust her crampons and she used her both axes
even though she was being belayed. After the traverse we all tied in to
one rope and descended the glacier to Campo Argentino. The time was
18:00 and the sun was setting. We had been climbing for 13h without
anything to eat (Olof discovered that he only drank a little bit less
than one litre of water during 13h of climbing).
We did not have the strength to descend to the refugee so we stayed yet
another night at Campo Argentino, Lees fifth night there and Olof fourth.
After a bit of vegetating we managed to cook some food but we were in
such a bad shape that we hade to take a little codeine/aspirin to be able
to sleep (though we did not sleep much that night).
1st of July 2001
Incredibly tired and worn out we managed to get our things together and
departed towards the refugee at 9am. We descended without problems but
took the wrong way in the moraine and had to find our way back to the
trail. We were in a hurry because at 12 the jeep was leaving for La Paz. We managed to find the trail, but to get to the hut one had to
walk on the wall to a water aqueducts. The wall was a feet wide and there
was water on one side and a 30feet drop on the other. Not entirely easy
to walk on with a heavy backpack when you are very tired.
We arrived at the refugee at 11:40 and met a relieved Scott.
In La Paz that evening Scott and Lee bought us dinner.
"The climb was a lot of fun and
it was rewarding to reach the summit with Lee who had fought hard
against a bad cough and ascended on pure will. We had a lot of fun
discussing climbing and life in general. But it was quite frightening to
see a lot of inexperienced climbers going up on the mountain expecting
everything to be just a piece of cake. It was just luck that nothing
worse happened."
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