For years, my wife and I had talked about going to South America for a vacation. Some friends of ours had gone to Bolivia to climb mountains about 8 years ago, so I had some ideas on that. My wife's big dream was to go to Machu Picchu. So we had some ideas for what to do, but never pulled the trigger and did it.

Finally, last winter my wife saw an ad for a Peru trip. That re-energized us and we started piecing together the trip.

We had some set backs with a busy schedule and one of us getting COVID, but we tried getting out above 13,000 feet every weekend and started a training class at the fitness center. Between Memorial Day and August 6th, we did 13 peaks above 13,000 feet, plus 6 more over 10,000'. So we felt good about our acclimatization.

The first half of the trip would be Bolivia, with activities in La Paz and Copacabana for 4 days. With both cities around 12,000 feet, we would have fun sight-seeing, while acclimatizing behind the scenes. Then on day 5, we'd do Chacaltaya (17,885') before a 3-day, guided climb of Huayna Potosi at 19,974'. After that, we'd head to Peru and eventually Machu Picchu, but back to Bolivia and Huayna Potosi first...

Our first day on Huayna Potosi was to drive to the base camp at around 15,500'. Once we got gear organized, our beds setup and ate lunch, we then went on a hike to the glacier to practice snow climbing, rappelling and ice climbing. We had a great time and were hitting it off with the guide.

The next day was pretty relaxed, we ate breakfast, lounged around, ate lunch, then hiked to high camp at 17,200'. Our guide told us our pace to high camp would determine how early we had to start the next day. Basically, anything under 2 hours and we could start at 2:00am or later. We did the hike in 1:50. That got us a 2:30am wake up, woo hoo!

We had a wonderful dinner and great time hanging out with our guide, cook and porter. We asked each other hundreds of questions, laughed, told stories and even had some wine... so fun to hit it off with people from the other side of the world!

We got to bed around 7pm, but I probably didn't drift off until 9pm or so. Around midnight, my wife woke me up to inform me that she wasn't feeling well. So I accompanied her to the bathroom. We returned to the hut and she was still pretty miserable. When the guide woke up, he insisted she go outside and "throw up", so she did just that, but still didn't feel great. At some point, she decided she just couldn't make the trip and risk having to turn back and neither of us making the summit. Sure, it's just a summit, but I can't lie... her not coming hit pretty hard.

So it was just Juvenal and I going for the summit. At 2am, I choked down as much breakfast and tea as I could. Then it was time to get on my harness, helmet, crampons, etc. At 2:40am we were off, heading up the glacier towards the summit of Huayna Potosi.

It was a clear night and not too cold to begin with. Climbing at night is rather mundane, as your world is limited to the 10 feet of light provided by your headlamp. Although, I could also see the lights of La Paz at one point and for hours could see lightning flashing in the Amazon Basin hundreds of miles away. Other than that, I mostly saw Juvenal's feet.

Our progress was faster than expected and we finally stopped for a drink at 4am. We'd already gone 1200'. Not a fast pace for climbing in the states, but I was expecting 600-feet per hour, so we were well above that!

Just after our break, we saw headlamps of 2 teams that had left closer to midnight ahead of us. This was right before the crux of the route "pala chica", a 50 degree snow slope that is probably about 200 feet high. On this section, I could hear the climbers above us grunting and cursing. Sure, it was difficult, but not sure what all that was about... lol.

Just after the crux, the wind kicked in. It was blowing hard enough that it was knocking us around. Right after we hit this wind, we passed a 3-person rope team that wasn't doing well, with one on the team in tears. About 15 minutes later, around 19,000 feet, my right hand was getting quite cold. I spoke to Juvenal about it and we took the gloves off to look. It was pre-frostbite, so he had me stick my hands under his jacket. In about 5 minutes, I was good to go and we continued on.

5 minutes later my hands were cold again, so he gave me some ideas on keeping them warm (we had ice axes, so one hand had to be out of the jacket). 5 minutes after that, I started questioning my ability to get to the summit. Juvenal simply said "your hands will be better when the sun comes up and we are almost to the summit".

So I fought until the sun came up, and Juvenal was correct, my hands were just fine with the extra warmth from the sun. At this point, we had about 500 feet to climb and he told me it would probably take an hour. The elevation was kicking my butt, but I just settled in with a rhythm where I'd walk about 30 seconds, stop to catch my breath about 10 or 15 seconds, then walk another 30, rest, rinse and repeat. The slope angle finally relented just before the summit and the last 1/8th of a mile went quickly.

7am and we are at 20,000 feet! Unfortunately, it was cold and we couldn't hang out too long. However, we took in the views, snapped some photos, ate a little bit and got a swig of water before heading down. With the intense sun, I tried putting on sunscreen but it was frozen in the tube. My poor lips were chapped, but my Caramex was frozen too. My water bottle I carried on the outside of the pack was frozen as well. Dang! Oh well, lets get down!

The way down was pretty uneventful, but anyone that's worn crampons knows that you can catch a spike or spike your own pant leg, so you can never really relax.

In the light, the route was amazing as it passed by huge seracs and crevasses! We even had a small jump over a few crevasses.

Soon we turned the corner and could see high camp and my wife waiting for us. I feel so bad she couldn't make it... she trained hard all spring and summer and was ready for this, just defeated by a bad meal or touch of altitude sickness :-(

We got her down safely and later that night flew to Peru. I am happy to report it took about 24 hours and she was feeling good again. On to Machu Picchu!

For anyone interested, we used Andes Brothers (https://andesbrothers.com/) for our guide.

I am sure if you go all of the way to Bolivia for this peak, you'll figure out how to drive to the base!

The easiest route on Huayna Potosi is the southeast face. See the GPS track for details on the upper route. The route from base camp to high camp is mostly trail, with some rocky sections that are steep enough they've got a fixed rope in a few places.