August 17, 2012
As you know, we had awesome success once again on Pequeno Alpamayo. This year was a little different – we had an even better day than last year on top. A good bit of time spent snapping photos with no gloves on and views to match.
Moving forward to Huayna Potosi. After we arrived at the Base Camp Refugio we took a rest day and then went on up to High Camp. On summit day we woke at 12:30 am to snow and lightning. Was this to be my first weather day in three years in Bolivia? I went back to the team and told them that we were on hold because of wind, snow and lightning. At 2:30 am, the stars came out and we went for it. A cold morning kept us on our toes and moving quickly. We looked over the jungle to our East and saw an amazing lightning storm below us. It was hundreds of miles away and of no danger. To our West, El Alto with all the lights on. A gorgeous night. As the sun came up and thawed the team out, we headed to the summit ridge. We were the last team to reach the summit this morning and had it to ourselves which is nice because it is not very big.
Enough talk, I will let the photos do the rest. Tomorrow we say goodbye to some of the team. The rest of us will have a well deserved laundry, I mean rest day here in La Paz.
Up next Illimani!
Greg Vernovage