Quest53846299197, Aug 2026
Fantastic snow adventure, but a questionable decision by the organization
At 8 am we left our beloved little hotel and headed with our large backpack to the Jiwaki office where we had booked our trek to the top of Huayna Potosi. We had been there twice in the past few days because we had seen that the weather hadn't been great in the past few days and there was even a possibility of snow on the mountain. But "no problem" assured all Jiwaki employees us. Getting to the top was certainly possible. All trust in the organization, which had already brought us safely to Pico Austria, so we went for it.First we had to fit our equipment in the little office; we got an extra fleece sweater and jogging bottoms, a puffer jacket, and waterproof jacket and trousers, and "crevetten" (those are shin guards to prevent snow from getting into your shoes). After an hour on the bus, we stopped at a warehouse for our snow boots, crampons (those hooks for under your shoes), and axe - it was serious here. In the van, we met two Belgian couples who were also aiming for the summit, although they were going to make it a three-day trip to acclimatize even more, we would ride together to the Basecamp at 4700m altitude.While trying on the snow boots, the weather outside suddenly changed, a rain shower was followed by one or two hailstorms. Exciting, but it would turn out well, right? The whiter the landscape became as we drove further with the van. Until we were really driving through the snow. When we saw the bus slip in the snow, we all prudently fastened our seatbelts. And we stood still. Further on for us, a whole bus was stuck in the snow, our guide went to help, while the two buses from Jiwaki put on their snow chains. We had to stop twice more because the tires of the van slipped on the snow in front of us. Until there was nothing else on it, then: get out, pack all the stuff (bags full of our equipment, backpacks, food...), all on our backs and walk further to base camp. That the drivers and guides started filming and photographing everything meanwhile showed us that this was not normal and not foreseen.When we arrived at the simple base camp after a 20-minute walk with soaking wet feet, the guides started the midday meal while we received our briefing. With our tweets, we booked a two-day trip and were going to hike 2.5 hours to "High camp" after lunch, to sleep there and get up at 1 o'clock to hike to the top at 6 o'clock. With all the delays, we were only ready for our journey at 3 pm, everyone else looked at us with awe and wished us good luck. It was snowing heavily outside in the meantime.But our guide Ismaël was completely convinced, "let's try"! With our plastic snow boots on, our helmet on, and all the other equipment in our heavy backpack (I had put Marijk's crampons in mine because her bag was heavier than mine), we set off. The first kilometer was still effectively via a path, as if someone had made a little road with a snow shovel, which was reasonably easy to follow. But also on this path we sank easily about 20cm in the snow. Due to the snowfall and our regular sunglasses, we really couldn't see well, and when the word "avalanches" came up, Marijke got a little scared, she is not a skier and had never been in the snow like that before. I gave her a pep talk and shared my enthusiasm, because actually I thought this was super cool and assured her that it was too flat here for an avalanche (which was also effective) and after digging through the snow a bit more, she also got into the fun.So we went on, even though the wind was blowing and the snow sometimes cut our faces, we enjoyed the snow and the crazy experience. Regularly we had to stop so that Ismaël could contact guide "José" who caught up with us 10 minutes after departure and turned out to be the "explorer," who constantly confirmed whether we could continue (or not). The many stops combined with the snow in which we sometimes sank up to our hips caused us to make slow progress. At a certain point, another guide came towards us from above, shook his head at Ismaël and pointed to his body that the snow in High camp reached below his armpits! We started to doubt the feasibility of our trip. We asked Ismaël, who could barely speak English, no matter where we were, "oh a quart maybe". We asked him again if it was safe and feasible to continue: "let's try" was the answer.After plowing for a few hundred more meters in the snow, it was suddenly already 5 p.m. We knew it would be dark within an hour and asked Ismaël again about the feasibility: "Almost halfway, behind that peak is high camp," was the answer. We further understood that we could still try to go to High camp, but: the wind would increase, we had already been traveling for two hours and were only halfway on a route that normally takes 2.5 hours, would only arrive around 8-9 o'clock and thus have to walk in the dark with our headlamps...? Marijke and I looked at each other for a moment and discussed the situation. No matter how cool it was, climbing in the dark in this snow and even more wind and that peak... No, that is too dangerous and too heavy. Ismaël finally agreed and said "I would recommend go back to basecamp."And we did that too, luckily it went downhill now and thus a bit faster, but only snow had fallen. At a certain point, Marijke asked, "are we going a different way?" But no, it was the same "path" that was buried under 20-30cm of snow in two hours! When Marijke stumbled and fell off the ridge and luckily landed a meter lower in the deep snow, we knew 200% for sure that we had made the right choice. Enough adventure for us.Back at the base camp, we shared our adventures, photos, and videos with the other travelers and guides, for whom this was clearly not normal either. We were just in time for dinner and changed our wet clothes for something warmer. The briefing for the others for the next day was briefly summarized: "it will still snow all night, we can try to reach high camp, but the summit is impossible, maybe in 5 days." The others had many questions and asked for solutions, but for us it was okay, we had enjoyed the snow hike, but it wasn't worth taking so much risk.We ended the evening with a board game with one of the two Belgian couples and went to bed around 10 pm. A little disappointed, we really wanted to reach that peak of +6000, but especially also with a proud and satisfied feeling about our adventure in the snow, that we went off on our own three. It was really exciting and cool!
