I
ncluding myself, six of the nine team members had arrived. I met several of them and our two American guides, Mark and Andrew, in the hotel lobby. Mark was the senior guide, whose experience and serious approach to the technical end of things gave us a reassurance that we would be rewarded with success. Andrew was a powerful young man who always had encouraging words and knew when to use them. Both Andrew and Mark were friendly, while very professional in their duties. They would offer helpful advice whenever asked. We would also have an additional guide from Bolivia assisting during our trek and climbs whose name was Juan. Besides myself, those in the lobby included Scott and Elizabeth (Liz), newlyweds -- this was their honeymoon! What's more, they were both physicians who, at numerous times during our expedition, would generously lend their professional skills to anyone in need. Linda, a nurse from Seattle, rounded out our medical team and like myself, was here alone. She had a wonderful sense of independence and self confidence in all she did. Also there were Dick and Tom, an amazing father and son duo. Dick was a 77 year old professor of psychology with a wry and sharp wit, and the most physically active person in that age category I'd ever met. Tom was also a psychologist and my appreciation for his kindness and generosity grew throughout the course of our trip.
Mark and Andrew were preparing to take everyone on a little sight-seeing excursion through the city surrounding the hotel, so I hurriedly tossed my duffle and pack in my room and joined them. I was to have a roommate, not yet arrived, so I piled my bags at the far end of the small room to leave him space to enter.
Mark and Andrew gave us a great tour complete with historical points, and a look at the city's central square. Across from the square on one side was the building housing the Bolivian legislative body and on another was the presidential palace. We stopped and had a good lunch and began getting acquainted with one another. Our conversation quickly confirmed that I was pretty much the novice in high altitude experience amongst these people. They all knew just what they were in for and I was the untested commodity. I quietly wondered if I would be able to work at a competent level with them on the climbs.
Mid-afternoon Saturday brought us back to the Max Inn where I headed up the three flights of stairs to my room. My roommate, Garry Porter, was there sorting his gear. Garry, a retired Boeing engineer, had phenomenal big mountain experience, having climbed Ancancagua in 1992 and later Denali and even Cho Oyu in Nepal. I made a mental note moving myself even further into the novice category amongst the group. Garry had just flown in from a Machu Picchu trek in Peru and mentioned that he would be joining an expedition in a few months to Ama Dablam (which he would summit successfully). The following year he would also climb Everest! He was a bright spirit and easy to get to know. We continued to get acquainted as we sorted our gear. Garry suggested that we should be tentmates and I was delighted. To be fair I warned him that I snored, but it seemed the matter was settled.
Now when one brings enough gear for both trekking and climbing for several weeks, there is a great deal more than can fit into any single pack. Sorting all this gear involves a balance of prioritizing and experience with the expected conditions that usually requires rummaging through the stuff several times. The process was ended with the group meeting in the hotel lobby for a walk to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. In the lobby, we met the last arriving pair, Craig and Jeanine who hadn't committed to marriage just yet (that comes later in the story).
Sunday morning we stowed our extra duffels loaded with gear not needed for the acclimation trek in the hotel storage room. With friendly wishes from the great hotel desk clerks we loaded our trekking gear on our little bus. We drove northeast of La Paz heading into the Takesi region to begin five days of hiking from 13,000 to 15,000 feet and then down to 7,500 feet through several villages and hamlets much of which was along the Inca Trail. Our trek began on dirt road interspersed with bits a trail with an elevation gain of some 1500 feet through magnificent rock canyons. Mark, Andrew and Juan, the Bolivian guide, had gone ahead somewhere. A few minutes further down the road we saw them sitting on the grassy edge of the roadside where they were finishing preparations of a nice lunch spread. I could get used to this kind of hiking for sure!
After lunch we hiked downhill until we came across our camp already set up. Our duffles were piled up waiting and all we had to do was move in. There were three person tents for those of us who were partnering (Garry and I, father and son Dick and Tom, and Craig and Jeanine) and three two person tents for Linda, Mark and Andrew. Also there was a large mess tent with a makeshift table with eleven folding stools, and a cook tent complete with the cooks. That tent also served as their sleeping quarters. I think we were each amazed at the extravagant expedition style that AAI had put together for us. It became a kind of running joke as to whether or not we could handle such difficult conditions. Slowly I came to realize these conveniences were to maximize each individual's chance for success. It let one pay attention to their personal needs and condition and spend time dealing with it. I knew that on climbs without such support there was usually not time to deal with many personal needs which takes it toll. Here Mark and Andrew expected us to utilize these conveniences to maximize our personal preparedness for the rigors of each climb.
The daily mantra from Mark and Andrew upon completion of each day's hike was to "go take a hike before dinner." This, of course was to help us with the acclimatizing process and became a routine we managed most days during our trekking.
Back in camp we had stew with rice for dinner and cake for desert. Afterwards we got Andrew to tell us a tale of their guide trip from hell, climbing a volcano with a group that included a very uncooperative client. It was a day for stories, for later after we retired to our tent, Garry recounted his traverse of Denali, a feat accomplished by only a small percentage of climbers on that mountain. Climbing the West Buttress route he descended via the Muldrow Glacier on the other side, which required fording swollen ice cold rivers and often being swept downstream in the process. I enjoyed it as if I were settled in reading a good climbing book.
By Monday, everyone was getting into the routine quite well. Starting at 7:00 AM hot tea would be brought to our tent to get us going. Breakfasts were usually oatmeal on the watery side with fruit or just cereal, always with lots of hot water for tea and for filling water bottles. We packed personal gear for the day's hike in our summit packs and the duffle with each person's extra belongings was piled in camp to be loaded on the burros, which had arrived with their herder family known in Bolivia as campesinos.
We were headed up to a high meadow at 13,600 feet today which we reached relatively early at 1:30 PM. Mark's strong suggestion was that we hike on up to some abandoned gold mines and then beyond to a lake at the ridge which would be about 15,100 feet. The thought was exciting to me as this would be new altitude record for me. My highest previous altitude years before was Mt. Whitney at 14,496 feet. The hike up left us with an hour of daylight remaining to descend to camp which we managed to reach by dusk.
That night I noted physiological changes with the increased altitude. Scott and Liz had mentioned that at altitude the body tries to get rid of more fluid than normal. I got up to relieve myself several times that night and decided that a spare water bottle would become a pee bottle from that point on. The bright side of my several excursions out of the tent that night at this altitude was the incredible view of the southern constellations. The Milky Way showed myriads of faint wispy tendrils coming off it, far more than I had ever seen before without a telescope.
Garry and I remained in our sleeping bags the next morning until the cooks came around with hot tea. We were definitely getting the hang of this luxury. We were hiking over the 15,000 foot pass and begin heading down in the direction of the Amazon basin. The pass was cold and windy so most people were wearing fleece and shells. Garry and I were clearly the ones that ran hot in contrast with everyone else as I was down to my nylon shirt and Garry wore a T-shirt. We were on the Inca Trail and up here it was remarkably intact. Taking a break just over the pass we snapped a few pictures of the hired family and their burros lumbering along with our gear. We had traveled up rough rocky trail with some snow cover, but these people were wearing sandals! The Bolivian mountain people were strong and tough without a doubt. They would stay with us for the next two camps and then take their burros back over the pass to their home as we finally hiked out to meet our bus well down into the "Cloud Forest".
An hour down the deepening canyon trail we came upon a tiny hamlet consisting of five Inca descendent families. Mark had warned us that these people always hid in their homes whenever he brought a group though, so we shouldn't expect to see anyone. We sere pleasantly surprised, however, to come upon a family remaining in view. We were even more surprised when a young girl, asking through Juan as an interpreter, inquired if we wanted to buy a beer! Andrew obliged and she literally dug a bottle of local brew out from under a pile of rocks. Jeanine bought a small orange drink as well for 3 bolivianos. It seems capitalism had moved into even this remote area. Thirty minutes further down the trail brought us to our next camp site at an elevation of 11,910 feet where our family of porters were busy setting up the tents. Garry and I assisted with our tent.
Dinner was a traditional Bolivian-style soup, thick and loaded with vegetables. Relaxing with tea we quietly listened to Andrew's lecture on altitude sickness. Andrew was perhaps feeling a bit uncomfortable conveying the technical aspects of HAPE and HACE with all the medical expertise in the group. Afterward doctors Scott and Liz congratulated him on his accuracy and thoroughness. It was another instance of the thoughtfulness and generosity exhibited by all on our team and a trait that seemed to set us apart from many groups Mark and Andrew had led.
The following day we descended another 5000 feet into the cloud forest, stopping for lunch at Bolivia's version of our roadside cafe -- a trail side cafe/home with a picnic table under a grass thatched roof on the edge of the canyon cliff, complete with soft drinks and beer for sale for a few bolivianos. The whole descent was characterized by a wonderful transformation from high alpine to almost jungly rainforest. It was a warm and restful spot for a camp with the river swiftly tumbling down it's rocky bed. It didn't take long for some of us to dive into a deep pool in the river formed by boulders and enjoy a refreshing swim in the icy water. Our final camp offered another remembrance in the form of a very uncooperative bull who wasn't going to be long for this world. His owners were forced to leave him tied in the midst of our campsite through the night, and while hiking out the remaining day we came upon them returning and brandishing a meat saw and a couple of wheelbarrows. At trail's end we welcomed our bus and settled in for a ride back to La Paz which included a breakdown and transfer to a couple of jeeps.
--Gary
