Huayna Potosi

After climbing Pequeño Alpamayo, we exited the valley and made our way to the next peak of our trip: Huayna Potosi.

At 6,088 meters, Huayna Potosi is a formidable mountain. When viewed from almost any angle, it looks quite challenging. However, due to a set of high huts to stage from and a meandering route that avoids many of the steep faces, the 19,974-foot summit isn’t as hard to reach as one might think.

Huayna Potosi seen from Pequeno Alpamayo — And here’s Huayna Potosi seen from the northwest, from the summit of Pequeno Alpamayo, two days prior.

If you poke around the internet, you might even find some declaring Huayna Potosi to be the easiest 6000-meter peak in the world.

I don’t find that a wise statement for anyone to make– all high glaciated peaks are dangerous and can kill climbers, but there is some truth to the fact that the route does a good job at keeping objective hazards to a minimum.

Of course, anyone climbing up to an elevation of 6000 meters also risks experiencing altitude issues, which can lead to severe problems.

When asked about this claim, Juan, our Bolivian guide, said the title of “easiest 6000-meter peak” is something the Bolivian guides and tourism agencies started promoting to increase business. And as a result, you see more people– and relatively inexperienced ones– on Huayna Potosi.

So, with all that information in mind, Juan drove Christy, Delia, and me to the high trailhead for the mountain, parking at 15700 feet, and began the hike up to the refugios. The effort was made easier thanks to the help of hired porters, who carried some of our gear. Having acclimated on Pequeño Alpamayo earlier, we felt pretty good, and the 1000 vertical foot hike up to the simple refugio passed easily.

We set up in the bunk room, which had room for about 18 people to sleep. It was half full. After some organizing, reading, and a nap, we had dinner and were in bed early. Our alarm clocks were set for 1 am.

After a quick breakfast and some Bolivian instant coffee, we began hiking under headlamps, climbing along the rocky trail to the glacier’s edge, about 30 minutes away.

We switched to crampons and harnesses, roped up, and began the slow march up the snow, through vast slopes of penitentes, under the stars of a clear night. It was late in the climbing season, and the crevasses were more open and required some extra navigation to avoid. In time, the sky began to brighten, which helped to shake off the sleepiness.

Huayna Potosi summit view and penitentes — The rocky summit of Huayna Potosi, above a sea of penitentes.

Looking east as sunrise. You can see the stepped-out path that cuts through the penitentes.

As the surrounding glacier came into view, we could see our climbing path resembled a sidewalk carving through penitentes as far as the eye could see. It was incredible.

To anyone asking if we wish we had our skis, the answer is no. You could not ski these mountains in this particular snow condition.

Climbers descending Huayna Potosi — Climbers descend along the route through the penitentes.

We plowed ahead towards the summit block, and eventually, the route moved onto the rock, and we took off our crampons. The final bit was straightforward class 2+ hiking, much like the Colorado peaks we are used to at home. Except the elevation had us breathing pretty hard!

Soon enough, we were on the summit, along with a dozen others from all around the world. It was another beautiful day, and we took our time to eat something, take some photos, and then retrace our route back down to the huts.