Climbing up to Chachani

My plans before arriving to Peru included hiking up to Huayna Potosi next to La Paz, but at this point I could see that I won’t have time to visit La Paz, however I could do a similar hike here in Arequipa.

I remembered suffering from the altitude sickness back in Huaraz only at 4600 metres, but after spending 4 days in La Oroya and knowing that I even went for a “run” there, I thought that I should give it a try. So I signed up for the tour. I was so excited about the tour that I had trouble falling asleep the night before.

The day didn’t start the way I planned though. even though we talked everything through the day before in a meeting, they told me that I have to pay 100 Soles extra for equipment. I didn’t like this because at the Tour office they had told me that everything is included. I even called the office to complain. They denied, they lied to my face. They said that they told me everything as it is. Eventually and fortunately we came into an agreement. I rented all the required equipment and we started our trip.

The first day was supposed to be easy. After a two hour ride it was just a 5 km walk at the altitude of 5100 metres up to 5200. I suffered really badly though. Maybe it was because I talked to much, or because I ate too much while walking or because my rented backpack wasn’t perfectly adjusted to my body.

Anyway, I survived and we reached the camp. We built the tents and we had lunch. After that around 3-4 pm we went to rest and during that time there was a huge snow storm. When I woke up my tent was floating on water. I went out to deal with it somehow and I decided to go for a little walk. The sky cleared up at that time. there were even some blue patches.

Back in the camp we sit together to have some tea. One of the other guys was suffering from a really bad headache. It didn’t seem good. We went to sleep hoping that he will get better.

We had to wake up at 0:30 am. It was necessary because it is advised to avoid being at the top in full daylight. We started hiking at 1 am. Knowing how much I suffered the day before I was really worried that I won’t be able to do it. Even the guy who still had some headache looked stronger. Before we started, we checked our oxygen level and mine was the highest, but I also had the highest pulse. So I wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or not. I was concentrating really hard, by every step to use as little energy as possible. Going up steadily but slowly, not letting my heart rate go high. After like two hours of walking I started to feel stronger. And at that time my group members were starting to complain about worsening altitude sickness symptoms. I was offering them to take their backpack. Not because I’m so nice but because I was worried that if they don’t go up I can not go either. We stopped three times waiting for them and eventually they decided to go back. Fortunately my guide decided that it was safe for them to go back alone and he came with me to continue to the top.

I have no idea what happened to my body, but I felt strong and fit. I had no headache, no nausea, nothing. I felt perfectly fine. Sometimes I was going up even faster than I should have. I had to make myself remember that I have to save energy. We didn’t have an easy day. The snow storm from yesterday left us with around 30-40 cm of fresh snow which makes the hike at least twice as difficult. We even got lost once. Passing 5600 metres I still didn’t see any sign of altitude sickness. I just climbed up step by step. However we were a bit late due to the slow start and the difficulty of hiking in deep snow. The Sun was already up and it was burning my skin. The lightness was unbearable. There was a strong wind as well and it was cold. It is hard to imagine worse conditions, but we still continued going up until we reached 6012 metres. The peak is 6025. It seemed so close and it was only 13 metres up, but I finally started to feel tired and the sun was really bothering me. I decided to turn back. There isn’t too much difference between 6012 and 6025. At this point we were already hiking for 7 hours and to go down took us an additional 4 hours. I was really tired at the end, but the worst part was the last 5 km. from the camp to the car. I suffered again. More than yesterday. I wanted to stop for a rest every 100 metres.

I DID IT!! 6000+