Close to death at 5825 meters above sea level on the top of Mountain Misty

A little exageration.....
BUT cllimbing that mountain was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, and that includes klasus, the 10 km run in Reykjavikurmaraton and the last month in medical school.
When we booked that tour se had no idea what we were getting ourself into.

The group we had was made of 5 people, the 2 irish guys i trecked with in Colca canyon Jeff and Peter, a canadian girl Natasha, and a canadian guy named Micael. The guide was fantastic, around 50 years old but carried like 30 kilos and could run up the mountain.

Arequipa is at 3000 meters hight. We were driven close to the roots of the mountain and started ascending at 3300 meters. Only 2525 meters to go, which sounds relatively easy. Was not the case.

The first day we walked for 6 hours to base camp at 4600meters height. And carried around 12 kilos each. During this walk I started to feel the altitude and got a headache and became nausious. So i started to take Diamox ( which is an anti altitude drug and a diuretica). This walk was though but I felt quite okei at the end of it. I thought the altitude wouldnt get to me because i have been at 3500 meters height in Cusco for 2 weeks and it was fine.

We got good food and cocoa tea ( yes cocoa is what they make cocain out of, but cocain is made out of the stem and the tea from the leafs, the tea is around 1/1000000 of the strength of cocain) The indians use the cocoa tea for the altitude and it really helps, at least for 1 hour or so.
Then we went to sleep. In the night I couldnt sleep and i had to go to the bathroom, on the way i felt dizzy, almost fainted and almost threw up, again the altitude. I then managed to sleep.
At 2 o clock in the night the guide woke us up and we started to climb the final 1225 meters.

And oh my good that was hard. One of the irish guys got really sick, hallucinated, was dizzy all the time and had tourble breathing. So I gave him diamox as well.
Myself, well I was okei in the beginning, thankful for years of swimming, non smoking status and generally okei shape but as we got higher and higher, the air got so thin, I actually had to breath 3 times for each steps. And we could only take baby steps at a very slow pace because everybody was grasping for breath. And the altitude sickness made me nauseous, dizzy and generally tired. the decline of the mountain was 45-70 degrees all the time. The last 500 meters were pure hell, the only thing I could do not to sit done and give up was praying to god to help me get up that mountain. And each step took all my willpower. This was unbelivably hard. And as we got higher it was more and more freezing, at 5 oclock the temperature was minus 10 degrees ( nuna vitid tid sem gagryndud pokkun mina a heitum fotum af hverju ) And close to the top my toes got numb and completly frozen and the guide had to rub life into them for ten minutes. Damm al paca wool, no good, ( al paca is a type of lama) give me icelandic sheep wool.

The last 200 meters i hardly know how i managed, it was so hard. No air, frozen toes and so tired. plus dizzy and nauseous.

But i did get up that mountain, we all did. I was even the 2 person on top. And the view on the mountain was the most spetacular thing i have seen, everywhere around it sere volcanos, canyons, waters and cites. And the mountain itself cast a pyramid shadow on Arequipa when the sun came up. Unbelievably beautiful. On the top we slept for 20 minutes from exhaustion. And i am so damm proud of myself! I really did it. 5825 meters up in the air, higher then i have ever been. It was really worth it.

So , tomorrow i will leave for Cusco, i will fly since the bus situation now is unstable, strikes and stuff. There i will stay for a month, school and hiking.

Ciao Stella

Hae Hafdis, takk fyrir ad skrifa. Tad er alltaf rett ad fordast svona verkfalls svaedi, madur vill sko ekki festast.