Huayna PotosÃ
South side of the Huayna Potosi from the Altiplano
Huayna Potosí is a prominent, glaciated mountain peaks with an altitude of 6088 m in the Cordillera Real, 25 km north of the Bolivian seat of government La Paz in the South American Andes. The mountain is a popular destination for climbers and tourists. In the language of the Aymara, the name means " young mountain" ( huayna = young; Potosi = mountain ).
Geology
Huayna Potosí is a mountain range of granite, a geological batholith. The entire Cordillera Real between Mururata and Illampú consists of a series of different granite body. The Batholithe the Eastern Cordillera have significant tin deposits at the edges. Gold veins found in other geological provinces. Freshly broken Huayna Potosí - granite is light gray, the weathered surface is orange-red, Huayna Potosí - granite breaks in slabs and blocks as the granite in Bergell, for example at Campo Roca.
Huayna Potosí is glaciated on all sides, particularly strong on the Amazon page. The glacier tongues creep down to about 5,000 m. The glaciers of the Huayna Potosí be studied in detail, for economic reasons, mainly the Zongo glacier. The dramatic loss of glacial ice due to global warming, measured over the last decades, is two to three meter ice thickness per year.
Mountaineering
Huayna Potosí is El Alto, clearly visible from the Altiplano and Lake Titicaca and the starting point Zongo Pass in just under two hours' drive from the center of La Paz accessible. He is boarded in from several hundred to a thousand people. Season are the months of June, July and August. All trekking agencies in La Paz offer the Huayna Potosi in their programs. Huayna Potosí is a lightweight six-thousand, mainly due to its accessibility and infrastructure on the mountain. Once acclimatized, a comfortable and friendly hotel in La Paz is an ideal "base camp" for a number of six thousand mountain ascent. With a few hours bus or taxi ride from La Paz you can reach some starting points at the height of Mont Blanc.
In addition to the normal route up the south face offers ( wall height 300 m, about 45 ° to 50 ° steep) and the west wall ( wall height 1.000m, different routes ( in rock IV to V UIAA, in the ice about 60 ° steep) ) on a climb.
Infrastructure
Starting point for the Huayna Potosi is the reservoir on the Zongo Pass, at 4,750 m there is a mountaineer hotel, Refugio Huayna Potosi. Furthermore, is in the vicinity since 2008 a new, larger climbers hut, a project of the Zongo community Llaulini. The Zongo Pass is accessible by public bus in the early morning from Ballivián Plaza in El Alto. In the afternoon there is bus service runs regularly from the Zongo Pass back to El Alto.
Since mid-2006, there are at the edge of the glacier at 5130 m the Campo Alto Roca, a stone-built, bewartete climbers hut. The lodge was built by the local mountain guide association. It is clearly visible from the dam Represa Zongo and satellite image. In addition, there since the 1980s, a small orange red bivouac, 50 m higher than Campo Roca, it is owned by one of the numerous agencies in La Paz
Organization of an ascent
For climbing, it is recommended to take a mountain guide in an agency in La Paz. The agency may also all equipment hire. For a trained and acclimatized climbers climbing is an enterprise of one to two days. You take a taxi (car, not a four wheel drive required) and mountain guide for lunch Zongo Pass and rises in two hours to the hut Campo Alto Roca to stay. The next day early by 2 clock begins the ascent to the summit. About the gently sloping, snow- glacier, a steep step ( grieta ) on the half way and a 150 -meter-high 40-45 ° steep end wall ( pala ) is reached at sunrise of the summits. With good organization you can be after the descent to Zongo Pass back at noon in La Paz.
Environment
The environment of the Huayna Potosí has an unusual infrastructure on all sides. On the Amazon page or Yungas, much of the electricity for La Paz is obtained through a series of ten hydroelectric power plants.
Are fed, the power plants of the melting waters of the glacier, from summer rain and some small reservoirs. Along the water supply lines ( acequias ) you can hike for days at the height level of the humid Puna. The difference in height for the water power extraction from the glacial stream to the Yungas is approximately 4,000 meters.
Maps and guides
- Liam O'Brien, 1995: A new map of the Cordillera Real de los Andes, 1:135.000, reprint.
- Carta Nacional de Bolivia, Hoja Zongo 5945 I, 1:50.000 IGM ed 1968.
- Carta Nacional de Bolivia, Hoja Milluni 5945 II, 1:50.000 IGM ed, 1985, reprint 1996.
- Hermann Kiendler 2007: The Andes; from Chimborazo to all Marmolejo - 6000 at a glance. Koengen: Panico Alpinverlag. 372 S, photographs, sketch maps. [ although quite hot off the press, the information on the infrastructure of the mountains surrounding La Paz is not current, about the beginning of 1990 ]