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What got me in the end was not altitude sickness, although that was the cause for the ringing in my ears from about 5000 meters up, but not enough exercise. We found out later that it was already a hard time of year to try the summit, which just compounded the fact that this was a real hike.
I’ve gotten away with working a desk job and coming out of winter with a layer of insulation without being affected by my obviously poor physical condition (“but round IS a shape, Paul”). Getting away with a 3 day hiking trip using a base camp without much physical preparation has been painful but never a road block.
When you start at a bit over 3200 M and are supposed to end up at 6400M in roughly 48 hours there isn’t much chance to “take it easy”. Plus it’s embarrassing when the porters, wearing leather sandals, beat you. My New Zealand friend described it as “a whole different level of hard [tough].”
Endurance has never been a strong point. I ran cross country in high school (always came in last) and focused on sprints, hurdles and triple jump. I haven’t touched cross country in the last 10 years and it shows. I did do walking though.
In Ecuador I walked at least 3 days a week as much as 5 Km at times, but after being robbed, that ended. There’s nothing like a screwdriver in your side to demotivate you from going out in public without an armoured vehicle.
In Bolivia (We’ve been here for 5 months now) we have had plenty of time to adjust to the altitude and I’ve walked a bit, but nowhere near enough. When you are on ice and every step needs to be stamped to make sure you don’t slide into some crevasse (sp. Grieta) plus the fact that oxygen is hard to come by, there is not much room for out-of-shape-ness. Trips around the block or through the center (3800M) are useful, but don’t replace exercise.
In the end I was stopping every 5 meters or so and the words of another friend echoed in my ears, “What goes up, must come down”. I had made it up 3+ hours on the ice and with another 3 or 4 to go I doubt I would have made it down safely.
Surprisingly the altitude didn’t stop me. I had figured if anything going slightly insane and delirious (happened to another friend the first time he tried to summit Illimani) would be my problem, but that’s not to say it didn’t affect me. As I mentioned earlier, my ears were ringing from about 5000M up and as you will hear in a video I will upload soon, your body expends a whole lot of energy just breathing.
So I figure I’ll make use of an elliptical trainer to start, running every second day and doing weight training on the off days. This summer I’d like to summit Huayna Potosi (6000M and much easier) and do some hikes back in Canada. Then when the time is right I’ll have a go at Illimani again.
FYI. I would not recommend Adolfo Andino as a tour guide. He did not tell us the truth and was obviously more interested in our money than safety. One of his guides (who showed up on the 3rd day) was nice, but that was about it. Equipment was below par as well. As you can see: I’m not the only one with this opinion.
