Home At Last!

Expect a flurry of posts over the next week. Thanks for following along. Off to swim practice shortly!

Aconcagua recap #2: climbing the beast fast and light

Preamble and apology

Hey all,

Sorry for the long-delayed post.  I had horrible internet access in Mendoza and then in Chile.  Each picture took about 10 minutes to upload.  I gave up with that futile effort and decided to concentrate more on drinking beer.   Without further delay, I pick up where I left off from recap #1.  

Climbing Aconcagua solo

I made it to basecamp and readied myself for a quick attempt at the summit.  My rationale for the quick trip was two-fold.  First, I wanted to be familiar with the mountain before my family arrived and started climbing.  Nothing beats climbing the route for familiarity.  Second, I wanted to test out my revised acclimatization method.  Remember, I opted to sleep lower and exercise higher instead of the reverse "Live High, Train Low" method used by most others.

Getting familiar with the route

Up to Camp 1 - Canada

 I immediately wanted to get out of basecamp and start getting some acclimatization climbs under my belt.  Climb 1 was to Camp 1 - Canada - a quick 1500 foot (500m) vertical ascent up a scree field.  That climb would tell me a ton about my acclimatization.  I did a quick ascent and get there in about 1.5 hours with little effort.  So far, so good.  I felt great and was ready to head back down, get some rest before the next day when I would go back up to sleep.  

Not sure where I was on the hill but at 15,577 feet - higher than any mountain in the continental US

 Climbing high and feeling great - nothing like it in any other activity.  Camp 1 was pretty desolate.  I arrived just as a storm started moving in so I spent little time at camp.  My aim was done so I could move back down, eat, and then head back up.  Oh, if you are asking yourself why go up and down a mountain the answer is simple.  Acclimatization requires "climbing high and sleeping low" - at least successful acclimatization.  Some push the envelope and I had every intention to do just that but the first few days needed to be gradual "bites" up the hill.  

Camp 1 - pretty desolate on this day hike.

 I spent a little time snapping some pictures though.  Here (below) is a great shot of the huge glacier on Cerro Cuerno.  That peak looked so majestic compared to the giant scree pile of Aconcagua.  

Cerro Cuerno.  How about that glacier?

 The view from above PdM was pretty nice.  See how small the tents look from 1500 feet above?  So the day hike (1.5 hours up, 25 minutes down) gave me plenty of good shots.  Once I get home and situated, I will post a huge photo album with all the pics; for now, I am composing this post in the Admiral's Club at Miami Int'l airport.  Only 6 more hours before I return home and see my family.  Below is the basecamp view from the scree field below Camp 1.

A view from above.  

 Upon my return, we assembled to get our medical checks and ran into Kilian again.  Below is a picture of my new pal Ravi and Kilian.  Our collective spirits were high and the docs gave us the thumbs up to continue on.  Just to give you an idea of how the medical checks work, the docs take our blood pressure, pulse-oximetry data, and then ask us a bunch of questions about AMS (e.g., headaches, nausea, vomiting, etc.).  I was so wary of the docs interfering with my climb that I said nothing of the growing sinus infection that was killing me at the time.  More on that later.

Kilian Jornet and Ravi

 That night after the med check was hell on wheels.  The wind darn near blew my tent down and I had a raging sinus infection that made drinking painful.  Yep, another sinus infection.  I hate sinus infections but get them so regularly that I should now consider them a trusted friend.  They don't make good climbing partners though; the altitude wreaks havoc on my head when I get one.  OK, enough about my head.  I slept poorly and took off right away to get to Camp 1.  Here I am below relaxing before my next day push to Camp 2.  

Not a bad view from my sleeping bag at Camp 1

A panorama shot from Camp 1

 The night at Camp 1 was just as horrible as the previous night at basecamp.  Now I had a sinus headache that affected everything and I was starting to get really run down.  The climbing efforts were really easy but the combination of acclimatization and sinus infection made it really difficult to discern how I was faring on the climb.  My head hurt around my eyes - even to the touch - but my body and head felt great while I was climbing.  A quick night of fake sleeping as my cousin calls it and then I headed up to Camp 2 (Neto).  Once there, I quickly recognized a familiar tent - occupied by none other than Kilian Jornet and his friend Emelie Forsberg.  They were there to set ascent records up the mountain.  For those interested in how they fared, check out this article; others might just like to know that he crushed the record.  Read the article.  You'll be impressed without question.

A familiar neighbor

It was nice to see a familiar face in this desolate place but I was really struggling at this point.  My head ached with the darn sinus infection and my spO2 plummeted to 72%.  Yeah, I know.  That was really low.  I wanted to see if I could shake it off and continue up the hill.  Alas, the summit attempt was not in the cards this time around.  I noted the date and when I wanted to be back in Mendoza to greet my family.  The arrived in 3 days and I needed a quick weather window and better spO2 numbers to warrant an attempt.  Time ran out and my head refused to cooperate.  I awoke to a raging headache and the cold now heading to my chest.  Since I had another month to tackle the mountain, I opted to head down and recuperate in Mendoza rather than push the envelope and remain sick over the next month.  

The retreat

Time to get off this hill and head back to Mendoza for a brief recuperation session.  Below is what I looked like at Camp 2.  Life was hell.

Feeling horrible at Neto.  Life ain't great with a sinus infection at 19,000+ feet.  I want  

 Just before heading off, I grabbed a nice panoramic shot of Neto.  These shots help me remember the terrain so I can communicate the route clearly to the others when we start round 2 on this hill.  

Camp 2 is desolate to say the least.

 Feeling lousy also had an impact on my water and food consumption.  By the time I got back to basecamp, I was feeling horrible and the lack of water/food just made it worse.  Each step down the scree pile was paired with some choice words not appropriate for my blog.  One thing I continually thought about though was how good a Coke would taste at basecamp.  Boy was I right!  I purchased two Cokes from the Lanko folks - $5 each - and they tasted divine.  I could barely contain myself as I slowly consumed them and felt the rejuvenating power of sugar and caffeine.  

Best $10 investment ever

 The Cokes helped me shake off the 4,000 foot ascent, descent, and dehydration - at least sufficiently enough to power me through the next day's long trek out to Penitentes.  That trek is just a slog.  

Feeling great after the Cokes.  I'm ready to descend now.

 I woke up at 6am the next day and ran down the hill toward Penitentes.  My aim was to make the 2pm bus and be in a nice hotel room by 5pm.  Life would get better with a few days sleep at low altitudes.  I spent 5.5 hours descending the route to the Horcones ranger station.  When I got to the bottom, I was so spent, I darn near cried...or rather crawled into the ranger station to check out.  Life would get better but that was pure hell.

Heading down now...

The trail goes on forever.

But I'm rocking out and just moving forward.  The rest in Mendoza made the hard push worth the effort.

I shared the trail back with some Mules.  Go guys...go!

Nirvana!  I knew I was home when I saw the pond.  Rest is coming soon.

I got back to Mendoza thanks to the Lanko folks and my new friend Eduardo Urbani.  He drove me down in his van and only charged me what I would pay on the public bus and cab.  Eduardo is a gem.  We spent the 3 hours chatting along the way.  I doubt I made much sense because I was beat.  Once down in Mendoza, I booked a room, crawled into bed and slept for the next two days.  It was heaven.  

Post 3 - coming tomorrow - contains the lead up to round 2 on the mountain.  Stay tuned....

Aconcagua recap #1: Travel to Argentina and beginning the climb

On December 8th, 2014 I took off from Dulles for Mendoza, Argentina via Miami, FL and Santiago, Chile.  There were not many memorable moments except for the fact that I neglected to pay the "reciprocity fee" to enter Argentina.  That oversight cost me very little but did produce a few new gray hairs on me head.  No journey is complete without a little intrigue.  So I paid the fee online, printed out the document and boarded the next flight that left one hour after my original flight.  Oh well.  No blood, no foul.

I got to Mendoza in one piece with all my bags.  Step 1 was to purchase my permit.  I posted previously about that step but let me recap for those who did not read those details.  The Argentinian monetary system is a wreck.  I had to get Argentinian pesos to purchase my permit and the best way to get that currency is on the street via the "black market."  My negotiated exchange rate on the street was 12.2 pesos per US dollar; the bank generously offered 8.5 pesos/dollar.  Thus, my permit was almost one third off if I used the black market so I willingly participated in this crazy economic scam.  Once I got the pesos, I could get my permit and pay for it at the Pago Facil (easy pay) located across the street from the Ministry of Tourism office.  With my permit in hand, I was then able to relax for the next few hours, eat a huge steak, and enjoy a bottle of vino before I had to wake up at 5am for my 6am bus to Penitentes - the location where all expeditions begin for Aconcagua.  The pictures posted here are of my gear sort in my hotel room, my permit, and my last meal before grabbing my morning bus. 

Penitentes provided me an opportunity to sort out my gear once again so I could ready my load for the mules.  You'll see plenty of those guys shortly so bear with me.  At the Refuggio Casa de Cana, I put all my heavy gear into my basecamp bag and expedition pack.  Those two bags would be loaded onto a mule after I took off for the trail head in Horcones.  The plan was to carry only the bare essentials up to basecamp (Plaza das Mulas or PdM for short via Confluencia camp).  As you can see from the pictures, I wore my favorite approach shoes - OSHA approved steel toed flip flops.  The trek to Confluencia took me one hour and 30 minutes and served as a nice warmup for the following day where I trekked to basecamp from Confluencia.  That second-day trek took 8 hours in the searing heat and incessant dust storms.  I'm keeping my description brief because I have little positive to say about the approach to PdM.  That trek is a beast; more on that trek later when I recount my trek in with my family.

Actually, there were a few positives from the day trek to PdM.  First, I ran into Kilian Jornet along the route.  He was beginning his record-breaking ascent of Aconcagua and I was fortunate enough to meet and chat with him several times over the next week.  He is quite an athlete!  Second, I met two fellow climbers - Ravi and Munye - and we decided to trek together.  It was really nice having company on that boring leg.  Thanks to those guys, we had plenty to chat about to reduce to monotony. 

At this point, I am now at basecamp and ready to climb this hill.  I felt great at this point and was geared up to get up and down quickly.  My next post documents the full climb in detail with pictures.  The climb did not go as planned for a variety reasons.  More later.....

Thanks for following along. 

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Back in civilization and ready to post updates about the past 3 weeks

Greetings,

I returned from a successful summit of Aconcagua with plenty of stories.  Over the next few days, I intend to document both climbs and provide you with sufficient details to either share the experience vicariously or follow from my good moves and avoid my bad moves to allow you to summit this mountain.  Thanks for following and expect more shortly.....

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