SUMMITED

I have summited Aconcagua! On Sunday the 25th I managed to stand on what´s known as the Roof of the Americas. My summit bid started at 2:30 in the morning and took 9 hours to get there from Camp Nido Condores (camp 2) with a 3 hour return, making for a 12 hour day. I will further explain the event, but first I will catch up from where I last left off in the blog.

So.......Day 5 I believe is where I left you all in such suspense. This day I moved my camp from Plaza de Mulas Base Camp up to Camp Canada for my first night at a high camp. Before arriving at the camp I was caught in the middle of quite the snowstorm, which really made setting up my tent pleasurable (that´s sarcastic if you can´t tell). There are many different trails that have been made through the scree that all end up in Camp Canada, but with the storm and not being able to see all my options I think I mangaged to chose the steepest one with the most scree, and I think I lost about 3 feet for every foot I went forward getting there. By the time I got camp set up I was pretty tired, and not feeling exceptionally well, with a minor headache beginning to bother me. I didn´t have much of an appetite but managed to choke down some jerkey so I could take an Ibuprofin which cleared things up and I was feeling better shortly. While accending to higher altitudes headaches are a common symptom, however if they are not relieved with a mild pain killer and some water, it is recommended to decend to prevent what´s know as AMS (acute mountain sickness...aka altitude sickness). Anyway, I was feeling fine after a while and the only symptom I had was something known as HAGS or HAF. Now some of you may have heard of HAPE and HACE...which are the two common killers at high altitude being high altitdue pulmonary edema and high altitude cerebral edema. Well let me tell you HAGS or HAF are the real killers....being a common symptom know as high altitude gas syndrome....or high altitude flatulance. Yes this probably taking it a little too far for some of you, but I´m sure you wanted to know all the details. It was kind of funny, because on the flight down to Santiago I was speaking with a physician on the plane, and he warned me of such and event being quite serious, and says it can ruin and entire expedition laughing out loud. My first night at high camp I had a few a apneic episodes, which without getting into too much detail happens because your respiratory rate slows down while you are sleeping, and you are not hyperventilating like you normaly would be with the decreased oxygen, and you wake up suddenly out of breath in the middle of your sleep. A bit scary if you are not used to such an event haha! Gives me a true appreciation for patients that I´ve treated at work with breathing difficulty.

Day 6: Woke up feeling top notch this morning and I had regained my appetite. After a hardy freeze dried breakfast I carried another load of gear up to what would be my next high camp known as Nido Condores, meaning nest of the birds at 17,715 ft. What started out to be a beautiful morning turned into a snowstorm before I finished carrying the load to Camp Nido. I was starting to think somebody had it out for me with my timing and these storms. I felt great at Nido and stayed to acclimate for a while and stache my gear. When I returned back to Canada the weather had cleared up nicely. There was no sign of Mario the phantom climber when I got back, who I would have expected to be either setting up camp at camp 1, or at least bringing his first load up to stache. At this point he would be about 2 days behind me as far as acclimating.

Day 7: Another beautiful morning as I broke down camp, and left some gas and other unnecessary items at camp 1, and prepared to move camp to Nido. On the trip up I ran into a lady from Seattle, which made chatting with somebody in fluent English kind of nice. In typical fashion, another snowstorm was hitting about the time I was at Nido and preparing to set up camp. The winds were pretty strong and made for a real difficult time getting my tent set up this time. The one good thing about all the new snow was it made gathering water quite easy. After filling up a 55 gallon garbage sack full of snow I spent the rest of the afternoon melting snow and cooking dinner inside the luxury of my tent while listening to the wind trying to tear it apart. I even managed to get a few Sudoku puzzles done, which let me tell you the light and easy are not light and easy at this altitude.

Day 8: The wind was relentless all through the night and continued into the next day. It makes sleeping in a tent seem like you are posted up next to an Am-Track that is running all night. I even tried to cut some make-shift earplugs out of my foam therma-rest, which didn´t work out quite as well as I thought it would, but was entertaining. Wind aside, I decided to go for an acclimatization hike up to Camp Berlin and White rocks at about 19,300 ft give or take. Even with the wind, it was much better being out and active than confined in the noisy tent. I decided that day that I would not set up another hight camp past Nido. Now here is the pros / cons that had to be weighed out with the decision. If you move to the next high camp Berlin or White rocks, you A.) are closer to the summit making your summit day quicker, B.) don´t have to wake up as early in the morning to summit so you spend less time climing in the cold without the sun, but C.) have to spend another day moving gear and camp up higher, where you will likely not sleep as well, because the altitude is so high, and it is colder, making for a tired restless climber on summit day. I spent some time at that altitude to acclimate again and decended back to Nido. I was comfortable with the decision that I would be getting up earlier, be in the cold longer, and adding another 1600 ft to the summit climb in compromise for a good nights rest, and no more moving camps. I was already an hour or two ahead of most of the recommended times moving from camp to camp, and figured I´d have no problem with it being a longer summit day. Although not at the same elevation, I´d climbed the 5,000 ft in a single climb before that it would take to summit, so I had a decent understanding of what I was getting into by adding the extra 1600 ft and an hour or two. When I returned to Nido I gathered a hearsay forcast from one of the expeition teams that it would be just as windy tomorrow as it was today, but would still be clear. I decided to prepare for a summit bid and see what the conditions would be like in the morning. After I packed my summit pack and ate some dinner I was off to bed and out like a light at 7:30 with the help of two benadryls and slept like a champ.

Day 9: Summit Day! I woke up before my alarm went off at 2:30am feeling fully rested and ready to rock. There was amazingly enough, for the first time at this camp...silence...and no wind! I planned on leaving at 3 am and was out a litte sooner after eating a quick bfast and putting on my crampons. It was a crystal clear morning, which was colder but made for great visibility. I made it to White rocks in no time and had passed two or three expeditions that left from Berlin Camp. The wind managed to hold out until a place called Independencia Hut, where it really started to pick up. It was blowing the dry snow around, and made it difficult to see withouth goggles, which I wasn´t wearing due to the darkness, but had to put them on regardless. I made it to a point called Windy Ridge when it was just getting light, and met up with two other climbers that were ahead of me. Let me tell you, Windy Ridge didn´t get it´s name for no reason, and the wind was absolutely relentless. It was time to dawn the down jacket and full facial protection just to be on the ridge. From the ridge you must traverse a big scree field to get into a giant gulley that eventually leads to the summit. One of the climbers turned back just shortly after being on the ridge as he could not take any more of the wind. His partner was still ahead of me and was continuing ahead. He was having to break trail because the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing dry snow all over and accumulating in large drift piles. Breaking trail through snow is not an easy task and is very tiring, especially at this altitude. About half way accross the traverse, he too was throwing in the towel, and returned back to where I was and said ¨too much snow, too tired¨ with a foreign accent. This left the rest of the trailbreaking up to me. The sun was beginning to rise, so it was light, but was not shining on the north face we were on yet making it exceptionally cold with the wind and blowing snow. This was one of the toughest parts of the climb, because it was really tempting to turn around get away from the beating that was being given to me by the weather, but are you kidding me haha, there´s no way! Needless to say I made it accross the traverse, and was much more protected from the weather on the other side. All I had left was this steep gully to climb and I was nearing the summit. At this point I was really feeling the altitude and was taking about a 5 or 10 second rest with every step forward. I think I must have spent 2 hours climbing the last part with a gain of only about 500 ft. It was by far the most difficult and physically tiring thing I have ever done, and seemed to drag on forever, while staring at the summit the whole time. It defininitely wasn´t just going to hand itself over to me and seemed to be laughing at me as I lay on the snow panting after each few steps. After 9 hours of climbing, however I finally took the last few steps that put me on the Summit of the Americas and what an amazing feeling and view. I was the first of the day to reach the summit and I could see down at two of the expedition teams behind me about an hour or two. The summit registry wasn´t around to sign, so I took a few pictures, and hung out for a few minutes. You could only take your gloves off long enough for one picture, then had to put your fingers back in to rewarm them. It´s exceptionally cold on the summit, and no place to hang out, as cool as it really is being there, so after about 10 minutes and a frozen cliff bar later I was on my way back down. The decent took 3 hours and I was back at the tent at 3 in the afternoon. Not bad considering the average time for a round trip summit from Camp Berlin above my camp is supposed to be 10-18 hours. I was thrilled with the accomplishment, and decided I had enough energy to pack up camp and head down to Basecamp, which made for an exceptionally long day hauling out all the gear in one load (see picture) down, that I´d brought up in two. I got to basecamp at about 7:30, organized my gear for the mules in the morning, ate an absolutely terrible pizza, and stayed the night at Hotel Refugio, as there was no way I was going to set up a tent again.

Day 10: After I arranged all my gear with the mules and checked out my ¨sheet bag¨ with the rangers I was headed back to Puenta Del Inka, the 16 mile trek in one day that took two coming up. I didn´t care how long it took or how many blisters I had, I was excited to get down so I could eat a nice meal, sleep in a bed, have running water, etc... I was motivated! Listening to my Ipod and cruising mostly downhill I made the trek in 5 hours. I decided to take the bus back into town which took 4 long, hot, sweaty, stinky hours, but finally was back in Mendoza that night, where I could enjoy the luxury of a nice hotel with a swimming pool and a cerveca frio.

Well that about brings me to where I am now....still in Mendoza, but I believe I will be leaving tomorrow on another long, stinky, 15 hour bus ride over to Buenos Aires on the other coast. I´ve heard plenty of good things about the area, so I´m off to check it out. As for now I´m just relaxing, letting my legs and blisters heal, and pretty much loving life in the sun. Well minus the half of my nose that was outside my goggles and lips that got EXCEPTIONALLY sun-burned on the descent (see lovely picture), and look like a hard piece of bacon at the moment. Mendoza is a really nice city though, and the culture here is great. Until next time........Chao

Climbing in Progress

Hello all, I know you´re probably wondering why you are hearing from me again...I will explain later. I thought it would be fun to write and catch up on the journey so far. I will start back with my morning at the hosteria, as they are called in Los Penitentes. I had b-fast with a Polish guy named Mario, who come to find out is also climbing Aconcagua on a solo / self supported quest much like myself. After chatting we are now doing a team effort / solo attempt of Aconcagua if such a thing exists. We were scheduled for starting that morning at different times, so we agreed to meet up at the first overnight stop. On the way to the trailhead we stopped by a giant natural stone bridge in Puente del Inca (see previous blog pic) that was quite amazing and a fun start to the morning. To start the trek you must first check in with the ranger station with your permit. From the trailhead (see first pic) looking towards Aconcagua you could see the top of it cloud covered in a nasty white cloud known here as Viento Blanco (white cloud), which indicates the jet stream dipping down and blowing over the summit. This obviously means nasty winds and weather, but only among the summit, because the rest of the area was beautiful and sunny. I made the expected 4-5 hour trek in only 2 hours, which really made for a short day. My first stop on this approach would be a camp named Confluencia. Once you arrive you must again check in with another ranger station, and be evaluated by a physician at the medical post. Included with your permit are these manditory medical evaluations as you gain altitude, which consist of a basic set of vitals including pulse oximetery, and a brief subjective exam. The permit also pays for you to be medical-evacuated by helicoptor or ambulance, and your rescue should an emergency happen, which is a pretty good deal really. That night it rained, which really kind of put a damper on moral, but what can you do. I was invited to particpate in a ¨ritual¨at the camp, that involves first pooring some wine into a big bowl, then dumping some of it onto the ground as to give back to the earth what it has given us (note that they were extra careful that the earth didn´t over indulge), then passing it around a big circle for all to drink while chanting some spanish phrases, that I have no idea to their meaning. It´s supposed to bring good luck.

The next morning starting off nice with great weather and Mario and I left camp at 10:00 with plans of reaching base camp. This and the summit day are supposed to be the two most difficult days of the whole climb. It is suggested the trek will take 8 hours minimum. I will describe this very long, somewhat miserable day in two parts. The first being the long walk up the Horcones Valley, which is a dry, hot, dusty valley that seems to go on for ever with no end in sight (see pic below). I may chalk this up as the most monotonous thing I have ever done. The second part would be where you begin to actually climb and gain some elevation, which was more difficult and much colder, but a nice change of pace so I´ll take it. While ascending the trail you have to be careful for mule trains that come rushing down the track at five times the speed of the yacks in Nepal, and can easly run you off the trail if you are caught off guard. Finally, I reached basecamp after 6 hours and 45 minutes...a bit ahead of schedule as opposed to the 8 hour schedule. All in all the approach to basecamp covered 16 miles with a 5,000 ft elevation gain, with a 50 lb pack. Basecamp is called Plaza de Mulas and sits at just over 14,000 ft. Needless to say I felt tired, but no signs of altitude sicknes, and overall feeling pretty well. I had to check in here with the rangers and recieve another medical eval, and also was registered my ¨bag for sheet¨or in other words fecal matter for camps higher than basecamp where there are no toilettes. Big fines are given if you don´t return the ¨sheet bag¨when you return from climbing. Basecamp is a very commercial gathering, that is also very overpriced, however you have access to just about any amenity you could think of (Internet, phones, meals, showers, beds, bars....yep you name it). Quite luxerious for being so isolated and only trail accessable. There were even bongo drums playing up until about midnight, which was a nice reminder that I forgot to bring earplugs...something I normally pack. Being so commercial, you are assigned a place to camp that is with your mule company, which also allows you use of their water, toilette, and mess tents. Mario decided to make camp half way between Confluentia and Base Camp, as we each kept our own pace on the approach, and I would meet up with him the next day.

My first full day in basecamp will be a rest day because of the altitude and long previous day. I walked over to a place called Hotel Refugio, which is a lodge style building with dorm rooms, a restaurant, and internet, which is where I´m writing you from. Kind of funny when you think about it, a hotel that you must walk 2-3 days in order to stay at. Makes you wonder if the employees walk to work. I took advantage of the showers they offer here for 10 dollars. Seems a little taboo for such an event, but it was much needed, and well deserved I thought. I havent slept well since being in Argentina due to time change, temperature (hot/cold), noise, elevation etc... but I´m not sore at all from yesterdays trek, and feel pretty energetic. I do have some bruising around the hips from my pack but muc to be expected. Mario showed up later today with some blisters bothering him. We have a few differing oppinions about the climbing plan, but time will tell as we come closer to a summit, and for now it´s nice to have some company and somebody to hold accountable, more importantly, as we get to higher camps. At basecamp, nobody begins to stir until at least 9 or 10 in the morning when the sun begins to heat up your tent. During the day it is sunny and would almost go as far as to say hot. It makes laying around acclimating quite nice...almost like I´m on vacation or something haha.

Today (day 3) I carried my first load of food and fuel etc... up to my first high camp (Camp Canada) at just over 16,000 ft. Made the haul in 2 hours and stayed there to acclimate for an hour or so. Still no headaches or any other signs of altitude sickness, other than moving a bit slower than normal. The Spot locator beacon I have been carrying has sent out 3 locations so far (camp confluentia, basecamp, and high camp 1) for those following. Ok, I really don´t think you will hear from me again until I´m finished climbing, even though I´ve said it before I know. Tomorrow will be my first night in high camp, as I will pack and move the rest of my gear up to stay. My climbing plan so far...to keep putting one foot in front of the other until I get to where I´m going....seems to be working. Take care all, and if this blog doesn´t make any sense at all (spelling, grammer, etc..), well I´ll blame it on the altitude, and the fact that I´m in a hurry because the internet is 20 dollars an hour here and I´m cheap!

Chao

Aconcagua Mañana

I am currently in Los Penitentes (see pic), where I packed all my bags with the mule carriers, and will head out tomorrow for the trail head. With all my gear I decided to take a private vehicle here rather than the bus, which was a bit more pricey, but worth it after seeing how slow they go when we passed several of them (could have also been because I was riding with Argentine version of Dale Earnheart in a Honda as we made the expected 3 hour trip in an hour and a half). Transportation is always an adventure in other places. The landsape is much similair to the desert in parts of Arizona with Ginormous Alpine peaks coming out of the valleys. There isn´t a tree one that grows here and it´s hot and dry. It will take me two days to get to base camp where my gear will be taken to by the mule. The excitement of actually climbing has finally hit me and I´m finished with most of the little details that take up a lot of time and energy. I´m off to enjoy the last bit of luxury I´ll be having for a while with a meal and a nice bed. I´m guessing the expedition will take anywhere from 12 to 18 days depending on my health with the altitude, and the weather most importantly, which can have some brutal moments on Aconcagua as I understand. I will talk to you then.

Puenta del Inca natural stone bridge in pic above

Busy Work

Independencia Plaza in front of hostel


Well I´ve been finalizing some of my plans here in Mendoza, and it´s actually been a rather productive day. My luggage finally arrived last night at about 1030 pm, as I´m learning that Argentine time is much similair to Mexican time, where 8 o clock means, well around 8, and maybe 9 or 10, or pretty much whenever they get around to it, which is okay by me as I´m in no hurry. The beauty of that is the traditional ciesta that takes place from 1 in the afternoon until about 5 where I´m not kidding you almost everything shuts down. Even better yet is the fact that dinner begins to kick off around seven or eight, but carries on to the early hours of the morning, which is right up my alley as anybody that knows me would agree. No prolem finding a midnight snack around here! The city is a clean city with side walk cafes spread throughout and designed as a grid system which makes finding your way very easy. The area is known for it´s wine, which I´m not really into unlike everybody else here, but I may have to try out the bike and winery tour when I get back, because it´s supposed to be some of the world´s finest. The people here have all been very friendly and helpful, even with my minimal spanish. Many of the men here sport a look as I´m calling a ¨mull-hawk¨, a mowhawk top that kind of grows into a mullet in the back....rad! As for the ladies, (you know I wouldn´t leave them out) well, they are in my opinion some of the most beautiful in the world, which is already well known, but I had to find out for myself. Could be that I´m partial to brunettes with dark skin, but seriously fellas (single ones of course) put this place on the itinerary. On another note, back to that whole productivity thing, I have arranged all my transportation to the Mtn, the mule, an overnight stay before hitting the trail, purchased some white gas to fuel my stove, and most importantly jumped through all the hoops of getting a permit for climbing, which is a story in itself. In order to obtain a climbing permit you must first visit the tourist office, where they give you a card that you must then take to a seperate business to pay for it, where they only take cash and a permit is nearly 500 dollars. Not a suprise, but the atm only allows 300 to be withdrawn in a day, and I had to find a currency exchange to convert some of the cash I brought. After paying for the permit, you then take the reciept back to the tourist office and fill out an application form for the permit and wait there while they process it. The only thing left on my ¨to do¨list is shopping for a few fresh items to pack with me so I´m not living on freeze dried meals alone for the next 2 to 3 weeks, and pick up some T.P., the most essential of items! I am planning on leaving tomorrow morning to a little village called Penetentes, where I´ll spend my last night in a bed at the only lodging there before I begin climbing. The elevation is also a little higher than here and will be a good start for acclimating. Rumor has it there´s internet there, but not sure when the next time I´ll be posting a blog...likely till the end of the climb. Once on the mountain I will be adopting the ¨cash and carry¨system for acclimating. It is a system in which you carry half of your load up to a higher camp to cache it, and then return to a lower camp to sleep at a lower elevation. The following day or two you will then move the rest of your camp up to the goods at the higher camp, and this pattern continues in steps throughout the climb. It allows you to move gear in managable loads to higher camps and uses the ¨climb high, sleep low¨theory for acclimating. For anybody interested, I will be carrying a Spot personal locator beacon, which allows for online tracking, and also emergency tracking if necessary. I will post the website to view on google maps below. It only marks the location when I activate the tracking and depends on a good signal much like a gps, so no guarantees on the amount of tracking. Until next time....I will be hoping for good weather and getting back to you with post climb info.

Take care

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0tlxHhzVFAnrAbaqhydrn3fMJJeiganPZ

Hola Mendoza

Midnight in Mendoza....dinner time


So I have arrived safely in Mendoza after several long but very smooth flights. I had a whole row to myself on both flights from Seattle to Dallas and the overnighter to Santiago which made sleeping and relaxing very nice. I also caught an early flight from Santiago to Mendoza which was supposed to be an 8 hour layover and got here at 11 AM rather than late this evening. If all this sounds too good to be true, well that´s because it is hah. Both my checked luggage bags are still in Santiago as they didn´t get trasfered to my newer flight, so here I await their arrival at my hostel where they are ¨supposed¨to be delivered. The funny thing is I don´t think that this is a rare occurance by any means, because almost every person I went through customs with was also joining me at the lost luggage counter, so I guess misery loves company (not that I´m miserable). Anybody looking for future airline suggestions, a note that LAN Airlines does not come very highly recommended by myself. So all and all things are great here in Mendoza, weather is beautiful (sunny and 90 degrees) for all you folks burried in the snow at home. It seems that prices are very affordable and I´m staying at a great hostel for 10 bucks a night. I´m off to try out some local cuisine and perhaps a ciesta.

40 Days and 40 Nights

Appropriately named after the amount of time I will be gone, I will be departing Jan 13th due South on a two day journey of airport hopping with a final destination of Mendoza, Argentina (South America). Once in Argentina I will be attempting to reach the summit of a 22,841 ft. mountain called Aconcagua, located in the Andes Mountain Range. It is the tallest mountain outside of Asia and the highest point in both the southern and western hemisphere. This will be my first attempt at one of the "Seven Summits" I have set out to climb. Not to make light of a very tall, cold, and steep mountain covered with rock scree, snow, and ice fields, but I will be attempting the Normal Route on the mountain, which is a non-technical route meaning; I will not need the support of a rope or other technical hardware used for climbing vertical rock pitches, steep ice slopes, and crevasses. I have chosen to take on the challenge of organizing the entire expedition myself, which entails pre-trip logistical planning, the learning of some rudimentary Spanish, the hiring of a mule in Mendoza for transporting some of my gear to basecamp, acquiring a climbing permit, arranging transportation to the Aconcagua National Park, carrying loads of equipment and food, establishing camps on the mountain, cooking, finding water, staying warm, acclimating, passing time, and most importantly summiting! I've spent a lot of time the last few months preparing for this trip both physically and mentally. My physical conditioning has consisted of mountain biking, skiing, working out, running, and a countless number of trips up the local Canfield Mt. so I'm excited to see how it all pays off. I've been eating like crazy trying to pack on a few extra lb's to make up for what will be lost from training and being at high altitude for an extended period of time, where your caloric expenditure from climbing and keeping warm far exceeds your intake. At altitude one of your body's adaptive responses is a decreased metabolism, which in turn creates a loss of appetite, making it very difficult to eat the amount of calories you are actually needing (perhaps a solution to America's weight loss problem ????). This I learned first hand after last year's expedition in Nepal when I came back looking like Starvin Marvin. I've also spent a lot of extra time at work as I usually do this time of year acquiring shift trades with other employees and doing trip research, so I'm definitely ready for what I'd like to call an active vacation, seeing as how the idea of sitting on a beach doing nothing doesn't really appeal to me as an exciting vacation. However, on that note, I will have a few weeks of downtime post my adventure on the mountain that will be spent exploring parts of Argentina and Chile, and just may happen to involve some beach combing and sampling of local drinks! Steak, wine, and tango as notably Argentina is known for....sounds OK to me. As for now it's back to organizing my gear, food, and plans before I depart, and finishing out the last few days of work. Until then please standby as I will try my best to keep the blog updated through out the trip...pending internet access of course.