After another night with fitful spells of sleep we awoke to a calmer but even colder morning. I had spent a good portion of the night working to keep my feet warm. Before going to bed I had gone out in my down booties, as I had several times before, but this time the snow made them wet. This meant my feet started off fairly cold when we laid down for the night. However, when we awoke in the morning I realized I was fairing better than my tentmates. With the condensation and snow making its way into the tent Mark’s sleeping bag had started to get damp. Even worse, Peter’s bag was actually very wet in places. He had been really cold from the waist down for the whole night.
Our guide Mark came around to each tent sharing the plan for the day. Option 2 had won out: we would aim to climb to High Camp, grab our gear and descend. There was only one crux to his plan. He was concerned the trail would be covered in snow and ice from the storm and therefore might require crampons and an ice axe. Everyone on the expedition had brought this mandatory gear but we didn’t have it with us at Chopper Camp. When the weather was better several days earlier and we had a carry day everyone decided to cache the crampons and ice axes at High Camp. If the route was impassable without the gear we’d have to retrace our steps so Mark sent Tobias up to High Camp to scout the route.

Meanwhile at Camp 2, Marcela made pancakes and we all worked together to take down the tents. Normally the people staying in a tent would take the tent down on their own but with such high winds we needed more people to ensure the tent didn’t blow away as we removed the rocks and disassembled poles. Each tent we took down showed significant signs of wear from the storm. Every tent had snapped guy lines and several had vestibules which were ripped. One tent even had a bent pole.

The storm had taken a severe toll on us as well as our gear. Almost everyone seemed to be moving a bit slower. Some of this was from knowing with this wind even though the snow had stopped our chances to attempt the summit were minuscule. But we were all looking worse for wear and could feel how our fitness had deteriorated as we sat in the tent. Krzysztof was the one member of the team vocally asking Mark if we might not be able to stay at Camp 3 instead of heading directly down to Plaza de Mulas. Mark continually responded he was “99.99% sure” we were heading down today.  Unless it was absolutely calm by the time we climbed to Camp 3 there wasn’t a chance of sleeping there. You can see in this picture how the wind continues to blow all the loose snow off the summit. I knew even the 0.001% chance Mark was giving us was being generous.
By the time we packed the tents and our personal gear it was already noon and Tobias had returned confirming the route was navigable without any special gear. It felt late to be heading up the mountain and the storm was still blowing but going up and then heading back down was going to be the quickest way off the mountain. As usual, Mark set off leading us up the mountain while Tobias and Marcela remained behind to pack the remaining gear.

We were less than 15 minutes into the day’s climb when Jim shouted up to me that Mark, the climber from Hawaii, had turned around and headed back down the mountain. He didn’t have the strength to continue. I relayed the message up the mountain to our guide Mark and he came down to speak with Mark directly. Only a few minutes later Mark signaled for all of us to turn around and return to where Tobias and Marcela had almost finished packing. As we came down a small group of Belgians, who had setup camp not far from us, was proceeding up the mountain. They looked even more beat up and were proceeding slower than our team.

Mark was feeling too weak to continue up the mountain. Even if we split his gear amongst us to make it easier we would be moving too slowly and would have a long day of exposure to the storm and arrive at Plaza de Mulas after dark. Dividing the team in two was not an option. Mark decided we would return to Los Penitentes via the longer route of retracing our footsteps back through Plaza Argentina.

In 18 years of guiding Aconcagua with over 100 expeditions, Aventuras Patagonicas had only failed to have a group make the traverse over the mountain once and that was earlier this season. We would become the second group and the protocol was not well known. Mark called Rodrigo in Santiago to give him the news and organize the logistics. There were still base camp services at Plaza Argentina for a few days which was important because we were now out of group food.

After hanging up with Rodrigo we had to deal with the next issue. We had a 40km hike out from Plaza Argentina to Los Penitentes mainly through high but very warm plains along the river. Most of us, including the guides, had stashed our comfortable footwear at High Camp on the carry. So now all we had available to wear were our extremely heavy (mine weigh almost 6lbs for the pair) and warm mountaineering boots or down booties. Hiking out in the former would be extremely uncomfortable and the latter would almost be impossible.

Just as unhappy as we were with the prospect of being stuck in his mountaineering boots for three days Mark gave the contents of his backpack to Marcela and Tobias and prepared to head up to High Camp. We had about 90kg (198 lbs) of gear stashed high which Mark would not be able to carry down alone. But he was going to climb up, rummage through all the bags and stuff sacks and return with everyone’s shoes. In the evening we would radio for porters from the Plaza de Mulas side of the mountain to retrieve the remaining gear and hopefully it would make it back to Los Penitentes about the same time we did.

As we regrouped I took the opportunity to take two pictures I had hoped to take on the summit:

The mood was glum as Marcela and Tobias led the group down the mountain and Mark ascended into the dark and windy tempest on the summit. As we descended the team broke naturally into two groups moving at different speeds. I felt okay but was extremely tired and spent time moving back and forth between both groups. At one point just after a very narrow scree and ice bridge crossing a crevasse the slower group was no where to be seen when I looked back. I slowed up to wait for them and when I still didn’t see them after a few minutes I turned around to make sure everything was okay. When I encountered them everything was okay but they were moving slowly. Bev was now feeling very weak as well. Marcela told me I could not bounce between groups and I needed to pick one and stick with that pace. I was in no rush to get to the bottom so I decided to finish the day with Marcela. As the day wore on the sky grew darker and we lost the normal path through the moraine. There are hundreds of paths up the glacier and across the moraine and we were on one of those paths but it had a lot of climbing up and down through the scree. This was only tiring Bev and Mark more. We split some of the contents of Bev’s pack between Marcela, Kori and me and pressed on.

We made it in to Plaza de Argentina Base Camp but it looked much different. The mess tent where we had eaten only a few days earlier was gone. Any structure still at the camp was in the process of being disassembled and taken out for the season.  It was beginning to look like a ghost town as opposed to the bustling Base Camp of 10 days ago.

The other half of our team was already in the new makeshift storage/mess tent and hot tea was waiting for us after a very long day. It wasn’t long after we got in when Mark arrived with our shoes. He said the storm was blowing incredibly hard at Camp 3. He had only spent enough time there to go through the bags and collect all the shoes he could find, cover the bags in rocks again to keep it from blowing away and then headed straight back down. When he was coming down he saw the group of Belgians and they were about halfway to High Camp and were moving quite slowly. Everyone else he saw around High Camp was retreating to lower down the mountain. Mark distributed all the shoes he had fetched but it turned out Peter’s boots had been missed and were still at the top of the mountain. His exit off the mountain was not going to get any more comfortable as he’d continue to sleep in a damp sleeping bag at night and would have to endure hiking in mountaineering boots during the day.

For dinner we each had a huge plate of jambalaya. Even the people who asked for half portions weren’t able to clean their plates. The Base Camp crew was trying to use up all the remaining supplies. It was the kind of big and filling meal we needed after so many days in a tent and a long trudge down the mountain.

Now that we were in the relative safety of Base Camp the conversation turned to all the rumors we heard while on the mountain. Rumor had it even now at Base Camp there were some serious frostbite injuries. We started to ask the guides for details. It turns out there were several teams who started up the mountain after us but they turned around at Camp 1. Other than the Belgians and the the team of two Brits we were the only expedition to make it to Camp 2 in the period around the storm. We had waited it out much longer than any of the other groups before coming down. Most of the other expeditions had some sort of minor cold injury (frostnip or frostbite) and a few had major cases in which fingers or toes would be lost.

The rumors about a body being pulled off the mountain in the helicopter were indeed true although the details were still coming to light. It was known that a relatively inexperienced young man and his mother were on the mountain with a guide who had successfully led trips to climb 7,000m and 8,000m peaks in the Himalayas. As they were climbing the mother started to develop signs of altitude sickness and the guide insisted they turn around. That evening the mother was feeling better but was still in critical condition and with the guide focusing on the mother’s health he failed to catch signs of HACE in the son. HACE is often characterized by strange and irrational behavior as fluid builds up and presses on the brain. That night, without the guide’s knowledge the son left his tent and decided to try and summit on his own in a fit of delusion brought on by the HACE. The guide couldn’t find the son in the morning and focused on getting the mother down to safety and radioed for others to search for the son. A few days later a guide on another expedition came across the body of the son and thus the early morning helicopter evac to remove a corpse as well as the frostbite victims was set underway. We all finished our desserts of flan with raisins (complete with seeds) and dulce de leche realizing we had been very lucky to have some experienced and knowledgeable guides leading our team and fortunate to not have had any altitude or cold related incidents.

After dinner everyone in our group except for my tentmates, Peter and Mark, and me decided to sleep in the mess tent. We opted to set up and sleep in our tent. After a long conversation in the tent about world travels we drifted off to sleep. The wind seemed like it was hardly blowing in comparison to what we had endured over previous days and we slept through the entire night.

Plaza Argentina Base Camp to Pampa de Lenas

When we went to take the tent down after breakfast we were shocked to discover the fly of our tent was ripped in several places. Upon closer investigation we found one of the poles on our tent had bent in half and another was cracking. The weather the previous night had been quite calm, much like we had experienced at Base Camp on the way up the mountain. Our guide Mark explained the tent had taken a beating up high and it didn’t take much to push it over the edge. Seeing our shelter in such sorry shape made me thankful we hadn’t proceeded on to High Camp. The tent never would have survived the wind and the consequences of losing or having a severely damaged shelter could have been quite severe.

We all put on our hiking shoes very thankful Mark had retrieved them from High Camp. One of the porters at Base Camp had heard about Peter’s predicament and loaned him a spare pair of trail running shoes. They were a bit of a tight fit but a much better option than the mountaineering boots and Peter happily used them.

From Base Camp our guides had radioed the arrieros to return with a mule train and pick up our bags so we could travel as lightly as possible. The arrieros had left a few days before to head back to Los Penitentes with our mule bags full of gear we had left at Base Camp meaning we were all left only with what we had high on the mountain. We looked like a pretty ragged bunch as we walked down the mountain.  Some of us had makeshift backpacks made from stuff sacks and we were all wearing the bare minimum of our cold weather gear we’d had at Camp 2 trying to stay cool yet remain protected from the sun.  Everything we had planned to hike out in was still in our High Camp cache.

Since we were out of food Mark had ordered an asado at Pampa de Lenas when he radioed the arrieros. After hiking a solid 25-30kms we arrived at camp happy to see the arrieros preparing the fire for a feast. No one had told the arrieros we had not made the summit. Assuming we had they brought boxes of wine and some bottles of champagne to celebrate. They also had the fixings for two different kinds of salads. Fresh produce was a wonderful treat after having lived on rehydrated foods for so long.

As the night wore on we got to be friends with the arrieros and they served us directly from their huge gaucho knifes. In contrast to our asado on the way up the mountain the meat this time was tender and delicious. We devoured everything they cooked and as most of the people wandered off to bed I sat down with the arrieros along with our guide Marcela and Krzysztof and enjoyed a mate.

Drinking mate is a very Argentinean custom. The act of drinking mate is very social and has many subtle nuances and unwritten rules. Yerba mate is an herb grown in the country and the basis of the drink. It seems every Argentinean citizen has their own mate gourd for holding mate, a bombilla which is similar to a soda fountain straw but made from metal through which it is drunk and a thermos for hot water. Yerba mate is typically very bitter so sugar is often added to take the edge off. The server is responsible for packing mate in the gourd and refilling the gourd with sugar and hot water after each person drinks. When the gourd is handed to you it is important to not touch the bombilla, not take too long to drink the mate and very importantly to completely finish the mate you were served. Saying “Gracias” when you are done drinking signals the person pouring you are done and do not wish to partake any longer. This is important because the server is responsible for keeping the drinking order the same as people join and leave the rotation. As you travel the country you constantly see small groups of people drinking mate or people walking around the streets with a thermos and their gourd. You can stop in almost any restaurant, kiosk or gas station and request water for mate and almost immediately receive water heated to the appropriate, not quite boiling, temperature.

Shortly after midnight our mate session ended and I headed off to bed. It was a clear night and a wonderful temperature. I was starting to go stir crazy from so many nights in the tent so I pulled my sleeping bag and pad from the tent and setup for a night of “cowboy camping” in the open air under the stars. While I was ready to get back to civilization and a hot shower I wasn’t quite ready for the expedition to end. In less than 12 hours I’d be back at the hotel getting cleaned up and I wanted to enjoy every last minute I had in the mountains surrounding Aconcagua.

Pampa de Lenas to Los Penitentes

It was a short hike out to the road the next morning. A mini van and a Land Rover Defender were waiting there to take us back to the hotel. The drivers had freshly sliced watermelon which was delicious on such a hot day. Upon arriving back at the hotel we took our first coordinated group picture of the expedition. We were all tired and anxious to get cleaned up so after grabbing the gear we’d left at the hotel which included the essentials like clean boxers and freshly laundered, soft, non-synthetic clothes we all made a bee line for our hotel rooms. I grabbed a quick self portrait shot before I got cleaned up and you can compare before and after the expedition. I lost a little under 10 pounds while I was on the mountain.

Before and after self-portraits

However, by the time this picture was taken I think I’m already starting to recover. The pictures from the time when we were tentbound at Camp 2 are definitely when I felt and probably look the worst. I’ve received emails likening the video of me in the tent to the Blair With Project.

Los Penitentes to Mendoza

While the dinner and shower at Los Penitentes was nice we were really all anxious to make our way back to Mendoza and back to civilization. It seemed like a quick three hour ride back to the Park Hyatt the next day. I think everyone spent a little extra time under the waterfall shower savoring the luxury of warm and plentiful water and washing the last of the grime from the mountain down the drain.

That evening we had a fancy dinner planned at Francis Mallman 1884, a restaurant belonging to one of the up and coming chefs in Argentina. We drank some succulent wines and ate savory tapas and mains from a clay oven. It was great to have everyone from the expedition together one last time. Even David who had retreated from Camp 1 because of altitude sickness was able to join us. Towards the end of dinner Mark from Hawaii stood up and passed around small 12″ x 1/2″ PVC pipes to everyone. Inside was a copy of the map of Mt. Aconcagua created after the original survey of the mountain. He had received an original earlier in the year as a gift and had worked to get the color and clarity just right in reproductions he made for everyone on the team. It was a fantastic surprise and a great addition to my map collection.

Since we were in Argentina the dinner had not begun until a little after 10pm which meant it was almost 1am by the time we left the restaurant. In less than 12 hours I would be on a plane to Santiago where the next portion of my South American journey would begin by meeting Anne and we would head to Torres del Paine. My itinerary had me returning to Argentina in just a little under a month and I was looking forward to it.

I learned one more quirky little fact about the country that evening as the taxi sped back to the hotel. After we blew through the first red light I attributed it to crazy South American driving. After the second I was a bit concerned and we weren’t all the way through the intersection of third red light when I had to ask what was going on. Evidentially, stop lights become optional after midnight and again become mandatory to heed at 6am in Mendoza. It is a hold over from earlier times when the possibility of being robbed or car jacked in the middle of the night while waiting at a stop light was much higher. It was assumed to be safer if the driver of a vehicle had the option of cautiously proceeding through the intersection after making sure the way was clear. I think our driver had forgotten about the aspect of proceeding cautiously or had delusions of being a Formula 1 race car driver but we all made it back to the hotel without incident. We settled in for a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed sans sleeping bag for the first time in 18 days.

The next morning some people left extremely early. The rest of us gathered at the buffet of the Park Hyatt devouring the fresh fruit. Since a few of us were staying on traveling in South America those who were heading home brought gifts of spare Snickers bars, dried fruit, rolls of TP and other necessities we might need. It felt like Christmas as I headed back to my room with all kinds of fresh supplies. But only an hour later Yvan and I were in a car headed to the Mendoza airport. My expedition to climb Mt. Aconcagua had officially come to an end.

Aconcagua Afterword

I sent a number of postcards after I got off the mountain. On one of them I was explaining to my parents where I camped on the mountain when I realized a picture truly is worth a thousand words. So I turned the postcard over and annotated the approximate positions of the various camps. Realizing this might be beneficial for more than just my parents I asked them to scan it after it arrived in Chicago. I hope the visual helps as people read my account on the mountain.

Camp 1 is in a small saddle. There is a gully on the left which we camped in for protection from the wind. The dashed line represents our track up over the ridge to Camp 2.

Camp 2 or Chopper Camp is actually on the back side of the mountain in this picture. After our path crossed the ridge we had another 1.5 hours of hiking to get to camp.

Camp 3 or High Camp is also just slightly on the back side of the mountain and out of view. Had we had the chance to summit we would have walked around the back side of the mountain and on up to the top.

The massive glacier directly in front and to the left of High Camp is the somewhat infamous Polish Glacier which is a much more technical route. It is not climbed very frequently and when it is climbers are often out and exposed for 24 to 36 hours while climbing in the dark.

I mentioned the Belgian group which continued to proceed up the mountain as we came down. They looked very rough as we passed them on our way down and it was concerning to hear from Mark they were only half way to High Camp when he came down from fetching our shoes. Everyone in our group was interested to hear how they fared partially because we wanted to know they were safe but also honestly, because they had made the choice to continue on and I think we were looking for what the possible outcome might have been had we forged on. I found out later they made it safely to High Camp. However, the winds were blowing fiercely so they continued to traverse across the mountain to an old stone shelter. They spent the next two days in the shelter waiting for the storm to abate and when it did they had clear weather and at least some in the group successfully reached the summit.

* * *

We can always play the “what-if” game and even having this extra tidbit of information about the Belgians does not allow us to draw any clear conclusions. However, knowing the Belgians were successful it does allow us to focus on the critical factors our group would have faced had we continued:

• We were out of time and scheduled to return to Mendoza. We could have squeezed one more day into the mountain by heading straight back to Mendoza and not staying at Los Penitentes. For those returning to jobs it might have been difficult to explain if we squeezed two additional days we would have had the needed weather window.

• We were out of community food. However, most of us still had quite a bit of food in our personal stash as well as uneaten food in our lunch bags. None of it would be hot food but we did have cocoa and tea and there was plenty of fuel for melting snow for water.

• Our tents were very beat up. As I noted, my tent would have been severely damaged with a night in the winds at High Camp. Two more days would have been questionable. We did have some spare capacity in tents so maybe we could have grouped up. There was the option of waiting it out in the shelter too. However, the shelter the Belgians stayed in would not have been big enough for both groups.

• Stamina and Endurance. This is the ultimate reason many people were on the expedition in the first place, to find out if they had what was required to summit one of the highest peaks in the world. I can’t speak for anyone else in our group and while I was definitely suffering after three days in the tent I would like to think I could dig deep and had it in me to summit. Even without the bad weather this is the question which can never be answered in a hypothetical game. You can only find out how your body reacts to such extremes in temperature and altitude by attempting to make the summit.

While this makes for interesting discussion over a beer and I can list what I consider to be our successes:

• We set ourselves up for success and made a solid attempt to get to the summit.

• We were safe and avoided the injuries and deaths experienced by other groups.

• We stayed on the mountain longer than most other groups.

• We learned a lot about high altitude mountaineering and ourselves.

The bottom line is we did not reach our goal: standing at 6,962m (22,841 ft) on the summit of Mt. Aconcagua. I have no doubt some of members of our expedition will be back in the next year or two to try again. In response to all the people who have asked me if I’m going to try again all I can answer is: I haven’t yet decided.

The wind kept blowing through the night but finally started to abate at dawn. I slept much better in part because the tent was more spacious with David having headed back to Base Camp but also because my body was acclimatizing. My plan was to take today’s move at a slower but steady pace and pay close attention to how I felt. There would not be any rest days for the duration of the expedition because your body is unable to rest at the altitudes of Camps 2 and 3 due to the lack of oxygen. You end up losing fitness and beginning to atrophy by just sitting around at those heights.

After packing up we settled down to another breakfast of Argentinean style oatmeal and raisins with seeds. I’m not normally a picky eater but it just didn’t appeal to me. I still had an appetite, which was a good sign, just not for this bland substance we could have used as mortar for the rock walls protecting our tent. During breakfast Tobias and Marcela handed out lunch bags. Above base camp we no longer had group lunches. Each climber was given a bag full of various items like crackers, a wheel of cheese, a sausage stick, granola bars, Oreo cookies, hard candies, and nuts along with Tang and other drink mixes. The idea was to graze all day long while on the trail. We’d stop for breaks every 60-90 minutes and grab a little something to eat in an attempt to avoid lengthy stops or having to unpack and repack any of the group gear. I made it through my oatmeal, but just barely. I ended up augmenting immediately with granola bars in search of some sort of epicurean satisfaction.

Mark had again divided up the community gear and the good news was the piles were getting smaller. But the amount of personal gear we had to keep with us (down parkas and such) to remain comfortable at the higher altitude seemed to be growing so the weight we were carrying was neither a net loss or gain. As we set out I found myself in the middle of the pack carrying on a conversation with Yvan about the nuances of various tomato varieties and picking Kori’s brain for information about Portland, Oregon, her adopted hometown and where I would like to live. We reached Camp 2 sooner than expected and I felt great. Gone were the feelings of hypoxia from two days prior and while I was winded from being at 5,450m (18,000ft), I wasn’t exhausted.

Our tents at Camp 2 with the summit and Camp 3 high in the background

After our tent was setup Mark stopped by all the tents to critique our guyline technique and rock wall construction. In general our configuration was sound but there were a couple ropes Mark suggested we anchor with bigger rocks. Other than the one breezy day at Camp 1, the weather to this point had been sunny and beautiful. We were beginning to believe Mark was exaggerating about seeing climbers dive out of a tent just before it blew off the mountain.
In fact, other than David’s retreat due to altitude sickness things had gone so smoothly we were all beginning to talk as if the summit in two days was a given. Instead meals like the oatmeal caused conversation to turn to beer and pizza at Plaze de Mulas where we would be in just four days. Plaza de Mulas is the permanent Base Camp on the more popular Ruta Normal and as such has lots of amenities like cerveza, vino tinto and assorted sundries climbers begin to crave while on the mountain.

Camp 2 Day 2: Carry to Camp 3

The sky was a bit cloudy and the temperatures had definitely dropped when we awoke the next morning. I had slept very well considering we were at a higher altitude, about six hours. Sleeping high on the mountain can be difficult because of a phenomenon known as Cheyne-Stokes breathing in which you suddenly will wake from an otherwise sound sleep and not know why. With the tent again being filled to capacity and full of down I was quite happy with how much I was able to sleep.

From Camp 2 we could see the massive white rocks of Piedras Blancas at 5,950m (19,500ft). Camp 3 was located behind these rocks and was our destination for the day. During breakfast Mark again separated the common gear for the carry to Camp 3. It was so cold at Camp 2 there were very few personal items to stash. I filled a compression sack with my down pants, summit mitts, chemical hand warmers and Snickers bars to keep me going on summit day along with my warmer weather clothes and Chacos to be worn on the walk out.

The climb out of Camp 2 to Camp 3 was very steep and passed through several snow fields. We were carrying our ice axes and crampons (also known as Glacial Sandals) in hopes of leaving them in the stash at Camp 3. However, there was a very real possibility we might encounter snow or ice on the way up and have to use them. The sun never broke through the clouds and the wind started to blow as we climbed. It was time to switch to some more heavy duty gear. Along with most of the rest of the team I broke out the balaclava, ski goggles and a Gore-Tex jacket. Up to this point Icebreaker jumpers and occasionally a soft shell jacket had kept me warm and protected from the elements. Our guide Mark sat on the steep slope we were climbing watching us all bundle up. He was practically naked in a baseball hat and a pair of rappelling gloves compared to the rest of us.

The group stretched out as we hiked to Camp 3 and I was definitely tired but I felt really good. I had now climbed higher than ever before and with each step I was setting a personal best. We went through the ritual “rock party” of dumping the gear in a mound and collecting rocks to pile on top to keep it from blowing away. From this location was also the first time we could see the Northwest face of the mountain having approached and climbed on the East face up to this point. We were able to look straight down the Ruta Normal and see the congestion of the far more popular but much less scenic route.

We didn’t stay for long and everyone proceeded back to camp at their own pace. We used the “plunge-step” essentially leaning backwards and running down the steep scree and snow covered slope. It felt criminal to descend so quickly when it had been so arduous to climb. Just before reaching camp we came across the remnants of a crashed helicopter and the source of the other name Camp 2 is commonly known by, “Chopper Camp”. It was another reminder of just how thin the air is at this altitude. The blades of the helicopter had been unable to get enough bite on takeoff and had crashed into the side of the mountain.
Dinner that evening consisted of an unremarkable pasta with tuna but was filling after a hard day’s work. We had the entire camp to ourselves except for two tents belonging to a British couple and their guides. Like our team, they were planning to move to Camp 3 in the morning. We all headed to bed early hoping to catch a few hours of sleep. Outside the wind was really starting to howl again.

Camp 2 Day 3: Move to Camp 3 Weather Day 1

When I was able to sleep, I slept pretty soundly last night. Luckily it wasn’t a sense of drowning in down which made sleeping difficult. Instead it was the wind.

I’ve heard people refer to the wind as sounding like a freight train. After last night I understand the saying. We could hear the wind roaring up near the summit and would listen to it grow louder as it swept down the mountain. Then suddenly it would be upon us shaking the tent so loudly we could not hear one another speak. We now understood why Mark had double checked our ropes and rock walls. Had they not been solid I think the tent really would have blown away.

I was quite excited and a bit anxious this morning. I was looking forward to the move to High Camp (Camp 3) because it meant the following day would most likely be summit day. I went through the ritual of dressing for the cold and packing to move camp which involved deflating the Thermarest, wrestling with stuffing my lofty down sleeping bag into a tiny compression sack and then getting everything into my backpack. Last night Mark informed us the plan was to eat breakfast at 9am, take down the tents, distribute the common gear to be taken to High Camp and start hiking. Just as we were ready to leave the tent this morning to grab breakfast Mark stuck his head in with some coffee cake. He said there was a big storm blowing up above us and we would sit tight to wait and see if the weather looked better in the afternoon. If it did, we would move. Otherwise we would take a “weather day” and stay at Camp 2 for an additional night. Our itinerary had extra buffer days figured into it for just this kind of situation so none of us in the tent were really very concerned.

There hadn’t been fresh snow in a week or more and when I got out to look at the summit it was shrouded in a veil of white. The wind was strong enough to pry loose the icy hard packed snow. I was trying to stay outside the tent as long as possible to avoid going stir crazy so I talked to Mark and he estimated the wind to be blowing at 95km/h (60mph) on the summit.

We set about passing time in the tents. At Base Camp Shannon had asked me about my travels and when she heard I was going to Easter Island she immediately asked if I had read Collapse by Jared Diamond because he spends a whole chapter on the demise of the society there. I had read and enjoyed Diamond’s previous book, Guns, Germs and Steel. As I left for South America Willy had just finished reading Collapse and it took him nearly two months because Diamond can be a bit verbose and detail focused at times. I had planned to take Willy’s copy with me to read while we were riding the Great Divide this summer. On a whim as we were leaving Base Camp I had asked Shannon if I could borrow her copy to read in the evenings. She had finished it while at Base Camp and I figured the additional knowledge would make my visit to Rapa Nui (the real name of Easter Island) more interesting. Now with a whole day to burn time in a tent the decision to haul this tome up the mountain seemed to be rather serendipitous.

As the day wore on the storm was no longer only on the summit. It was starting to gust at our camp and temperatures were plummeting. The British couple had already arranged for two porters to walk up from Base Camp to assist with carrying all of their gear to High Camp. While prudence dictated waiting another day before moving, the economics of having paid more than US$700 for the porters to come up only to send them back down and to pay again to have them come up once the weather cleared caused the couple and their guide to make the decision to push on. The weather was bad but it wasn’t terrible.

The guide leading the Brits agreed to radio back to our guides that evening and the next morning to let us know how they had fared and what the weather was like at High Camp. Mark was receiving weather forecasts from Rodrigo via the expedition satellite phone but they were vague and had been wrong in the past. Getting a report from someone at High Camp would be far more accurate. Rodrigo’s forecast did say there would be a break in the weather but it also called for a second storm to blow in less than 48 hours later and it reported winds on the summit gusting to 150km/h (95mph). All we could do was sit in the tent and wait.

At dinner all the clients queued outside of the guide tent with our cups. Dinner consisted of chicken noodle soup, tomato polenta and chocolate pudding. It was pretty tasty but it was also almost the last of our food. When the weather had looked good yesterday we stashed almost all the food at High Camp leaving only enough for a day and a half at Camp 2. After this meal we would have gone through one day’s worth. At least the wind had calmed enough to eat dinner outside. Hopefully the storm would blow through and tomorrow we would be on our way to High Camp and worrying about food would have been a frivolous exercise.

Today was also Valentine’s Day. Hallmark holiday that it is, I think everyone on the expedition would have been happy to be elsewhere, out of the wind and snuggling under much different conditions. Instead we enjoyed a piece of chocolate or a Snickers bar from our lunch bags, hunkered down and tried to keep warm.

Camp 2 Day 4: Move to Camp 3 Weather Day 2

Our Mountain Hardwear Trango 3.1 tents are amazing. The wind was really blowing to beat the band all night long. Yet when morning came the tent was still standing and protecting us from the wind and the storm outside. At times last night it felt like the tent was laying flat as an amalgamation of nylon and aluminum tent poles would press against my face causing me to creep deeper into my sleeping bag.
It had started to snow at sunset and when we got out in the middle of the night all sorts of snow blew into the tent. The climbers in other tents had started using pee bottles at night even before we reached Base Camp. Mark and I had always thought it was a nice opportunity to get outside of the tent and take in the stars. It was mesmerizing to see Orion standing upside down and spotting the Southern Cross is a novelty for those of us from the Northern Hemisphere. But after having to shovel snow out of the vestibule and surviving the wind late night stargazing would come to an end.

It was a very long night. It seemed like the world’s longest freight train took the entire night to pass on tracks which were six inches from our tent. To make matters worse we had a few “condensation blizzards” in the middle of the night. For those who have never camped in cold conditions before the mountaineer seeks to maintain a delicate temperature balance to avoid this phenomenon. Before going to bed each night you obviously want to zip the tent and vestibule doors closed in an effort to keep the body heat inside to stay warm. However, if you close them all the way and do not allow for fresh, and colder, air to blow through that warm air condenses on the roof of your tent. Eventually it freezes and then falls down on to your sleeping bag in the form of snow and ice. So while it seems counter-intuitive, you keep the zippers open just a bit. Determining how much “just a bit” should be really is a fine art. It changes with the temperature each night, the people in the tent and the wind outside. Last night we got it wrong. As we waited for the night to pass with our sleeping bags cinched tightly around we were taken by complete surprise when a layer of ice crystals suddenly condensed and fell from the ceiling through the tiny hole we had all left for breathing and into our faces. Last night wasn’t just a long night. It was a long and miserable night without much sleep.

In the morning there was more than a foot of snow in the vestibule and our backpacks and boots were completely covered. With three people in the tent there is not enough room for us and all the gear so each night we would grab the critical things like boot liners and bring them into the tent. Everything else was left outside to be protected by the single layer of nylon which formed the tent vestibule. I was the first person willing to head outside this morning so I shoveled the vestibule and made my way out to see how the other tents had fared. Once outside the vestibule it looked much the same as the day before. The wind was blowing too much for the snow to accumulate so I could just watch it blow over the edge of the mountain into a deep abyss beyond the cliff outside of camp. No one else was up and about in camp yet.
For breakfast we had breakfast granola bars and left over coffee cake from yesterday. We were essentially out of community food and if we were hungry had to raid our lunch bag. After breakfast Mark radioed to the Brits at High Camp. They had made it through the night but did not feel their tents would survive a second night of such a severe beating from the wind. They made the decision to abandon any summit attempts or thoughts of waiting for a better weather window and were retreating down the other side of the mountain to Plaza de Mulas. The report from the Brits only validated the forecast Mark had received from Rodrigo, this was not weather to continue climbing into and we would stay at Camp 2 for another day.

We still had a food shortage situation to be remedied. While the weather at Camp 3 was miserable it was not anything the guides had not experienced before. Mark sent Marcela and Tobias with empty backpacks and armed with crampons and ice axes up to raid the stash we had worked so hard to build two days earlier. As strong and experienced climbers they were not fazed and actually made the trip up and returned laden with supplies in a reasonably quick time. We now had enough food to make it through the remaining time available to stay at Camp 2.
Meanwhile, everyone else set about finding ways to pass the time. Some napped, others read or listened to their iPods. I had finished the chapter on Easter Island in Collapse and then some yesterday. I continued reading until mid-afternoon when I could not bear to be in the tent any longer. I told Mark and Peter I was going out for a walk they looked at my like I was crazy. For about 10 minutes I braved the storm just so I could stretch my legs. Outside it was a complete white out. Visibility was less than 100 feet. It just so happened Krzysztof was out to stretch his legs at the same time and got this picture looking at the summit. You would not even know there was anything higher up the mountain. And just as the snow started to pick up and drove us back inside he captured me walking from one side of camp to the other.
After my walk, Mark, Peter and I forced ourselves into conversation. We had been napping and reading at alternate intervals all day. Other than early in the afternoon when Tobias spent some time in the tent to play chess with Peter there had been very little discussion. I was quite interested in Peter’s position in the German Foreign Service. He gets a new assignment every three years and moves to someplace new in the world. While we were on the mountain he was expecting the decision to be made on where he would move later this summer having spent the last three years in Santiago, Chile.

Before living in Santiago Peter had spent three years in Mexico so along with a natural knack for picking up foreign languages he had time to become proficient in Spanish. As the one client who not only spoke Spanish but was quite fluent he often had the inside scoop. He had befriended Tobias and Marcela early on and could understand what was being said whether it was Spanish or English. As we exhausted talking about the duller points of our occupations the conversation again turned to things on the mountain: food (particularly what we would eat once we again reached civilization), sleep (how little we were getting yet how tired we were ironically considering how much time we were spending laying horizontal in the tent) and survival in such extreme conditions. We marveled at how early mountaineers had first summited peaks without the wonders of Gore-Tex and ultra-lightweight gear made of titanium.

That was when Peter remarked how having all the modern innovations in the world on your side still cannot guarantee a summit, or a safe return home. I commented how true that was and it reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite American mountaineers Ed Viesturs: “Getting to the top is optional. Getting home is mandatory.” Peter then shared there was at least one mountaineer on Aconcagua this season for whom that would not hold true. When the helicopter had landed at Base Camp it did take out frostbite victims but it also took out a corpse. Or at least that was what the guides had continued to discuss in Spanish at breakfast that morning as they shared with one another the bits of information they had collected from talking to others around camp.

Thinking of a body being pulled off the mountain was a bit grisly but definitely a reality in high-altitude mountaineering. One of the other realities on the mountain is rumors spread faster than a wildfire and the story changes more than a message delivered by a group of 5th graders playing telephone. So while I did not want to dismiss the information from Peter I certainly was not about to accept it as gospel truth either.

The whole afternoon began to blend with the evening and the night only to be interrupted by a delivery of dinner to our door. The weather had now turned so bad and the cooking was going so slowly the guides were making smaller batches and bringing them to each tent individually so the food would be hot. This was also when we learned our water source had frozen. For the entire trip we pulled water straight from streams on the mountain. Even at this altitude there had been a rivulet which was frozen over but after a few blows from an ice axe we had access to fresh water flowing a just few inches below. This latest development meant we would now have to melt snow for water. This is an extremely time-consuming and inefficient process which burns through a lot of fuel. During the planning of the expedition logistics the guides had accounted for this possibility so it was not a problem but more of a demoralizer and one more thing which was not going our way.

Camp 2 Day 5: Move to Camp 3 Weather Day 3

Slept very poorly last night. I had been in a tent, in a sleeping bag, laying horizontal for far too long at this point. I have a difficult time sitting still through an entire movie. Being sedentary this long was driving me crazy.

The barometer plummeted last night and the storm had grown worse. As a result we were a bit slow in getting moving in the morning. Mark informed everyone oatmeal would be delivered to our tents because the snow melting process was slow and the wind was so loud he could not yell over it to let us know when to come and get it. The winds gusts were increasing in strength. Mark suggested we lean against the tent walls to keep the poles from taking the full brunt of the wind in an attempt to keep poles from snapping.

As we sat and waited for oatmeal leaning against the tent walls became a full time job which required some exertion. In one sense it was a bit frightening knowing a few aluminum poles and two sheets of nylon were the only protection we had from the storm and in another it caused me to revel in amazement at the engineering which had gone into the tent. However most of all it was a bit thrilling because I finally had something to do after two and a half days in the tent!

Marcela delivered cups of tile grout oatmeal to our tent shortly after 11am and it was as unsatisfying as ever. I snacked on my cheese wheel but I had an appetite to move more than to eat. In the early afternoon the wind died down a bit so I went outside to assess the state of my world at Camp 2. During the night four of the ropes keeping my tent in place had snapped in the wind and several of the rock piles had been blown over. I looked at the huge rock we had used to anchor the main support of the tent and taking the most abuse from the wind. The rock was so big it had required both Peter and I to lift and move it a couple of feet. We had selected the rock as a joke at the time because it was so big and seemed obnoxious. Looking back it seemed incredibly fortuitous. I repaired the ropes on my tent while Yvan and Krzysztof in the tent next to me repaired theirs — every single rope on one side of the tent had snapped. Leaning against the tent to provide extra support had probably prevented poles in both of our tents from snapping.

As I crawled back in the tent I could tell the three days in a tent at altitude had started to take their toll on me. Since I didn’t have a mirror, I took a picture with the camera so I could see what I looked like in the display. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Being more focused on surviving the storm as opposed to trying to convey to others what it was like to be in it I had taken very few pictures or videos over the previous three days. I did think that afternoon to take a video you can see here. My tentmates Peter and Mark are in their bags. You can see the ice and snow from the condensation inside the tent on the sleeping bags. By this point in time the wind is actually fairly tame as the storm is winding down. I have already repaired the broken ropes so we are no longer bracing the poles. Rather, we’re just trying to pass the time. Earlier in the day I had finished Collapse just two and a half days after I started it.

That evening Mark explained our options:

1. In the morning we climb to Camp 3. If the weather is completely calm we setup camp and summit the next day if the weather holds.
2. In the morning we climb to Camp 3 and then descend to Plaza de Mulas.
3. The weather does not clear enough to move up the mountain and we retreat back down the mountain the same way we came all the way to Plaza Argentina Base Camp.

Mark had never had an expedition where no one on the team summited. However, he felt option 1 was most likely not going to happen. With more than 100 expeditions by Aventuras Patagonicas to traverse the mountain option three had only occurred one time and it was earlier this season. The odds favored option 2 which unfortunately did not even include a summit attempt but the group was feeling beat up at this point and even the die hards amongst us had a bit in them which just wanted to get off the mountain and get home.

After setting up our tents we gathered in the mess tent which is a somewhat permanent structure at Plaza Argentina. It stays erected for the entire climbing season. We gathered for tea and dinner and Mark explained the plan for the next few days. We would spend four nights at base camp and then evaluate how the group was doing. The first and third days would be rest days to aid in acclimatization. We were expected to go for a hike and do some exercise to elevate our heart rate for at least an hour but on those days the rest of the time was ours to prepare as we saw fit.

The second day was to be a “carry day” and Mark went into more detail on our approach to climbing the mountain. Many people are familiar with Alpine-style climbing from reading about Reinhold Messner. He made the approach popular in the 70′s after becoming the first person to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. We would attack the summit expedition-style where you slowly move up the mountain establishing several longer term camps in a series of carry and move days. We would first ferry supplies up to a higher camp and stash them under rocks until we moved and established camp at that location at a later date. Because you are consuming fuel, food and other supplies as you go each carry day should theoretically involve carrying a lighter load than the previous day. Move days would tend to get more difficult the higher we went because there are fewer items you can do without as you get move up the mountain.

We all understood the carry to Camp 1 was going to be one of the most difficult days of the entire expedition, possibly only second to the effort which would be required on summit day. Understandably, everyone was a bit nervous with anticipation and wonder as we would soon find out how conditioned we were and how we stacked up to others on the team. The full-time cooking crew soon took our minds off this as they arrived with two rounds of soup, a monstrous meat and rice dish and dessert.

Base Camp Day 1: Rest Day

We awoke to the sound of a helicopter early this morning. I crawled out of the tent to see what might prompt such a commotion so early in the morning. I saw some people get in and the helicopter took off only to return a few minutes later. On the second trip you could hear the engine straining as a cargo net full of refuse and supplies was hauled out. When the helicopter returned for a third time toting away another full cargo net my curiosity wore off and I crawled back into my sleeping bag waiting for 9:00 to roll around when the sun would be shining and breakfast would be served.

When we finished eating everyone set about their own business. Some people did laundry and others headed off for a day hike. The guides all carried fuel and other gear to Camp 1 in an effort to reduce the loads we would have to carry the next day. One of the other clients on the trip, Jim, decided to help the guides. He was coming off ansuccessful summit attempt on Cho Oyo, an 8,000m peak in Nepal so he was well acclimatized. Later in the trip I would learn he was using Aconcagua as training because he was set to attempt Everest in May.

While everyone was busy running about camp I tried to relax in the morning by napping and taking pictures. The picture at the left is the view of the summit from the vestibule of my tent. You can see the moon setting over the Polish Glacier if you look closely. My head was feeling better today but I still was not 100%. After lunch I headed up the mountain in the direction of Camp 1 with my tentmate Mark and Jim’s wife Shannon. The trail to Camp 1 was easily identifiable but it was steep and had portions primarily consisting of scree making for a “two steps forward, one step back” kind of hike.

In an hour, with only our lightweight day-packs we managed to hike to a penitentes field. Early in the season these beautiful spike shaped snow formations are a bane to climbers because they are difficult to get through with a big backpack. Contrary to how they may look, they are incredibly strong often withstanding assault from a heavy mountaineering boot or ice axe. This late in the season the penitentes were smaller, a bit dirty and luckily for us a path had been blazed through and around them so they were not an issue. After the obligatory photos we returned to base camp about 40 minutes later. We learned the guides had carried full loads to Camp 1 and returned in about 3.5 hours making our hike seem like a meager effort.
Base Camp Day 2: Carry to Camp 1

After breakfast we exited the mess tent and Mark had divided all the common gear such as stoves, fuel and food, which everyone on the team shared, into fourteen, roughly even piles. We each grabbed a pile and put it in our pack along with any personal gear we didn’t need at Base Camp such as the heavy down pants, summit mitts and chemical hand warmers. A few minutes later we were headed off to Camp 1.

We took three breaks between Base Camp and Camp 1 including one which was a bit longer so we could eat lunch. But when it was all said and done it took us almost five hours to make the climb and the descent took approximately two hours. It was an incredibly tough day. Between the heavy packs, the last portion of the climb which seemed like it was straight up and the altitude everyone was beat by the time we sat down for tea in the mess tent. (The picture at the right shows the last half of the climb, the flattish area in the top left quadrant is where Camp 1 is located and the slope leading up to it is steep and nothing but very loose scree.) I felt fine with the altitude and I had been able to hang with the lead pack for the whole day but I was beginning to wonder if I had the strength and endurance to make it to the summit. Every step of the way I could only think “I should have trained more — the marathon wasn’t enough.”

Base Camp Day 3: Rest Day

After breakfast I headed out for another acclimatization hike with Mark, Kori and Bev. On the way back I noticed what looked to be a huge football pitch marked off with rocks. I joked to Mark about having a pickup game at 4,200m and then broke off from the group to clean up and do some laundry in the clean but freezing water from one of the nearby streams.

On my way back to camp a huge contingent of people from our expedition, other expeditions and some of the full time base camp staff were marching out towards me. It turns out Mark had mentioned the idea of a football game in passing and as word spread it just so happened there was a ball and the ground was set for an Argentina vs. the world match-up. We chose to make a smaller field than the full-sized one I had seen which turned out to be necessary. Most of us wouldn’t have been able to handle running a regulation field at this altitude. It was a beautiful setting for a game and we had a great time. In two games Argentina beat the challengers from the rest of the world both times, 3-1 and 7-0. We showed up to dinner ravenous and realized how incongruous the idea of playing soccer at Aconcagua base camp was with the notion of a “rest day”.

Camp 1 Day 1: Move up from Base Camp

We were all quite excited to be leaving Base Camp. The final logistical matter to take care of before making the move was determining the tent configurations for camps higher up the mountain. Since we had mule support through Base Camp we had brought extra tents and had not been filling any of them to capacity. In a strange foreshadowing of what was to come Mark told us that we’d spend enough time stuffed into tents so we should enjoy the luxury. There was one three person tent which only had one person sleeping in it.

We would need to consolidate and fill tents to maximum capacity higher up the mountain for two reasons:

• Less weight to carry. Mountaineering tents are heavy. We were using Mountain Hardwear Trango 3.1 tents which with guylines and all weigh in at over 5.5kgs/12lbs a piece. They divide up nicely amongst three people: poles, tent and fly all almost of equal weight.
• Warmth. While it might be a tight fit the body heat generated by three people in a three person tent is noticeable compared to just two people in that same tent. We all had sleeping bags rated to at least -29C/-20F but at the higher camps we were going to more than willing to trade the luxury of space for warmth.

On some expeditions determining sleeping configurations could be a troublesome task but luckily it went smoothly on ours. Mark and I decided we’d stay together since we got along well and Jim and Shannon wanted to stay together since they were married. So we approached Peter, who is a German living in Santiago and working for the German Foreign Service and his tentmate David, who is a South African working as a logistics manager for a mine. Shannon and Mark let them know we’d each adopt one of them and let them decide amongst themselves who would move where. David ended up moving in with Mark and I. This left the only other twosome, Yvan, a French Canadian greenhouse seed salesman, and Krzysztof, a Polish immigrant working as a general contractor now living in the Chicago suburbs to move in with Keith, a computer programmer from Scotland.

After breakfast we all packed up our tents, personal gear and the remaining community gear and headed off. From here on we would be self sufficient without the services of a permanent Base Camp service to rely on. It was a very long day but we moved at a significantly faster pace than we had on the carry day and were setting up camp four hours after we left.

The one troubling matter was that my new tentmate David who had not felt very well on the carry day was still feeling the effects of altitude. He hadn’t slept in two days and was feeling weak. He was able to hire a porter to carry his bag to high camp but we were all concerned because if he didn’t start to acclimatize and get some sleep in the next day it could mean the end of his expedition before we really even got started.

Camp 1 was in a position on the mountain which was more exposed than Base Camp so we did our best to setup in a small gully seeking some protection from the wind. But making camp still required a significant amount of time to pitch the tent because we were moving slowly and we had to build some sizable rock walls.

It had been a long day and we were all hungry. We had squash soup, burritos and Dulce de Leche Rellenos (a delicious chocolate covered sandwich cookie filled with Dulce de Leche, an Argentinean passion which I can most closely describe as caramel like). It was tasty but nothing like the food we had grown accustomed to at Base Camp. We all savored the onions, tomatoes and avocado because they would be the last fresh produce for the trip.
Camp 1 Day 2: Carry to Camp 2

Being at Camp 1 with three people cramped in a tent and stuffed in down sleeping bags a foot thick I experienced claustrophobia for the first time in my life. I spent the entire night feeling like I was drowning in down. With three people and all that down the tent felt like an oven which made it worse. David’s altitude sickness wasn’t getting any better and he did not sleep a wink for the third straight day. I think I slept for about 30 minutes and I looked pretty rough in the morning.

Luckily I still had my appetite which was a good sign and I was able to put away several servings of omelette at breakfast. I wasn’t going to let the last of the tomatoes, egg or avocado go to waste! Lack of sleep didn’t stop the activities for the day because we needed to carry the community gear and any personal gear we could live without to Camp 2. After breakfast Mark again had evenly divided gear for us to carry and this time I had hot drinks (tea, cocoa and powdered milk for 14 climbers is a lot heavier than you’d think!), fuel and water containers.

It was another long slog and about 30 minutes before we reached Camp 2 I was beginning to feel hypoxic which was similar to the sensation when you realize you’ve had one more glass of wine than you should have. At camp two we dumped the gear in a pile and then found all the big rocks we could to put on top of it. The intent was to keep it from blowing away until we were scheduled to uncover it two days later when we would move to Camp 2. Carrying 10-15kg (22-33lbs) boulders around at 18,000 feet just about took every bit of energy I had left. We took an extended break before heading down and I was still not feeling well. I was concerned my body was not going to acclimatize and was prepared to start taking Diamox as a last ditch effort as soon as I got back to Camp 1. However, the amazing thing about altitude sickness is when you start to descend, even the smallest delta makes a huge difference. Only 20 minutes into the hike back to Camp 1 I felt stronger than ever and the rest of the hike was uneventful.

David had spent the day at Camp 1 trying to rest but unfortunately he hadn’t been able to sleep and he wasn’t acclimatizing. If he was unable to sleep tonight it would be the end of his summit hopes and he would head down to Base Camp with one of our assistant guides.

Camp 1 Day 3: Rest Day

The hard effort of carrying to Camp 2 helped me sleep a bit better last night. I still felt like I was drowning in down but I was getting comfortable with the sensation and not sitting up gasping every 15 minutes like I was last night. We were in the tent for almost 14 hours because it gets cold as soon as the sun sets and you head into the tent a little around 7pm and come out for breakfast at 9am when the sun is again shining on camp. I probably got 3-4 hours of sleep. The general consensus amongst the expedition members was any more than 4 hours of sleep was a great night’s sleep.

At breakfast I learned not all oatmeal is like the Quaker oatmeal. In Argentina they grind the oats so it is much thinner and definitely less flavorful. However, the real shock was when I bit into the raisins and found seeds — they do not use seedless graps for their raisins here.

Shortly after breakfast David had a tough discussion with our lead guide Mark. In four days David had not slept at all. His eyes were very sunken and he had no energy. David would head back to Base Camp that afternoon with our assistant guide Marcela and from Base Camp he would walk out with a porter. Marcela would return to Camp 1 tomorrow because we needed her to assist with our move to Camp 2.

It was an emotional moment watching David leave camp. In a short amount of time most of the members of the expedition had become tight. We realized this was our family while we were on the mountain and tried to take care of one another. Having the extra space back in my tent made it feel that much closer to home and every minute in the tent it was evident what would happen if your body couldn’t handle the extremes of the mountain. Given my experience on the carry to Camp 2 yesterday this point felt extremely poignant.

That afternoon I went out with my tentmate Mark for another acclimatization hike. We hiked up to the big snow field in the middle of the picture at the left. While the views were fantastic we did not stay for long because we were encountering high winds on the mountain for the first time. When we made it back to camp we spent the rest of the day in the tent until dinner seeking relief from the relentless winds. At dinner time we braved the wind for all of 15 minutes and tried to eat together as a team. But as soon as we finished everyone dove back in to the tent. Inside the tents the wind was loud as any slack in the nylon flapped. Even with the rock walls and 16 ropes holding the tent in place (see picture at right) it would lean in the heavier gusts. Mark estimated the wind was blowing at 60km/h (37mph). It did not bode well for a good night’s sleep.

On the first afternoon I waited to do my gear check in the hotel room with a fellow expedition member named Mark who would become my tentmate for the duration of the expedition. Mark is from Hawaii and this was his fourth attempt to summit Aconcagua. His first attempt ended when he came down with a severe case of bronchitis and had to ride a mule off the mountain. Having lost his glove liners during a river crossing earlier in the trip he found himself adjusting his crampons at altitude on summit day. Touching his hands to bare metal bled any remaining heat from his hands brought on a case of frost nip which ended his second attempt. Bad weather last year prevented a summit bid on third try. Mark was a wealth of knowledge about Aconcagua and obviously had a lot of experience to share and he patiently answered all my questions about what was in store for the next three weeks. I certainly hoped having Mark along would be a good omen and the fourth time would be a charm for him. Mid-afternoon there was a knock on the door and we met our head guide who also happened to be named Mark but was from Oregon. He looked like a mountaineer and had a very laid back attitude. During the trip Mark we would learn while Mark did not take himself too seriously he was very serious and realistic about the endeavor in front of us and had years of experience. The gear check went well and Mark approved all of the gear I had lugged down from Chicago, much of which was new and purchased especially for this trip.

After the gear check I was tempted to get tickets for the football match but but opted to attend the expedition kickoff meeting Mark informed us would begin promptly at 7pm over a drink in the hotel bar before moving out for a traditional Argentinean meal consisting of huge slabs of meat. Over the next few hours I started to become acquainted with the thirteen other members of the expedition I’d spend the next three weeks with on the mountain.

Rough demographics of the group were:

• Three guides and eleven clients

• Four women (including one of the guides) and ten men

• Countries represented included Scotland, South Africa, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Germany and the US (including a fellow Chicagoan)

• Wide spectrum of ages with the oldest being 57 and I was the youngest of the clients although the two assistant guides were younger than me

• A wide range of occupations were represented including HR, Greenhouse seed salesman, logistics and supply management, warehouse management, German foreign service, general contractor and technology

Day 2: Los Penitentes, Argentina
The next morning we left the comforts of Mendoza (and especially the Park Hyatt), made any last minute purchases and boarded a bus for the four hour ride to Los Penitentes. Driving out of Mendoza we passed several of the vineyards or bodegas responsible for producing many of the Malbec wines which have become so popular in recent years. We stopped midway for lunch at a roadside stop and I had goat for the first time in my life. The meat was a bit stringy and tough and had somewhat of a gamey taste. It definitely did not taste like chicken. While it wouldn’t be my first choice on a menu it was tasty and definitely was filling. Two hours later we arrived at the Hotel Ayelen which was quite run down considering it is regarded as a four star hotel. Our guide Mark had referred to it as indoor camping relating stories of no hot water and broken windows. The Lonely Planet guidebook is spot on saying “…the wallpaper in the rooms could use a change.” as could the lightbulbs. Mark and I had to replace three of the four bulbs in the fixtures and when the room was fully illuminated I kind of wished it wasn’t. I’d hate to see what a 1 star hotel is supposed to be like in Argentina.

We had gained a significant amount of elevation going from Mendoza at 703m to Los Penitentes at 2580m. That meant we needed some exercise to elevate our heart rate and facilitate acclimatizing to altitude. Mark and I chose to walk about 8km (5 miles) round trip to the Mountaineers Cemetery up the road. It was interesting to see the graves honoring people who had explored much of the mountain or played a significant role in its history. I was also a bit shocked to see the number of recent tombstones. It looked like there was at least one for every recent year with 2003 being particularly bad when nearly a dozen people died on the mountain. I began to realize a successful summit bid was not an assured thing and saw it was going to more difficult and dangerous than I had expected. That evening we ate together as a team sitting comfortably inside around a table for the last time until we came off the mountain. Mark wore a Hawaiian shirt and handed out chocolate covered Macadamia nuts he’d brought from Hawaii to get the expedition off to a good start.

Days 3-5: Trekking to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp)

After a hearty breakfast we sealed up our “mule bags”, grabbed our day packs and a jeep made two runs to ferry our group to the trailhead. Our daypacks just had the things we would need while hiking like lunch, snacks, a rain jacket and camera. The mule bag was to be carried in by mules with local arrieros guiding the mule train. While the trail to Plaza Argentina, the official name of the site where Base Camp is located for the Ameghino Valley route, is difficult and at time precarious, mules are used to bring in the enormous amount of supplies required for an expedition. Each member of the team is allowed to bring anything they want to base camp as long as it fits in the mule bag. This may seem like a luxury but we needed to remember, after Base Camp we were the “mules” and would have to carry everything up and over the mountain. The arrieros weighed and marked our bags to assist in evenly balancing the loads on the mules and I was relieved to see mine was almost the lightest in our group at 19kg (~42 lbs). Since I was 2-3kgs lighter than most of my companions and knowing I tend to overpack I was a little concerned I’d forgot something but chose to believe I’d found really lightweight gear.

It would take three days to get to Plaza Argentina (4200m). The first two nights we stopped at Pampa de Lenas (2800m) and Casa de Piedra (3200m) after hiking for 6-8 hours. Even without the weight of full packs these days were tiring as our bodies began to acclimatize to the altitude. The sky was clear and the sun was out making for a beautiful walk as the trail followed the banks of the river Vacas river. At the end of the day we would grab our mule bags and set up our tents. It seemed a bit silly in such nice weather but Mark (our guide) insisted we pitch the tent each night as if we were at high camp. When you put up a mountaineering tent you don’t use the stakes. Instead there are about a dozen guylines attached to the fly and you pull each of these taut and anchor it tight by wrapping the rope around a little rock and then piling big rocks on top of it. By big, Mark said he meant rocks which we’d have difficulty lifting. After anchoring we’d then build stone walls for further protection from the wind. Mark took pride in his ability to teach clients how to properly and securely pitch a tent. None of his clients had ever had their tent blow away in the night during a storm. But he told stories of seeing poorly anchored tents from other expeditions blow off the side of the mountain as the three or four occupants dove out the door narrowly avoiding being blown away too. This all seemed like hyperbole at the time but we’d come to see just how serious Mark was as we got later into the expedition.

We saw Aconcagua for the first time about 15 minutes before we got to camp on the second day and it was impressive. The summit was covered in snow and we had a clear view of the famed Polish Glacier which was a more technical route directly up the face as opposed to the traverse we would make to the other side.

On the second evening, the arrieros prepared a traditional Argentinean asado for us. The asado is a time-honored tradition in Patagonia and something which I had been looking forward to with great anticipation. The arrieros prepared a fire and grilled large slabs of meat. When you go to a butcher in Argentina they do not ask how much meat you want but instead how many people will be attending. It is assumed each person will eat about 1kg (2.2 lbs). Since the mules were doing the hard work at this point our assistant guides Marcela and Tobias had wisely packed a few bottles of wine to go with the meal. To be honest the asado was a bit of a disappointment for me. I found the meat to be tough and it was not all that flavorful or juicy. Later in the evening others told me they had seen the meat sitting out early that morning in the open sun on a rock and birds were pecking at it. I could only surmise this was the arriero’s way of tenderizing the huge cuts of meat but I couldn’t help but think this had impacted the quality of our asado. I wanted to believe the fabled meat feasts of the Patagonian pampas truly were delicious dishes which I would labor to recreate on my Weber when I got back home.

On day three of the approach we hiked up the Relinchos Valley with Aconcagua in full view. We also had two river crossings on this day; one to start the day off in the brisk morning air right after breakfast and a second just before lunch. Both were extremely cold and the second one was over our knees and quite swift. Everyone crossed with great haste. The trail was also a bit precarious at times with scree and a long steep slope down to the river as we gained 1000m on the way to Plaza Argentina. That didn’t slow down the arrieros and the mules who passed us in a fury. What took us three full days to hike the arrieros could do in less than eight hours with a pack of 15 or more fully laden mules.

The wind had picked up and in the last hour of our hike and the temperature felt a lot colder. Everyone quickly chose a campsite by proximity to piles of large rocks and we prepared what would be our new home for the next several days.

My desire to climb Mt. Aconcagua was not driven by any single motivation. My trip to South America was originally meant to focus on exploring Patagonia. However, I’ve always enjoyed reading mountaineering stories and summiting Aconcagua seemed like an achievable goal for a novice like myself and the mountain isn’t far from where I was planning to trek in Patagonia. Armed only with an adventurous spirit and curiosity I joined an expedition with ten strangers to learn if I had what it takes.

I did not have any basic or high-altitude mountaineering experience prior to this trip. In 1999 I had trekked to an altitude of 5,545m (18,192 ft) when I hiked to Kala Pattar, a small peak near the Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Mt. Everest. I was reasonably fit this year from a cardiovascular perspective since I trained for and ran the 2006 Chicago Marathon only a few months before the expedition began. I knew very little about Aconcagua and naively considered it to be an easy peak to summit. As I was to learn many people climb Aconcagua in preparation for an attempt at Mt. Everest and any attempt to summit Aconcagua is a very serious endeavor.

While I was on the mountain some very brief updates were posted based on reports filed via the expedition satellite phone. I’ve decided to post a recap of the expedition, broken into several posts, so friends and family can read more about the details of my trip. I also hope sharing my experience will be useful to others who are considering a summit attempt on Aconcagua so they might better know what to expect and how to prepare.

This was a particularly rough year on Aconcagua. I heard people throwing around statistics such as the successful summit attempts are 10% of normal this year. I think that is a little low but what was scary were the number of severe frostbite victims and HACE casualties helicoptered off the mountain. Thankfully everyone from our expedition is safe and healthy due in large part to our very experienced and professional guides.

Over the next few days I’ll put together some more details with pictures and movies about the whole Mt. Aconcagua experience.

Surviving email Disasters
Yesterday I returned to Mendoza. After a long and luxurious shower at the posh Park Hyatt where we had hoped to celebrate a successful summit attempt I was able to wash off the grime from two weeks on the mountain. No sooner had I cleaned up than I found myself in another mess when I tried to catch up email. Disaster struck and I’m not sure whether it was me or SpamSieve but I lost all the email in my Inbox from the past five weeks or so. I’m trying to recover but am not hopeful. I was able to read a few messages and have responded to a few people but to anyone who had an urgent message or expected a response you’ll need to dig into your Sent Items folder and resend. I’m sorry for the inconvenience…

South America Itinerary

One of the most frustrating things about losing those recent emails was having seen the number of people inquiring about meeting up while I’m in South America or on the Great Divide Trail and now being unable to respond.

The GDT ride is a ways off so I don’t have specifics yet. Not to mention I just found out my riding partner Willy not only became unemployed while I was climbing but he got engaged too! Congratulations Willy! I’m not yet sure how any of this impacts the ride but Willy and I plan to post all the details of the ride as they become firm.

As for South America, I’ve added my itinerary and tentative activities under the Part 1: South America tab for those who mailed asking for more details. After visiting Machu Picchu the itinerary becomes flexible. I hope it works out that I can meet up with a few of you who mailed me.

Santiago, Chile
Tonight I’m in Santiago, Chile transitioning from mountaineering to trekking as I meet Anne tomorrow and prepare to head south to Patagonia to walk the famed Torres del Paine Circuit. In my short time in Chile I’ve found the people to be much less friendly than in Mendoza, Argentina.

Things started off poorly at the airport when I made the mistake of talking to one of those pesky buskers who offer to assist with organizing a cab. I know better and after walking through it time and time again today I should have known I was being taken. But, after a late night out (dinner normally starts at 10pm in Argentina so it isn’t easy to have an early night) with the members of the expedition I was a bit slow and I really just wanted to get to my hotel. When you divide by two instead of multiplying by two it means your cab is four times more expensive than it should be so I biggest fare of my life today. Chileans also have this annoying habit of ignoring the least two significant digits so a 500 peso note is called a 5 peso note. Altogether it was kind of confusing and it must have been as if I had stamped sucker on my forehead. To add insult to injury the taxi driver tried to con a tip out of me almost equal to the legitimate cab fare from the airport but that was just as I was starting to wise up so at least I wasn’t taken twice.
Once I calmed down from the airport cab ride experience I set out to get my clothes laundered. I had no idea my poor Spanish skills and a Lonely Planet phrase book could do so much damage. After attempts at three laundromats I finally had to have Francisco, the world’s nicest front desk attendant from my hotel, call the third woman to calm her down and explain that all I needed was a stuff sack of clean clothes by this evening. In the end everything worked out. I don’t think I was quite ready to come back to first world urban chaos. I’m looking forward to heading to Patagonia tomorrow as visiting Torres del Paine was the genesis of this trip when I started thinking about it almost eight years ago.

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director

They are still at camp III due to high winds they have not been able to move to high camp yet
They are getting well acclimatized!
They will try to move tomorrow and try for the summit the next day if at all possible or Sunday when weather looks quite good
you can see some info at:  http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Aconcagua.0to3mid.shtml

It has been clear for days but too windy to move

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director
UIAGM / IFMGA Certified Guide

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director > UIAGM / IFMGA Certified Guide

The group is at camp 1 and today they carry to Camp 3 Guanacos (a.k.a. camp2)
They will be moving up tomorrow weather permitting
They are doing fine

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director

The group left happy for Pentitentes today
They will be hiking to Base Camp tomorrow AM
They should be reaching Base Camp Feb 5th
They all look very excited and things are going well
Mark Postle, the Lead Guide will call us via Satellite Phone every 3-4 days for updates
Please do not get worry if you do not hear from me in a few days after a report since i may be busy getting other Expeditions ready or sometimes signal on Sat phone is really poor

All the best and lets wish them luck and some good weather!
Great group

Best

Rodrigo Mujica/ AP Director
UIAGM / IFMGA Certified Guide

Aventuras Patagonicas Colorado Office
1303 Sumac Avenue Boulder CO 80304 USA
US Toll Free: 1-888-203-9354 or 303-447-2858
UK Toll Free: 0800-404-9183

Aventuras Patagonicas Wyoming Office
PO Box 11389 Jackson, WY 83002 USA
US Toll Free: 1-888-203-9354 or 303-447-2858
UK Toll Free: 0800-404-9183

summit@patagonicas.com http://www.patagonicas.com

For those who are curious to see what I’ll encounter in the upcoming weeks you can watch this short Aventuras Patagonicas video highlighting one team’s bid for the summit.

Before departing I made a quick trip to Moosejaw for a compression sack and said good-bye to the staff there who I’ve gotten to know so well in the past months as I’ve prepared (Thanks Chris, Clay, Sara and Marissa!). Anne dropped me off at the El and the adventure really began.

My CTA card did not work but the attendant took pity on a scruffy looking guy with three huge bags and let me pass when I told him I was going to be out of the country for three months. Upon arriving at ORD the doors on the El car stuck and after unsuccessfully attracting the attention of anyone outside I had to pull the emergency handle and sound the alarm to exit. Once at the AA check-in kiosk the machine promptly rebooted after swiping my passport (Gotta love MS Windows). I moved on to check in with an international gate agent without issue and finally to security for the baggage scan by the TSA. I knew fuel canisters for camp stoves were not allowed but evidently anything which has ever come into contact with gas vapor is now prohibito. I guess someone in the TSA has just acquired a MSR Whisperlite camp stove and I’ll be buying a stove in Mendoza.

After a layover in Miami I was jolted awake from a fitful sleep at the back of the plane to Santiago, Chile by the woman in the row in front of me screaming. The gentleman directly in front of me had started choking in his sleep and couldn’t breathe. All of the flight attendant staff gathered around and after 45 seconds of watching and not hearing a verbal response I stood up in preparation to administer the Heimlich when thankfully he recovered and the blue hue left his face.

LAN Airlines was a pleasure to fly. The service was impeccable, the meals were tasty, served with proper metal cutlery and the accouterment rivaled what I’ve received in business class to Europe. The US airlines should take note.

I saw the silhouette of Aconcagua out the plane window as we were on final approach and I arrived in Santiago, Chile just before sunrise. After dealing with a minor luggage mishap and working through some customs misinformation I wished I could rewind time and spend more time using the Rosetta Stone software I purchased to learn Spanish.

I am now in Mendoza, Argentina which is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. An assistant guide from Aventuras Patagonicas met me at the airport and I had dinner with three of my expedition mates last night. We experienced a true Argentinean dinner and feasted on a massive steak, fried cheese and fries washed down with a bottle of Malbec for about $10 USD.

I will do a gear check this afternoon with the head guide and after the rest of the team arrives this evening the expedition will kick off officially.