Aconcagua Jan 2007 1/1 - 1/2 Boarded flight from Las Vegas to Miami on new years day. From Miami we flew an 8+ hr flight to Santiago. After one more layover we flew a 50 min flight from Santiago over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina arriving on Jan 2. We were picked up via transportation arranged through Grajales and dropped off at our hotel (the Nutibara) for the night. Since it was still early we walked over to the permit office to obtain our permits. After a short trip down the street we had paid the $330 fee (it isn't paid at the permit office) and returned to pick up our permits. The place where we paid for the permit (a Locurio?) also had inexpensive Internet phones for use. 1/3 Hike to Confluencia Grajales transportation arrived in the morning to ferry us over to Penitentes. The drive took a couple of hours. At Penitentes we dropped off our duffels where they were weighed and we paid for our mules/transportation. The three of us then piled into a jeep for a quick ride (abt 4 miles) to the Horcones trailhead. At the trailhead we checked in with the ranger and obtained our trash bags. We were then on our way up the trail. It was then a short hike (4 miles?) to Confluencia. Not far from the trailhead we met Scooter (Cyrus Anderson) from Wyoming who decided to join us for the rest of the trip. More on Scooter later. At Confluencia we were surprised that they (Grajales anyway) had a form of flushing toilets. Grajales has their own area for tents so we pitched ours there. We also met Jyh from Tiawan who would later join us for the summit. Checked in with the docter. My blood ox was 86%. 1/4 Hike from Confluencia to Plaza de Mulas Morning Temp: 32F Packed up our gear for the mules again and began hiking up to Plaza de Mulas. Perhaps because of the increase in elevation this felt like a rather long hike. The Horcones Valley is rather large and much more beautiful than I expected. There are lots of interesting geologic features in the surrounding terrain. Above Confluencia is a green area that is filled with a number of small streams and waterfalls. Though Scooter and I stuck together for awhile, for the most part we all hiked at our own pace. Scooter and I had a little trouble finding the bridge just beyond Confluencia but had no further problems after that. We never did have to pull out our sneakers for any river crossings. The last part of the trail leading up to Plaza de Mulas gains rapidly and is the least pleasant part of the day. We arrived at Plaza de Mulas at 5:35 pm. Here we checked in with the ranger and obtained our F/M bag (for Fecal Matter). 1/5 Rest Day Morning Temp: 27.9F Blood ox at 4:30pm: 82% Blood press 120/80 Heart rate 100 Though initially cold once the sun hit camp (abt 9:16am) things warmed up quickly. I woke up with a headache but Ibuprofin took care of it. At 4:30pm we checked in with the doc. Just as was the case at Confluencia, Courtney had high blood pressure (due to allergy medication?). This was a rest day so we just hung out for the day. 1/6 Acclimation Hike: Bonete Morning Temp: 24F Blood ox (after getting back from Bonete) 75% Blood press 130/90? Did an acclimation hike up to Cerro Bonete today. I felt pretty good. We got some nice views from the summit. Aconcagua is huge! We were all in awe of the mountain. From this vantage point you can also see the trail as it works it's way up to Camp Canada and on up to Camp Nido de Condores. We also crossed over a number of Penitentes fields. The Penitentes are a form of windblown snow/ice structures resembling fins that often reach higher than a person (sometimes 15 feet high!). They can be substantial obstacles to transportation if the fins don't line up with your direction of travel. After getting down from Bonete we stopped at the hotel where we ate lunch (pizza and burgers). The pizza I ordered was $12US and the burgers were $7US. The quality of the food here was excellent. We vowed to return. After getting back to camp we stopped by the doc again. Despite the acclimation hike my blood ox had dropped to 75% (yikes!). This alerted the doc who requested I check in with him again in the morning. Fortunately we decided the next day would be another rest day. 1/7 Rest Day Morning Temp: 28F Blood ox at 6:30pm 87% Windy morning! I awoke with a slight headache again. This was another rest day so we didn't do much. By now our proposed itinery had begun to changed. After talking with various groups we kept changing our climbing plans. Eventually we decided we would skip camp Canada and climb directly to Nido. Thus tommorow would be our haul day in which we would ferry up half of our gear to be cached at Nido. After checking in with the doc again we were all cleared to proceed higher. I didn't feel as good today (even though my oxygen saturation was higher). I felt better yesterday when it was lower. We also killed some time at the hotel. Here they have Internet phones that are more affordable than what we found in Mulas. 1/8 Haul Day (to Nido) Morning Temp: 22.5F After finalizing our packing we all proceeded up to Nido separately each at his own pace. Unlike the day prior (our rest day) I felt quite good again. Perhaps that's because we were finally making some progress. Up the trail (skipping Canada) we went. Mike was the last to get going. I brought 2 liters of water. Up at Nido I found Courtney. We both had been there 30 minutes or more before we found each other. We dropped off our caches when Scooter arrived. To my surprise Scooter began speaking Norwegian with someone near by. Amazing. What can't he do? Courtney and I then proceeded over to the nearby peak Manso. Scooter waited for Mike. The views from Manso were spectacular and again the scale of Aconcagua was overwhelming. We also had amazing views of other nearby peaks and glaciers. After Courtney proceeded down I stuck around for awhile absoluletely mesmorized by the view. I took a good deal of photos before heading down. As planned we all descended back to Mulas following our caching. The descent went quite quickly (< 90 min?) due to the scree on the trail (hint: stick toward the rightmost trails on the way down). Back at Mulas we had pizza for $10 at the Geotek tent. We also met two black African women who were (assuming I heard correctly) apparently the first two black women to summit Acconcagua. 1/9 Rest Day Morning Temp: 22F Blood ox 10am 87% Blood press 140/80 Heart Rate 98? Awoke from my first decent night's sleep. Today was another rest day. Used my stove this morning for some breakfast (Mountain House Bacon & Eggs). Have consumed 10oz of fuel so far for the trip (used the stove perhaps 3 times primarily for hot cocoa or hot cider). We spent part of the day at the hotel again. I had a hamberguesa this time since they were out of cheese for pizzas. Afterwards I took a hike by myself over to the Horcones Glacier hoping I might catch a closer glimpse of the icefalls we heard from time to time. It was further away than it looked and unfortunately after waiting nearly 40 minutes nothing occurred so I started back. I headed back to Mulas and descended to the toe of the glacier. Here there were a number of large ice blocks resembling stranded icebergs. After taking more photos I worked my way back to Mulas. In the process I incurred a growing headache and didn't have any pain killers with me to control it. By the time I got back to Mulas it had grown into one of the most painful headaches I've ever had. As with all the others it seemed to stem from the top of the neck (pinched nerve?). Back at Mulas I was almost completely debilitated. I took 3 Ibuprofin tablets but it took over an hour before I began to get the pain under control. During this time I could do nothing but hold my head and moan. I was worried this could be altitude related but felt pretty sure it wasn't. I think the others were a little worried about me. Tommorow we move up to Nido. 1/10 Move to Nido Morning Temp: 24F No wind Again we all set off at our own time and pace. It took me 4 hrs 45 mins to reach Nido. My pack weight was almost exactly the same as it was on our haul day: 30-40 lbs. Mike was last to arrive again (overwhelmed by the amount of items that needed to be packed prior to leaving Mulas). At Nido shortly before dark it started to get windy. Fearing the worst I secured the single wall tent (Mountain Hardware EV2) that Courtney and I would use with 8 stakes, many rocks, and 13 guy lines. This proved wise because that night it got very windy and didn't let up until around noon the next day. We got very little sleep during the night. I frequently braced one side of the tent in fear the tent might collapse. Before it reached it's height Mike recorded gusts of between 30-40 mph. We probably got some gusts up to 50mph later in the night. 1/11 Rest/Acclimation Day (hike to Independencia) Morning Temp: 14F Fortunately our tents survived unharmed though our wits were less unscathed. It had been a hard night and in the morning Courtney decided this was a little too much to endure so he began packing to descend. He seemed rather intent on descending (he also had a bad headache) and I was unsure I could convince him to stay. It was still windy and cold in the morning which made his job of packing up very unpleasant. I told him we would likely stick to our plan and so if he wanted to spend a day or so down at Mulas and come back up we'd obviously still be here. I stayed in the tent in my sleeping bag until after noon in an attempt to ride out the wind. Eventually it began to die down and Scooter came by and suggested we do a short hike up to Berlin for acclimation. Having been in my sleeping bag for about 14 hours this sounded like a good idea even if it was still a bit breezy. We slowly hiked up the trail. Shortly before Berlin Scooter decided this was good enough (he didn't want to make his blisters worse for summit day) and turned back. I continued on to Berlin as the wind continued to die down. It was now rather pleasant and I continued on. How far should I go? I wondered if I could go as far as Independencia. Thus, I continued on. Independencia took a bit longer and more effort to get to than I expected but I didn't stop until I got there. Checking my GPS I could see I was just a few dozen feet below 21,000 feet so I continued up one or two switchbacks until my GPS read 21,003 feet. I was now less than 1900 feet from the summit. Hmmmm. I had joked with the others that I might just sneak out and bag the summit prior to our intended summit day. Now it actually seemed possible. Time didn't permit this however and I needed to get down. It would be dark in a few hours. Thus, I hiked back down the trail to Nido where I arrived shortly before dark. 1/12 Rest Day Morning Temp: 5F ? We didn't do much except relax and prepare for our summit day tommorow. It was a bit cloudy and not terribly comfortable due to cold so I spent quite a bit of time in the tent. For the first time (and fortunately only time) of the trip I had to use the "poop & scoop" procedure. I had no shortage of ziplocks so I triple bagged the results and placed this into a 4th bag (the one given to each of us). I didn't take any chances. Fortunately this would be the only time of the entire trip I would have to do it. 1/13 Summit Day Morning Temp: 9F As planned we departed Nido a few minutes after 5am. Our summit party included Mike, Scooter, Jyh, and myself. It became light by the time we reached Berlin but it took another hour or so before we had direct sunlight due to the ridge. I didn't feel quite as peppy as I did a couple days earlier but still maintained a good pace. Taking photos allowed time for the others to catch up. It took a bit longer to get to Independencia than I hoped but up to this point we were generally trying to stick together. I arrived at Independencia first followed by Mike, then Scooter, and Jhy. I seemed to be less affected by the elevation than the others. All three felt very tired and rested. At this point we were over half way (from Nido) but none of us knew what the remaining 1900 feet had in store for us. After a rest break we continued. I had given Mike part of my Sobe No Fear drink that I had been saving all this time. The caffiene seemed to perk him up and he got faster. For awhile he stayed ahead of me as I continued to take photos and video clips. Feeling strong I tried to give everyone encouragement and suggestions (as if anyone really needed advice on how to breathe). I continued to feel good despite the elevation and could maintain the pace I wanted. There was certainly less air at this elevation however. Beyond Independencia things definitely got more difficult. The trail gets a lot steeper and the terrain is very loose which saps what little energy you have. Shortly above Independencia is a long traverse that leads into the Caneleta. Here we began to get a bit more spread out. Mike and I rested at the far end of the traverse at an obvious rest stop. To this point the weather was still excellent: sunny & fairly mild. We were now in the Caneleta and the final 1000 feet or so to the summit would be the hardest. There is a lot of loose rock which makes for poor footing. You also have to be careful not to knock rocks down on other climbers below. After being stuck behind another group for awhile I took a bit of a shortcut scrambling up the larger rocks in the center of the Caneleta. This wore me down more quickly but I still managed to get ahead of the group. Exactly one hour from where we stopped to rest toward the lower part of the Caneleta I hit the top of the ridge between the North & South summits. From here it was about 20 minutes to the summit. Unfortunately by this time some clouds had begun to settle in around the summit reducing visibility. I reached the summit at 2:23pm. This was 9 hrs 15 minutes from the time we left Nido. I had some time by myself on the summit. Mike showed up about 25 minutes later. It was now snowing somewhat but the temperature was still surprisingly mild. After celebration and photographs Mike and I left the summit at about 3:15pm. A short distance down we passed Scooter and Jyh. They would summit shortly later. The descent was uneventful. I took the direct exit route down to Nido (which veers off below the Caneleta) while Mike followed the regular trail back down via Berlin. The direct descent goes down the screen slope and allows for a rapid exit. It was still a long way down though. This was the longest scree slope I had ever descended. I arrived back at Nido at exactly 5pm (almost 12 hours from when we started). The exit route (from the point I left the normal trail) took 40 minutes to descend at a fairly rapid pace. Mike arrived (via the normal trail) about 50 minutes later. After another 2 hours Scooter arrived. Finally, Jyh arrived after one more hour. 1/14 Descent from Nido to Mulas Morning Temp: 7F A bit windy and cold this morning. Our only goal for the day was to pack up and head back down to Mulas. Since we would be descending with all our gear in one shot we would have to bare the weight of our heaviest packs of the trip. I wasn't really disappointed by the fact that somebody stole my extra stove fuel. I did't want to have to haul it down anyway. Not surprisingly it took quite awhile to assemble our packs (at least Mike and I anyway). I wasn't sure I would be able to get everything in and on my pack. It took a great deal of effort since I only had a 3700 cu in (60 liter) pack. As usual Mike was overwhelmed and was the last to head down. Though this was the heaviest pack I had ever carried it was all downhill and wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Half way down I saw a pack on the trail with gear attached all over it (even worse than mine). A person could not be seen under all this stuff. As I passed I saw that it was Jhy. He was just taking a break on the way down. After we all got down Scooter arranged a feast of 2 pizzas and 4 hamburgers for us at the Geotek tent. We celebrated our victory. It was good to be back down at base camp. While not exactly deluxe accomodations it was far better than up at Nido. 1/15 Hike Out to Trailhead Morning Temp: 26F We packed up for the last time. After packing our duffels we turned them over to the Grajales host who tagged them for the mule ride back out. Mike, Scooter, and I then began the hike back down the Horcones Valley to the trailhead. Jhy would hike out a short time later. The hike out was less taxing as the hike in but I began to slow up a bit later in the day due to some blisters that were forming (likely caused by the heavy pack from the day before). At Confluencia we stopped for awhile and tried to confirm with the Grajales host there that our duffels would continue on to Penetentes. We then finished our hike out to the trailhead. I took quite a few photos of flowers on the way. I was last to arrive at the trailhead. It was ??pm. We then checked out at the Ranger Station and waited for our ride to arrive at 7:00pm. To save money Scooter decided to take the bus at Puente del Inca. Our ride never showed. We weren't sure what happened but decided we better hike on down to Puenta del Inca just in case we needed to catch a bus. This hike was longer than expected and both Mike and I now defintely had blisters. It was after 8pm by the time we arrived at Puenta del Inca. We knew we probably wouldn't have to (or energy) to continue our hike to Penitentes. Mike decided to go into the Hosteria and here they contacted Grajales for us. In just 10 or 15 minutes our ride was there to get us. Soon we were back in Penitentes though it was now close to 9pm. Once there we were informed that another group (from the Plaza Argentina side) was coming out late and they needed to catch the same ride so we waited. After they finally showed up we had to wait for their gear which was on another set of mules. I began to slip in and our of conciousness. It was getting late. 10pm. 11pm. I don't even remember. We hadn't had a substantial meal the whole day and had hiked 20 miles. We were tired. Eventually the gear arrived and we were on our way back to Mendoza. We had been informed prior to leaving Penitentes that the Nutibara was full so they planned to put us up at another nearby hotel. After stopping at the Nutibara to get some clothes we left (and to drop off one of the other climbers) we were dropped off at another hotel (El Portal?). Unable to find any reservation the nice fellow at the front desk informed us they had no rooms. He assured us however that he could find us a place somewhere. Our driver was ready to leave but we snagged him seconds before it was too late. A few minutes later and we were on our way to the Hotel Balbi. By the time we got checked in (they didn't speak English) and in our rooms it was after 2am. Still no dinner but we were far too tired to eat now. 1/16 Slept in. Good thing we reserved rooms for 2 nights. After getting up the first thing we saw after we stepped outside the hotel was a McDonalds across the street. Just about anywhere would probably be better but this was familiar so we headed strait to it. Food at last! After eating we attempted to get back in touch with Scooter. Since he took the bus yesterday we were separated. Some of his gear was on our mules so we needed to get back together. We located his hostel but he was not there so we left a message. We then went to the Nutibara and left a message there. Before leaving we sent him an email message too. I went back to the Balbi and around 2:30pm Scooter showed up. We were tired so we rested for hours before locating Mike. Scooter mentioned a place where he had an excellent steak so we decided to go there for dinner. First however we stopped by his hostel again. Here we met up with Jyh again who decided to join us. We ate at ?. It was indeed excellent. I think three of us had the steak Scooter had mentioned. It was a large piece of meat expertly prepared. It doesn't get any better than this. The steak was $21 pesos or about $7 US. We also had fries, beer, and wine. For desert I had chocolate souflete? ($7 pesos or about $2 US. After dinner we stopped by the hostel again. They were having a barbeque. I didn´t stay long and returned to the hotel. 1/17 Checked out of Balbi and took a taxi ($3.5 pesos / $1 US) to the Nutibara. This is where I would stay for the next 3 nights before flying out. I like the Nutibara much better. Here they speak English, have Internet computers for use, a wonderful pool, etc. The hotel staff is very nice. In the afternoon Mike & I got back together for lunch. I ordered some Nachos and a large pizza for $4 US. This place is great! We were stuffed and ended up skipping dinner. 1/18 Had a contental breakfast at the Nutibara. Mike who was staying one additional night at the Balbi showed up at the Nutibara around noon. Later in the day we caught up with Jyh again. Scooter had now departed for his next destination: Patagonia. The three of us ate dinner again at the same place we ate 2 nights prior. Still good! 1/19 Breakfast again at the Nutibara. Just killing time now. 1/20 Killed more time. Met up with Mike again for lunch. At 5pm we had the Nutibara call us a couple taxis to take us (and our gear) to the airport. We had to take two taxis because of all our gear. Our flight left Mendoza around 7:30pm. 1/21 After two more flights (Santiago to Dallas/Fortworth & Dallas/Fortworth to Las Vegas) I arrived in Las Vegas around 9am. Courtney gave me a ride back to my vehicle (that I had parked at the MGM). I then began the 5 hour drive home, stopping numerous times for a quick nap. I arrived home around 4pm but was locked out of my apartment because my Mom had my key.