Reports and reflections from Mendoza

Well here is the update you´ve all been waiting for.

Right now it´s about lunchtime on Saturday and I´ve checked out of the hotel and am now hanging around waiting for my taxi to head to the airport.  So I thought whilst I have time it might be a good idea to fill you in on the particulars of the summit bid.

So the last time I posted we were in basecamp doing our final checks before heading up the mountain.  The  next day we loaded everything up and did the 3 hour trek up the mountain.  The one thing you have to remember about heading up the mountain is that it is always up.  I know that might seem like a stupid comment to make but it´s true, up, up, and up.  The only time you get flat ground is when you are at the camps, but in saying that I would alway prefer going up any day compared to going down, I always fall over when I´m going down hill!!

So our first night was spent at Camp Canada, nothing major to report from there.  We got there just after lunch, set our tents up and just basically sat there and watched the view until the sun dissappeared and we were forced into the sleeping bags by the cold.

We got up the next morning, broke down the tents and then headed up towards Nido de Condores.  Because of the weather overnight we were forced to put on the plastic boots and thank goodness we did, within an hour of setting off we started hitting snow and for the last hour we were actually breaking trail through about 6 to 10 inches of new snow.  As was the case in Canada we arrived just after lunch, set up the tents and during that process another snow storm came through so we were confined to our tents. 

However during the storm one of the dutch guys decided it would be a good idea to have a snowball fight!!!  Now here is one piece of advice, never be late to a snowball fight.  The guys thought it would be funny to start pelting the tents with snowballs, so after a while i thought bugger it, may as well join them.  So after putting my clothes and shoes on i went to open the tent door and as soon as i pushed it open, WHAM, I was smacked in the mouth with a snowball.  Turns out it had been thrown from a good 30 metres away and could not have been timed any better!!

Eventually the storm passed, the clouds cleared, and we were treated by one of the most magnificant sunsets you have ever seen.  Pure, crisp, snow covered peaks formed a perfect backdrop to the sun setting and from this height we started to see the curve of the horizon.  It truely was a magical site.

Our guide come around before we crashed for the night to do another medical check and it was during that process that he discovered the German guy was starting to deteriorate.  I´ve mentioned oxygen saturation levels before, well this essentially is a measurement that tells you what percentage of the available oxygen your body can consume.  The general reading at Nido was early 70´s (i was at 74) however his reading came back at 60 which is not good.  So after another hours rest it was tested again and it had dropped to 54.  So under the cover of darkness he was led back down to basecamp as it was deemed too dangerous for him to spend any additional time at this height.  So we were down to 7 people.

The next morning we started like the other mornings however this time we new we were starting to get into the higher altitudes and some more extreme weather so instead of just the plastic boots it was also time to put the crampons on.  Instead of heading to Camp Berlin we went around a little further and camped at the Colluler (not sure of the spelling) which is just over 6,000m above sea level.  Now as you know I have not done any high altitude work before but let me just say this place was hell on earth.

We arrived in the middle of gale force winds and again we had to erect tents.  You have to remember you are not conditioned to the oxygen levels at this altitude so everything you do leaves you breathless.  I don´t know how many times i had to stop to put my hands on my knees to stop myself from passing out.  It´s a strange feeling but you almost work on autopolit because your  brain needs to the oxygen for the manual work and there isn´t enough for both. If you want to try it then stand in a deep freeze with a hessian bag over your head and start doing manual labour.  Not fun.

Because of the conditons and our general feeling once the tents were put up we all crashed straight away knowing that we will have our wake up call at 4am to leave by 6am.

Not quite sure why we needed a wake up call, as you don´t really get much sleep at that height, you generally just lie there, toss and turn, and start thinking about things that you want to do when you get home.  It is not nice at all.  At this level you have around half of the amount of oygen you have at sea level so your body just starts to relax into sleep, your breathing starts to shallow and then it realises that it´s not getting enough oxygen and it jerks you awake in a panic to get more.  It happens over and over to the point where it´s just easier to stay awake and stare at the ceiling

We also learned later that we had another team member go down to basecamp during our summit bid due to oxygen levels again, he completed of serious fatigue whilst getting ready for the bid, and when his oxygen was measured he was at 53 so he was partnered with a porter and taken down the mountain which brought our team back to 6

So the time came, 4am, to start getting ready and this is where things started unravelling for me.  The night before I had laid everything out so that come 6am I would be fully prepared and ready to go.  I don´t want to use this blog to bitch about other people however my tent mate was not as well organised, in fact he decided at this time that he would not wear his glasses (which he is pretty much blind without).  

So every little bloody thing that needed you to see what you were doing he started crying about and asking for help.  From the ties on his boots, to the ties on the crampons, the jacket, it all came down to me to fix.  Now I know I should have been stronger and said put your glasses on and do it yourself you blubbering idiot however the fact remains I left my gloves off and exposed my hands to the cold for too long.  I have no one else to blame about that other than myelf.

Finally everything was organised, it was just after 6am and we started up the mountain under torch light, and I just could not feel my hands. I had liner gloves on and mittens but no matter what I did I just could not get my hands warm.

I perservered for just over an hour in this condition and after the first break we could see that the weather was deteriorating and I still didn´t have any feelings in the hands.  Knowing that the weather was going to get worse and colder I made the heartbreaking decision to decend, worried that if I didn´t get my hands sorted out then I could have a disfiguring reminder of this trip.  Maybe it was an over reaction, maybe they would have come good eventually but that was a risk that I just didn´t want to take!

Whilst it was a tough decision to make it also came surprinsingly easily.  I don´t know what that means right now.  It is now several days since that happened and I am still waiting for all the feelings to return to my finger tips but everything else seems to be ok.  We´ll see what happens.

After another 24 hours stuck in a tent (yes 24 hours stuck in a tent with another male, both of us not having showered for near 2 weeks) we got up the next morning, packed the tents up and started our decent straight down to basecamp.  Whilst we were packing up another guide came across to speak with ours and not understanding spanish Í didn´t know what was being said however it was explained to me afterwards that another life had been lost on the mountain during the course of the morning and he was checking to see if any of our guys knew anything about it.

It appeared that a solo climber had headed up the mountain at some stage during the night and must have struck trouble and perished, at that stage it was unknown what from other than he had passed.  So by the time we were ready to head down the mountain doctor was preparing to head up the mountain to take the regulation photos and confirm the death.  It´s just another reminder that this is not a walk in the park.

So we arrived at basecamp late in the afternoon, packed our bags and prepared for the 26km walk from basecamp to the trail head and then for the 3 hour trip to Mendoza.  That was a massive day but there is something satisfying about finishing the trip in this fashion.

But that first shower after 2 weeks was amazing, the amount of dirt that come off me was amazing, and to have a room to spread out in was amazing.  The things you take for granted.

Ok reflection time. 

Should I be upset that I didn´t make the summit?  Part of me says yes because the reason I didn´t get further was due to my own stupidity but at the same time that whole experience and the conditions were new to me so maybe I was only destined to experience as much as I did to prepare for other mountains.

Would I have made the summit?  I guess I won´t know, but I hope in weeks to come that I don´t wake up wondering.

Will I go back to Aconcagua?  I don´t know yet, I need time to process everything to see if I really want to go back.  That mountain is ugly, make no mistake about it.  Other than the sunset at Nido there is nothing attractive about this mountain.  Do I want to put myself through that again...... I really don´t know.

Has this put me off mountains?  No

All I know is that maybe some reality is required to put things in perspecive.

I will post some photos from the trip when I get back to give you an idea of every day life on the mountain but for the time being it´s time I left South America and headed back.

I just want to sign off by thanking everyone that posted messages of encouragement.  It gets lonely at basecamp at times and to have people such as yourselves that have so much interest in what I do and care about what I do makes me a very happy man and always brings my spirits up.

Thank you for following my journey and for the last time from Mendoza..........

Catch you on the flipside.....