Climbing for Learning: Aconcagua

Update from Team 5

Team five is at 8,800 feet and doing well.

Day 5 - Into the Vacas Valley

Today we began our 30 mile trek into Aconcagua base camp. We will be carrying what we might need for the day (water, extra layers, snacks and lunch) and the mules carry the rest.

Our hike today was about 4.5 hours - up a gradual slope - following beside a raging Vacas River. The temperature is in the mid-80s and there is a strong steady breeze - very pleasant. I am in shorts and several layers of spf 70 sunscreen (I had no idea it went that high!).

Once the mules arrive at camp, we will get our first taste of setting up tents, eating lots of beef asado, and sleeping on the ground for the first of many nights.

I hope to send a few more dispatches later today with pics of our group.

Day 5 - Part Two

Our first day in the Vacas Valley was also an introduction for us on the need for flexibility when doing this kind of expedition. The meet and cheese for our lunch sandwhiches were inadvertently left in Penitentes - so, no lunch. We lived on the snack bag we recieved - that was supposed to last us for thee days!

We arrived in camp about 4:30 pm. The mules with our tents, warm gear, and... dinner arrived at 7:30. While we waited we had cabbage sandwhiches. The dinner was going to be beef asado, but there was a misunderstading between our guides and the mule drrivers. So, it was pork chops, rice, and applesauce instead - with beef asado tomorrow night.

It was a great day nontheless. Tomorrow we get our first glimpse of the Aconcagua summit.

Day 6 - 7.5 hike up the Valley

Everyone survived our first night in tents and sleeping out at about 9000 feet.  It did get very chilly once the sun went down.  The stars were spectacular!

We were very happy to see the sun work its way down the valley walls to hit our camping area.  We broke camp and re-packed all our personal and group gear for the mule team to carry up to the next camp.  Today the mules should be in camp before we are! 

This is a picture of "Team Guys and Dolls" with our lead guide Eric.  (left to right - Gene, Al, Cathy, Patty, me, Sue, Janey - seated guide Eric and Nancy).

Just before our camp we caught our first view of the Aconcagua summit - very dramactic.  We are at approximately 10,500 feet.  The winds are mild and its getting chilly as the sun is going down.

Sue's bags arrived.  She is now ready to summit!

Tomorrow we finish our trek to base camp.  It will be a long day (an 8 hour hike) with 3,000 feet of altitude gain and steadily cooler temperatures.

Day 7 - Base Camp!!

Today was our final trek up to base camp.  We woke up to a clear sky and 30° temp.  By 9:30 it had warmed up to 36°.  Our first task was to get across the Vacas River to the valley that would take us to base camp.  We could either walk across in our sandals (as one of our guides did) or, avoid the just-above-freezing, knee-deep water and ride one of the mules across.  The rest of choose the mules and one by one with our packs we loaded up and bounced across.

For the next 8 or so hours we hiked up the Relenchos Valley.  We did our own river crossing later in the day in our sandals and knee-deep water... CHILLY.  We gained 3000 feet in altitude, had great views of the mountain along the way, and all made it successfully into base camp at about 4:40 pm. The temp did make it up into the  igh 60s, but the wind was so strong that we were adding additional layers throughout the day.

Base Camp - Oh Yeah!  We were greated by Ellie, the Alpine Ascents base camp manager,and a nice spread of crackers, peanut butter, chocolate, and flavored drinks.  We even had the luxury of being in a large dining tent sitting in chairs with backs on them!

Our tents were already set up for us.  There are rock wind walls surrounding each tent.  My tent happens to be on a slight angle... So, we will see how tolerant my tent mate, Gene, is as I roll into him with my -40° below sleeping bag monstrosity throughout the night!

The night wrapped up with a great hamburger dinner.  Everyone was in good spirits - lots of laughs.  We have a rest day tomorrow to help with acclimitization (we are at about 13,600 feet).  On Sunday, we will begin our first carry to Camp 1.

The Jacks and Jills Arrive at Base Camp

Hello. This is Eric Remza with Team Jacks and Jills calling in from 13,800 feet on Aconcagua at Plaza Argentina, our base camp for this expedition. To give you a bit of a run-down of what has transpired since our last cybercast, last night we had a nice dinner of hamburgers and went to bed. Everyone slept pretty well, although we were awakened this morning by a helicopter coming into camp. The helicopter did two or three trips (hauling out garbage and bringing in empty canisters for the toilets), which definitely got us up kind of early but some of us were able to sleep through it. Everyone slept pretty well, with not too many headaches. It always takes a little bit to sleep at a new elevation but everyone is doing really well this morning. We had a very nice breakfast of fresh honeydew melon, and breakfast burritos prepared by Dave Heinbach. That was eggs, tortillas, sautéed onions, red peppers, and green peppers. It was awesome and very filling. Dave continues to amaze us with his ability to be the human garbage disposal for our group. We don’t know where he’s putting it but he’s able to eat a lot of food.

Today is our rest day, but not for the guides. Brent, Dave, and I are doing all the food packing for our loads to be carried up high tomorrow. This will be all our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for up on the mountain. So we are organizing all that right now. Our plan is later to distribute all that, plus some other group gear to the group, and then give them a talk about how to pack their backpacks the correct way. Tomorrow our plan is to do a carry from our base camp here at 13,800 ft. up to the regular camp 1 at 16,200 ft. We’ll be bringing all of our tents and all of our food and fuel that we’ll be using up high. It will be a great way just to see how everyone does. We’ll take it nice and slow and hopefully everyone will do really well tomorrow. So we’ll give you an update about that tomorrow.

We do have some personal messages to pass on: Gene sends his love to his wife and daughters. Also a very special hello to Leanne on her adoption day 12 years ago today in China.

Al sends his love to Elaine and his family, and love and congratulations to new marine Alex.

We also have another website you can follow along. The son of John Carney, one of our team members, is doing a website and John has been sending dispatches along the way. His website is http://carneyblog.typepad.com/triandclimbforafrica. John has also been sending photos.

Cathy Goodrow also wants everyone to know that she singlehandedly saved the team yesterday, so we owe our lives to Cathy and her lifesaving skills. (Editorial comment from Ellie – what???? Sounds like there’s a story here but I haven’t heard it yet!!!)

Ciao for now from Eric Remza for Team Jacks and Jills

Day 8 - Base Camp Rest Day

We woke up to 30° temp, clear sky, almost no wind, and helicopters flying in to drop off supplies and pick up trash and waste.

Some of us got a good sleep... others had a hard time.  I was in the latter group - starting out the night with a mild headache and doing a lot of tossing and turning.  Fortunately, my headache was gone and I felt refreshed.

We had an unbelievable scrambled egg supreme breakfast.  We ate until we were stuffed.  It was very good.  During breakfast Ellie gave us the Base Camp guidelines - washing, showers, tents, etc.  Showers are $10 and availabe after 5 pm through another expedition company.  It's a solar shower... I'll give it a try the next time we are in base camp.

Generally it's been a day of hanging out, relaxing, and locking in our acclimitization.  Gene and I walked about 15 minutes to a nearby stream and did a little laundry.  Others broke out their books, slept, and started packing for our long day tomorrow carrying to Camp 1.

Our guides, Eric, Brent, and Dave, have been busy dividing up snack food for the entire climb, group food, and group gear.  Beginning tomorrow, it all starts to go up the mountain!

We now received all our group gear.  Almost all the group gear will go up tomorrow, Sunday.  We will climp to Camp 1, set up the tents, cache our gear, and return to base camp.  We will be taking a rest day on Monday, and then moving to Camp 1 on Tuesday.

There are a lot of unknowns tomorrow (altitude, pack weight, wind, temp). Let's hope for a good sleep tonight!

Day 9 - Carry to Camp 1, Return to Base Camp

We had French toast thrs morning.  A nice treat to start out a long day.  The guides tell us that this is usually the second hardest day after Summit Day. 

We left Base Camp at 10:40 am.  Our packs were all close to 50 lbs with the guides carrying a lot more.  The weather started our great, but we could see clouds building around the summit.

To cut to the conclusion, we made it to Camp 1 (16,200 feet) at 4:40 - a 6 hour climb, in and out of the glacier, and up a whole lot of skree.  We arrived back at Base Camp close to 8 pm - a hugely successful day!!

At our first break we got some snow flurries.  We also realized that once again, lunch had been left beind.  We decided to decided to change our team name to "Team We Don't Need No Stinking Lunch".  All you could do was laugh, but there was some serious discussion about which guide we would cook up first if things got desperate.

There were other teams on the trail - either carrying or moving to Camp 1.  The last 500 yards was a nasty skree field - 2 steps forward, one step back.  It was frustrating... But the skree is just one part t of the mental component of the ckimb.  Once you realize it's going to take twice as long to get up a particular section, you have to get into a rythym and go - step-slide, step-slide.  Sue was not feeling well - digestive problems.  She and Brent, a guide, turned around 800 vertical feet from Camp 1 and headed back to Base Camp.  Sue had gotten her acclimitization in and with a rest day ahead, she should be good to go for the move to Camp 1 on Tuesday.

Gene and I got blown off the trail at one point.  A huge gust of wind blew us one step back into the skree - and we slid about 8 more feet on our hands and knees.  We were fine and laughing about it - but a good reminder that each step matters.

At Camp 1 the wind was howling!  The camp was also full.  We all arrived pretty spent.  I had a nice low-grade headache working.  Eric was able to find two tent locations.  It took four people to set up one tent in the wind.  We stuffed the tents with the group and personal gear we had carried up.  We were all ready to start back down!

Back in Base Camp Brent cooked up some delicious burritos for dinner. Everone was in good spirits!  Sue was feeling better.  What we were all thinking about was how good our sleeping bag was going to feel!!

Who is Guiding Us?

We have three professional guides from Alpine Ascents - ensuring we summit or at least safely descend after giving it our best shot.  They each have enormous climbing and guiding experience.  Each day I am able get a whole new round of practical advice - and I need all I can get!

Our lead guide, Eric 33, has guided on 12 Aconcagua expeditions and summited 9 times.  He is from Seattle.  Eric has been guiding for over 10 years.  He has extensive Aconcagua, Denali, and Cascades experience in addition to Himalayan experience.

Dave 40, summited Aconcagua about 12 days ago with an earlier group and has been guiding for 6 years.  Dave is from Seattle.

Brent 30, also summited Aconcagua with Dave, and has been guiding for 8 years. Brent is from Utah. He plans on climbing in the Himalayas this fall and attempting Everest next spring.

In addition to their experience and qualifications as guides, they are great cooks, great people, and fun to hang out with - lots of great stories.

Feb. 12 We Carry to Camp 1

Ladies, gentlemen, and children of the worldwide web, thanks for tuning in to the cybercast from Alpine Ascents Aconcagua expedition team number 5, now calling themselves Team We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Lunch! Today we’ve enjoyed another day in Plaza Argentina, our scheduled rest day following a carry yesterday to Camp 1. This was a gain of 2,400 feet over probably a couple of miles to 16,200 feet, where we were met with some tremendous winds. We were able to set up two out of our four tents, where we stashed all of the group gear we carried and a few personal items. Nine hours later we returned to Plaza Argentina, with everyone a bit tired. We enjoyed a meal of quesadillas before hitting the sack and sleeping for some 12 hours. This morning we woke to clear skies and no wind, and enjoyed a potato fry for brunch. Most of us are lounging today, just relaxing. Everyone’s in good health. Otherwise today was pretty uneventful, except that team-member Nancy saved the group from imminent demise through her brilliant display of extreme strength and sharp wit. Other than that we are packing our personal gear and planning to do our move tomorrow, where we will commit to the mountain, spend the night at Camp 1, and begin working our way slowly up Aconcagua for the next week. There’s nothing else much to report. I was asked to say hello to everyone back home, and to wish Alex a happy departure for his next stint with the Marine Corps.

This is Brent signing off for the Team that changes its name daily.

The rest of the team has also submitted the following highlights from their expedition:
- Everyone was impressed with Jon’s bravery and acrobatic talent in recovering his hat, which was blown quite a distance by the wind. This is the same wind that apparently sent Cathy (one of our smaller members) sailing for a short distance as well.
- Everyone also noticed the pace set by Patty with metronome-like precision. Not even the Aconcagua scree flowing downhill under her feet could put her off her pace.
- Al stepped inside Tent 1 to secure it while team mates anchored it in the blasts of wind. Janney did her part for Tent 2 with rock anchors like none ever seen on the mountain – about ¼ ton per anchor and artfully placed to boot! Gene provided excellent supervision and kept team spirit high.
- Dave’s butterscotch candies provided the crucial burst of energy for all team members to return safely to base camp, where Ellie and Brent’s snacks, hot soup, and quesadillas awaited all.
- Words heard uttered by certain team members while lounging in the sun today included “helicopter”, “Mendoza”, “pub”, and “poolside”. (What, don’t they like our base camp beach??? I’m sure “beer” should be included there as well.)