Aconcagua trip report

Normally I don't write this stuff down, but due to the fact that this story is so much the result of the kindness of strangers I think I sort of owe it to them.

I arrived in Puenta del Inca on 16/11/2007, a day later than I thought because I woke up late and couldn't get a permit in time to catch the 10:15 bus the previous day.

On the bus I realized I'd left my soft shell jacket (it blocks wind. The wind in the park is strong enough to literally knock you over and make you stagger). A nice man offered to let me use his cellphone, and someone whipped up a copy of Lonely Planet to figure out the phone number for the hostel. Carlos, a trekking guide from my hostel who was going to Confluencia agreed to take it for me. Unfortunately the reception misunderstood and was waiting for the man from the bus to bring it to them so they could send it, and the jacket was left at the hostel after all.

Anyway, upon arriving I discovered my hiking poles were still on the bus. I hitchiked to the next town, the last stop in the line, and got my sticks along with the hat of an Australian woman from the bus.

When I got back to the park enterance I prepared to change my sandals to my mountaineering boots in order to hike to Confluencia and realized that I forgot one more very vital piece of equipment: my insoles. Unfortunately this was no longer just lying around the hostel, it was locked in the hostel, and the only key was in my pocket.

I started going back to Mendoza, and after about 20 minutes managed to catch a ride to Puenta del Inca. I bought some juice at the snack bar and asked where I can buy a bus ticket. They pointed in a certain direction, and I walked out struggling with my backpack, the miscellaneous stuff that I detached from it, and the carton of juice in my hands. I arrived to the place I thought they meant and they sent me back to a small booth. All in all about 20 meters of walking, I'd say. When I got to the booth, my zip loc bag with my money, credit card, and park permit was gone. I must have fumbled it because of all the other crap I was holding in my hands, and somebody just picked it up and ran off.

After searching frantically for about an hour (I thought it might have gotten blown away by the wind, which was strong) I gave up and just started waiting around to see if somebody would bring it back (the police station was closed). Eventually the aforementioned Australian and her English companion arrived back from their hike. They heard my story and bought me a bus ticket, and also told my story to an American guy who gave me some money. They were all very persuasive ;-). Unfortunately I don't have any of these peoples names or contact info.

Subsequently a German guy named Dirk came down from the park and met me. He showed me some pictures and I explained about the "climbing" route (really just a trek). He was planning on going to Plaza de Mulas to see if he likes it, and then maybe going to Mendoza and arranging a climb. Eventually he returned from his hostel with more money for me.

Anyway, at this point I was just killing time before the bus came, waiting to see if the police station would open (it never did). I was reading my book next to my backpack, when a dog actually came up and just started peeing on it immediately and without warning. He managed to get a bit on it too before I shooed him away, but not too much.

I eventually got back to Mendoza at around 00:30.

The next day I packed everything I had previously forgotten, and went to the permit office. The nice girls there wrote a letter to validating the copy of the permit they printed for me as if it was the permit itself, enabling me to go back to the park.

I took the 10:15 bus again and within 30 minutes of arriving I was already walking at a brisk 2kph towards Confluencia base camp.

Despite some help from two french guys (they carried a few of my things for a while) I arrived fairly late, carrying a load of about 35-40kg and using boots too heavy for comfortable walking. The weight was all the winter gear and about 12kg of food. Not much fun.

Originally I had intended to walk this leg, albeit slowly, and then hire a mule for the next one (which is much longer, from Confluencia to Plaza de Mulas). Unfortunately I had no more money left, so I had to carry this on my own. =(

In Confluencia I met some Israeli people, most of which left the next day, leaving only Tzachi. Tzachi was there to climb with a friend called Ram, who was back in Mendoza trying to fix their white gas stoves. It turns out that the idiot at the hardware store sold them paint thinner instead, despite the fact that they were very explicit about what they wanted. The thinner melted the rubber O rings in the stoves rendering them inoperable.

On that day I went to Plaza Francia, the south face base camp, for views and acclimatization. I managed to run out of water, so I didn't have a proper lunch. I also lost the trail and went looking for it upwards instead of downwards. And in general I was just slow. I arrived back quite late to find Tzachi really on edge (he had nothing better to do than worry about me).

The next day I decided to rest instead of go to Plaza de Mulas. Tzachi and I built couches from rocks and put our mattresses on them, and spent the day reading. Around 12:30 Ram came back with a rented replacement stove pump and proper fuel.

The next day they couldn't wake me up in time so they left an hour and a half before me for Plaza de Mulas. I left quite late (11:30) for what is supposed to be an 8 hour hike. I had left some of my superflous gear and food with Carlos, but on the other hand I had readded all the weight and then some with additional water. Despite all this I actually made good time to Piedra Ibañez, pretty much the half way point. Up to there the way is spiteful and nasty and has pointy teeth and is just not nice in general. It starts out as soft sand, in which you sink a bit, making the experience almost like walking on a beach. Then it changes to a dry river bed, full of fist sized rocks and lots of small dry streams, making walking even more difficult with the heavy mountaineering boots. In retrospect my biggest error was leaving the normal hiking boots at the hostel to save weight. Anyway, at Ibañez the trail splits off and climbs a bit. After crossing a few partially melted snow gullies (in the pictures they look like ice spikes), I arrived at the end of the valley and the last part left was to climb up to the camp. It was 19:30 or so. Looking at my bullshit map I figure that I had crossed the river (I crossed an unmarked stream). I was skeptical and tried to triangulate my position and get a bearing for the gully I wanted. My position was correct, but due to sloppy marking of the trail on the map I picked the wrong gully. I finished my water and gave my last push following what looked like a trail (but was probably a stream). After an hour the trail disappeared and the scree I was walking on just steepened with no resolution. It was dark now. I cut across and down to the base of the valley but further north, and eventually found what looked like a trail. I followed it for a few tens of meters and saw some mule poop, and that led me to camp over the course of the next two hours or so (I was really exhausted at that point). At 23:00 I arrived at the camp. It turns out that the man from the bus is also the camp medic. He was very nice again, giving me water, both hot and cold for food and drinking. The rangers babysat me for an hour as I ate and drank and eventually let me go set up my tent. They were really concerned because I was both dehydrated and at altitude. Surprisingly the next day at my checkup I had a pulse of 62 and a blood oxygen level of 96%.

We another day in Plaza de Mulas, befriending the park staff and reading more. In the afternoon bad weather came in. We also met Dirk who went up to Nido de Condores and was going to try to get a permit without leaving the park, to rent all the equipment over there, and to try for the summit.

The day after that we took our food to Nido de Condores. Dirk was there, preparing for his ascent, as was an Austrian climber and a Chilean climber. We ate food leftover from previous years (someone actually carried canned fois gras up there!), and they told me about the windy weather on the route which was giving them difficulty. Then I went back down to Plaza de Mulas.

On the next day we rested again, and nothing interesting happenned. I finished my TrashBag Technology™ vapor barrier suit. It's very stylish. You can see what happens after you take them off in this video.

A very nice Argentine named Denisio was there at the time, giving us all his wonderful leftover food. There was also a group of 3 Italians who had just sumitted, Sybil, a Swiss girl, and her guide, and a German couple. The Chilean and Austrian climbers went down that day.

Then we went up to Nido de Condores for our attempt. Unfortunately Tzachi got altitude sickness on the way up, and Nido de Condores was very crowded. Tzachi's mattress was also leaking, so he slept in the ranger cabin as well that night.

Originally we had intended to try the very next day, but due to Tzachi's sickness we waited another. I think it was for the best anyway, I felt like I had a good rest in Nido de Condores, despite the fact that we were told it'd be very cold and the altitude would make it difficult to sleep.

The German couple tried for the summit that day and got 50 meters from the top before turning back because of bad weather. They went down after that.

The day after we woke up at 3:30, made a last batch of water and left for the summit. We lost the trail quite quickly though, and climbed by a somewhat awkward path to the trail itself, where we met Sybil, who was also trying for the summit that day, and her guide. We followed them for a while but around Camp Berlin we lost their pace, and Tzachi's altitude sickness was starting to become a problem. The sunset was beautiful, but my camera complained about having no battery. I put it in my inner pocket to let it heat up, but then I forgot about it, so I do not have any pictures of my own from that day. At around 5300m, at 10:30 in the morning or so, Tzachi started getting really bad and threw up. He took diamox, and then we went up a bit more, to Refugio Independencia in the hopes of getting him down via the much faster escape route (which is too slippery to walk up), leading straight from the canaletta (almost the summit) to Nido de Condores. Unfortunately he felt too bad, so Ram and him turned back at this point instead, and went back through Camp Berlin. They insisted I continue, though in retrospect I should have come, since Ram was having difficulties with Tzachi later.

I continued past Refugio Independencia, losing the trail at some point due to windloaded snow from the day before. When I found the trail, Sybil and her guide left tracks 2 hours prior, but they were already almost covered due to the wind.

I followed for another 2 hours or so and got to about 6600 meters when I saw lenticular clouds in the distance. I climbed another hour, but by then more clouds, mostly mackerel alto comulus (which may indicate percipitation clouds are next) were forming everywhere, and a thick cover was headed my way. Since my GPS was stolen in Peru I was afraid I'd wind up in whiteout conditions and wouldn't know my way back, so at this point I turned around and went back down.

At Nido I met the guys, who were resting. Tzachi was in pretty bad shape, but improving. They went down that night, and I stayed with the gear at Nido. Ram would return the next day to pick everything up.

I started making water for cooking and drinking, and then got in my sleeping bag to read at about 21:00.

The next thing I remember is a knock on the ranger cabin's door urging me to wake up... at 11 am the next day. Blah.

At least I somehow miraculously turned off the stove in my sleep - in the morning there was still fuel in it and the water had not all boiled away (in fact the pot was frozen shut). I don't think I would have choked as the door was never really closed, but the neoprene insulation on the pot could have started burning. Scary. I also didn't eat or drink anything, which is pretty bad.

Tzachi and Ram got to sleep at the ranger station that night. They got free food, too. These are the some of the desired symptoms of AMS

We were planning on going down from Nido, renting mules, and going straight to Puenta del Inca on that same day. Unfortunately mules were very expensive going down, too - still a whopping $120 despite the fact that almost every single one of the 50 daily mules was going down empty.

We decided to stay one more day, leaving early next morning, and just hung out with the rangers. At the end of that day they made cheeseburgers and gave us some, and it was goooood.

We left the next morning at 7. That time the endless leg was a little more bearable, since it was down hill and with a smaller weight. I did get off to a bad start though, slipping in a stream and breaking one of my hiking poles. Amusingly the water from the stream later actually froze on my pants after a while.

We were pretty quick though, and managed to catch the 16:00 bus for Mendoza, rerenting the apartment they stayed in before, and eating steaks that night.

Due to my forgetfulness and the theft and the fact that I stayed one day more than I had intended in Confluencia I did not get a second chance for the summit - there was just not enough time.

I want to thank all the wonderful people who helped so much so that I could accomplish what I did accomplish even if it was not a successful summit. You guys really saved me.

P.S. the pictures have tooltips, mouse over them for captions. I was too lazy to make proper captions, sorry.