Aconcagua

“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.”
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Monday, February 9th to Thursday, February 26th 2009

The end was very much like the beginning. I found myself again struggling for air where every step is an effort. It's cold and high but none of that matters, just the next step, and than another one and another one. Slowly slowly I get nearer and nearer to my target. But this time the target is not an unknown pass in the Andes. At almost 7km the Aconcagua summit is the roof of the Americas and in fact the highest place in the world outside the Himalaya range in Asia. It took a lot of time and effort before I had the summit in view, in fact it took 15 days of climbing to reach it and only 2 going down... I didn't plan to do it at first, but I was looking for a grand finale for my South American adventure and the idea of finishing it on the highest point available appealed to me. So I dropped other plans such as to visit the Antarctic region or the carnival in Brazil and submitted myself to the cold long challenge of expedition climbing... To be honest, lying in a tent at 6000m in -40c temperature and howling winds I wished I had gone to Brazil...

It started OK though. I moved into the Hyatt in Mendoza on Feb 7th where I met Boe, my room mate and tent mate for the next weeks as well as the rest of the expedition, all Americans, all in great shape after practicing for this event and all ready to charge up the mountain. I was a little tired by now but the group atmosphere helped to fill me with enthusiasm as well. I also met our guides Mike and Larry with them we were a total of 9 climbers. On the next day we moved to the ski resort at Penitentes where we spent another night before starting our hike to base camp the next morning. The 3 days hike to Plaza Argentina was a nice walk in the Vacas valley in high desert settings with light clothes and almost nothing on our back since all the expedition gear was carried by mules. The only meaningful event happened on the 3rd day when I slipped during a river crossing and my MP3 player got fried, this will be a loss I will mourn for in the following weeks. After we arrived to base camp we had one day to rest and enjoy the dining tents and toilets - two things that we'll miss on the cold harsh mountain. After the rest we did our first carry. Basically you can't just carry all your gear in one time so you go to each camp twice: first to deposit food, fuel and group gear and than with your personal pack and tent you settle in. As Boe said, we climb the mountain twice... Due to the cold and altitude, from now on we will have to wear our double plastic mountaineering boots that weigh 2kg each but keeps our feet dry and warm. The carry was hard as it is not easy carrying 15-20kg on your back from 4300m to 5000m and the difficulty persuaded one of the members of the group to retire... The remaining 8 moved to camp I under a cover of snow the day after.

Weather started to be a problem. It snowed during our last night in base camp and while the mornings where nice, at around 16:00 the clouds formed, the sun disappeared and it started to snow again. The camp was nothing more that a rocky shelf on which we build our tents and once we moved in we had to keep going carrying all the equipment and garbage we produce (including "personal" waste that had to be deposited in special nylon bags). We didn't rest in camp I and immediately did a carry for camp II following by a move the next day. Camp II was higher, colder and windier but had much better views of the surrounding snowy peaks. We rested one day and made our last carry to camp III AKA high camp. The carry was incredibly hard due to the altitude and lack of oxygen and we struggled up the mountain in a very slow pace. We moved to camp III on a cold windy day and with the little energy we had left we set our camp and went to sleep. But sleep did not came. At 6000m there was not enough oxygen to sustain sleep and life on the mountain went from very hard to impossibly hard. We spent 3 nights in high camp, unable to sleep, having strong headaches and trying not to get out of the tent to avoid the cold -40c wind blowing outside. The wait was almost intolerable and after almost two weeks of climbing I had very little energy left to fight the cold and despair. Only on the 3rd morning the wind died and we set out at 6:00 with headlamps, wearing everything we had, crampons and ice axes to the long hard walk to the summit. It will take 13 hours before we will collapse back in our sleeping bags after a very very hard climb. The next two days will not be easy as well, as we descended down the other side of the mountain to the other base camp (we climbed from the steeper, harder side and went down the normal path) and than another 27km back to the road. It was the hardest, longest and most satisfying trek I had in my trip. Was it worth it? lets just say that I'm glad I did it but I don't think I'll do it again :)

Punta Arenas

“Penguins mate for life. That doesn't surprise me much because they all look alike. It's not like they're going to meet a really new, great looking penguin someday.”
~Source unknown

Thursday, January 29nd to Monday, February 2nd 2009

I came to Punta Arenas, the biggest city in Patagonia, for two reasons: to find good equipment and to visit the Penguin colony on Magdalena island. I returned from the Torres del Paine trek just a day before and continued south on my own since Ron was traveling in the other direction after already visiting Punta Arenas. I did however got an hostel address from Ron and started walking for it as soon as the bus stopped. Near the hostel entrance I met Oren, Dani and Roni (despite their names only one of them was a man - can you guess who?). We arrived on the same bus, but their taxi and my walking pace united us again. Turned out that they had a reservation and I didn't. Since the only available bed was in their room, they kindly offered, and I accepted to share the room with them. After dinner at a local restaurant we decided to go see the Penguins tomorrow. The hostel owner, one of the most friendliest and helpful I met in my travels, helped us book the tickets and told us how to pick a local colectivo taxi to the local port. We boarded our ship - a large vessel that once served as a ferry in those waters for a two hours sail to Isla Magdalena deep inside the Magellan's straights. As we got closer to the island we saw the lighthouse on the highest point and something that looked like weird vegetation across the sandy surface. Turns out the the "vegetation" was nothing else but the 150,000 Penguins that populate the Island...

As we disembarked from the ship to steady land we found ourselves surrounded by thousands of Penguins who didn't seem to care much about our presence. They walked around, dug holes, fought, played and ate totally ignoring the large group of humans who suddenly invaded their sanctuary. We were told before going to shore that it is strictly forbidden to touch the Penguins but apparently the Penguins were not told the same as was demonstrated by a couple of them who came to check out my shoes (the common theory on the shore was that after 7 days of trekking the shoes smelled like fish - attracting the hungry birds...). We walked for about 2 hours surrounded by the funny birds and got a unique look into their behaviour outside captivity. As I boarded the ship I realized that this was as south as I'm going to get looked at Tierra del Fuego on the other side of the straights, promising myself to return if I'll find the time. Another 2 hours sail returned us to the city and after a good dinner in a good restaurant we retired to sleep. The second half of my mission was not as successful tough. The next day after getting more information from the hostel owner I took another colectivo to the local tax free zone to look for some good mountaineering equipment but found very few items from my long list. In the next two days I scanned the tax free zone and the local mall finding some of the items I needed but not enough. For that reason I changed my flight and instead of flying directly to Mendosa, I flew to Santiago, slept in the familiar Hostel de Sammy and found all that I needed in the town good equipment shops. It was time to move on to the last and biggest challenge of my travels so far...