T minus 2-weeks

I would never have thought that planning, organizing and preparing for a lengthy climb would be so consuming.  Ben, Steve, Rich and I started talking seriously about an expedition climb about 9 or 10 months ago, and somehow we homed in on Aconcagua as a worthy objective.  Even though the ruta normal (Normal route) up the mountain is non-technical, we came to understand that getting up in any manner is not trivial.  The major challenges are acclimatization and dealing with extreme cold.  Though the weather on Aconcagua is generally fair during this time of the summer, it is not unknown for fierce storms to descend on the mountain.  The vientes blancas - white winds, are notorious and reputedly ever-present.  We are going un-guided which we understand can be a good thing as we have heard that many guides are interested in pushing their clients to the summit, or as close as they can get to the summit, as quickly as possible.  There's no bonus for a guide to give his client time in camp to acclimatize, so they have the reputation of pushing, pushing, pushing their clients up the mountain, ready or not.

Rich is bringing Brad - his 20-something son, fresh out of the army and a tour of Iraq.  Though Brad is not an experienced climber, he's tough,  Group dynamics will be interesting to observe (damn! would be even more interesting if I weren't one of the participants!) - Three mid-40-somethings, all at watershed periods of their lives; one late-50-something having already passed through many of the transitional challenges of his brethren, but now on to grappling with urgent issues of meaning and legacy; and one young 20-something with the expanse of his entire life waiting to be peeled back and explored.

Back to the planning, I have been obsessing about my gear list for the past two weeks and I'm not done yet.  close, maybe, but there are still several important (reportedly) items that have not yet made their way into the pile that is to become the contents of my pack and duffel. I'm intent to keep a tally of what I do and don't use to either show how smart or naive I am in the end.

Our reservations are for Christmas day, 2010 - we'll fly from Seattle to Dallas to Miami to Santiago, Chile and finally to Mendoza, Argentina.  I will be taking my iPhone with me and hope that I will be able to keep up with this blog at various points of wi-fi contact.  Stay tuned - could be interesting!