Final Indulgences

Did I mention beef?



Argentinian Bife con Chorizo

 Argentinian beef truly does live up to its reputation!  Now that we´re properly proteined, carbed and caloried up, it´s time to do this thing!  Leaving in an hour for the park entrance.

Estamos en Mendoza

We arrived in Mendoza on-time and in good spirits after a long trip.  The flight from Miami to Santiago was less than half full so we were all able to claim three center seats and (more or less) recline for the trip.  Summer has just started in Argentina and the weather is warm.  The streets of Mendoza are all lined with old sycamore trees (thank you former city planners) which provides a welcoming environment for hanging out, carb-loading, eating beef and sampling other local agricultural products!  When we arrived on Sunday the 26th, there was no activity in town at all, but when we awoke Monday morning the streets were transformed.  We had a laundry list of chores to do including confirming transportation to the Provincial Park, getting climbing permits and shopping for dried meat products, dried fruit, etc. 


Steve negotiating with a Provincial Park employee



Brad & Rich proudly displaying their climbing permits

It is 9 pm Monday evening as I write this post and we´re thinking about going out to dinner.  Businesses are open from about 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, closed until 4:30 pm and open until ?.  We´ve been sitting on the rooftop patio this evening sampling local agricultural products and looking forward to the coming days.  It is likely that I will not be able to post for the next several days, but who knows.  We start up the hill on Wednesday after spending the night at the Provincial Park entrance on Tuesday. Buen Nuevo Año!

Finally off

It's a relief to move beyond the planning phase, complete with obsessive gear-checking, worry and anticipation. We all made it through check-in without luggage surcharges, despite the fact that we were all a bit oversize and overweight. Merry Christmas American Airlines! Now settling in for a pleasant little 22 hour suite of airplanes and navigating airports.



Photo: Carb loading at DFW
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Southern Oak Dr,Irving,United States

Excess Baggage, Plaza de Mulas

At least four of five of the Andinistas have reported the need for 11th hour acquisition of larger luggage to accommodate the mountain of gear accumulated for our upcoming expedition. We are collectively hoping that the American Airlines' check-in agents are more focused on holiday goodwill than on maximizing profits for The Company.

As has been previously noted, Plaza de Mulas (Plaza of the Mules) is base camp at about 14,300 ft (4,370m) elevation.  Base camp is really a small village with a "hotel" nearby (reportedly the highest hotel in the world), meals, showers and internet & other services for sale.

Our plan is to spend several days here acclimatizing and perhaps taking dayhikes to nearby peaks or other points of interest.  Rich - the team planning, navigation, and weather geek, has noted that by Wednesday about a foot of snow is forecast to fall at the Plaza de Mulas, which is a bit unusual.

The following is a photo sent by our muleteers showing ascent of the Canaleta, a 1,000 ft (300 m) chute just before the summit - a scene we hope to see within the next several weeks!

Happy holiday wishes to all our friends and family!

Mendoza

Two words:  Malbec and beef.....

Mendoza is our destination prior to our Aconcagua attempt, and will be our respite after time on the mountain, prior to our return to the winter of Washington.  Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, and with a population of approximately 110,000 (about 800,000 in greater Mendoza) it is the 4th largest metropolitan area in Argentina.  The city is at a latitude of 32 deg south (about the same latitude south as Dallas, TX and Birmingham, AL are north) at an elevation of about 2,500 ft (760m).  Summers are hot and dry with temperatures not uncommonly in the 90's (30's+ C) during the days.

The two main industries of the Mendoza area are wine making and olive oil production.  About two-thirds of Argentina's wine production is from Mendoza Province with Malbec being the most produced varietal.  Other major varietals produced in the area are Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Chardonnay.  Argentina boasts the world's highest per capita consumption of beef with over 140 lbs (65 kg) of beef consumed annually by every Argentinian man, woman and child!

We hope and plan to have several days at the end of our trip to do our duty as responsible tourists and guests, supporting the local agriculture and economy!

Route of Travel

Our route of travel seems somewhat convoluted, though when viewing it on the map it makes more sense:

We leave Seattle around 11 am on Christmas Day, fly first to Dallas/Fort Worth, to Miami, to Santiago, Chile, and finally arrive in Mendoza at about 3 pm on Sunday, December 26. Argentina (GMT -3) is 5 hours later that Seattle (GMT -8), so our travel time is about 22 hours.

The Andinistas

Steve

Rich

Geoff

Ben

Brad

Aconcagua Facts

Aconcagua, the “Stone Sentinel” is the highest mountain in the Americas at 22,841 ft (6,962m), and is the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres.  It is one of the Seven Summits.  Aconcagua is in the Andes mountain range with the summit located about 9 miles from the international border with Chile, about 50 miles northeast of the Chilean capital of Santiago, and about 70 miles west by north of the city of Mendoza. 

In 2009/2010, 3,712 climbers entered the Aconcagua Provincial Park during the primary climbing season (December – February) with the intent of climbing the mountain.  There are three primary climbing routes on the mountain – the Normal route, the Polish Glacier route and the Polish Glacier Traverse route.  The route we’re taking is the Normal route.  While “non-technical” (no ropes/technical climbing), all routes are nonetheless challenging due to the requirement for acclimatization - atmospheric pressure is 40% of sea-level at the summit, and cold and windy conditions. 

After arrival in Mendoza, purchasing jerky, landjaeger, and other food staples, our plan is to travel to the entrance of the Provincial Park at about 9,000 ft.  We have hired mules at the entrance to the park to carry most of our gear to base camp at about 14,300 ft (approximately the height of the Mt. Rainier summit!), and we will trek to base camp over about three days.  Following is a summary of the planned camps during our climb:

• Puente del Inca, 8,990 ft (2,740m): A small village on the main road, with facilities including a lodge.
• Confluencia,11,090 ft (3,380m): A camp site a few hours into the national park.
• Plaza de Mulas, 14,340 ft (4,370m): Base camp, claimed to be the second largest in the world (after Everest). There are several meal tents, showers and internet access. There is a lodge approx. 1 km from the main campsite across the glacier.
• Camp Canadá, 16,570 ft (5,050 m): A large ledge overlooking Plaza de Mulas.
• Camp Alaska, 17,060 ft (5,200 m): Called 'change of slope' in Spanish, a small site as the slope from Plaza de Mulas to Nido de Cóndores lessens. Not commonly used.
• Nido de Cóndores, 18,270 ft (5,570 m): A large plateau with beautiful views. There is usually a park ranger camped here.
• Camp Berlín, 19,490 ft (5,940 m): The classic high camp, offering reasonable wind protection.
• Camp Colera, 19,620 ft (5,980 m): A larger while slightly more exposed camp situated directly at the north ridge near Camp Berlín, with growing popularity.

Summit day is by far the longest day with the greatest elevation gain – about 3,400 ft (>1,000m).

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!