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After a rather tortuous journey from Worcestershire to Gatwick where we drove through snow, rain and the inevitable traffic jams on the M25, we managed to arrive at the airport at the appointed hour: 8:30pm. Checking in was remarkably smooth, but didn't start until we had had the obligatory team photos.
Saying goodbye to Ad was hard, but once she had gone, I busied myself with the gear to take my mind off it. She had a long drive home, parting would be harder for her, at least I had something to think about.
Our flight to Buenos Aires (BA) was by 747 - my first time on a Jumbo Jet. We had free pillows, socks, toothbrush and headphones awaiting us. Luckily the three seats to my right were free so I managed to get a decent nights sleep and woke reasonably refreshed at 6:30am in time for breakfast and landing at Buenos Aires.
Our first disaster! Chris' gear had been left at Gatwick. We have been promised that it will be sent by tomorrow we'll see.
Getting unloaded and organised was a major hassle, there is so much gear. We (Linda) negotiated a special bus to transfer us to the other airport, there were bags everywhere. We made it though, checked in and began our flight to Mendoza via San Juan.
Once all our gear was safely unloaded, we then had to reload it into mini-buses for the trip to the Youth Hostel in Mendoza. Checking in with all the gear was fun but we managed it. The next job was to organise food shopping. Luckily I wasn't one of the shoppers, so took the opportunity of suggesting we try out the Sat Phone.
It all went very smoothly except we couldn't figure out whether the solar panel was working. In order to test the phone, I called Ad who was pleased to hear from me. Danny took exception to this, but how was I supposed to test a phone without making a call? Everyone else had a turn at calling home, so that was okay.
Later we went out for a stroll. 9:30pm was dinner time. The restaurant was superb - eat as much as you like for $10. I had three main courses. The shoppers were meant to meet us at the restaurant but failed to show. When we got back to the hostel, they were there. The trip had been fun but exhausting seemingly.
An early start was needed so that we could visit the Permits Office to pick up our permits to climb. It was done reasonably quickly given there were sixteen of us. After that, eight of us headed off for Los Penitentes. The trip was about three hours including several photo opportunities for both cameras and Justines videos. As we passed through Puenta del Inca, we had a superb view of Tupungato.
Los Penitentes is an amazing place, remote, but lots of 'hotels'. We had a small chalet at one end and after lunch, spent several hours counting and repacking the food, it was a huge pile. We finished about 7:00pm. The sun was quite bright still, so I took a walk up the mountain behind the chalet. The views were amazing but the mountain just went on and on, so after about an hour I came down.
Part of the reason we got sponsorship was because we were doing research into High Alitude acclimatisation and part of this research involved us getting on a 'bike' and cycling like a crazy man for a couple of minutes whilst Jeremy monitored our geart rate and oxygen uptake. The bike was a flat affair with pedals and some resistance so we had to lie flat down. at this altitude it wasn't too bad, we sill see how it is higher up!
The others had arrived, minus Chris whose gear still hadn't arrived. Later on, we went next door for some food, the main course of which, was spaghetti - I managed about half. Ad would have been proud of my effort.
We didn't need to start early today, but everyone was up and about by 8:00am ish. Having sorted my gear, I went in search of some change for the telephone to give Ad a quick call - totally failed! The nearest I got was to change some dollars into Pesos but only notes, so I tried the local shop - he had no change either. Give up!
About 11:30am, things started to get exciting, the muleteers were loading up. By 12:30pm they had finished and 1:00pm we set off for the Vacas trailhead. A few photos and final wombling and we were off. The walk to the first camp was quite tiring. I had a headache which only went after taking a couple of Neurofen and having lunch. I had been drinking water constantly so I was well hydrated, although I didn't piss all day.
We took our time, stopping several times for rests and dipping toes into the river. We eventually arrived at about 6:30pm and immediately set about tent erection and meal preparation. That done, the rest of the evening was spent chatting before retiring at 10:30pm.
Altitude: 2,875m, Distance: 11.6km. The weather was hot all day - shorts and T-shirt weather. Once the sun went down, it cooled off but tracksters and sweater sufficed. Dinner was spaghetti with tuna, tomatoes and curry - remarkably nice. Overnight I wore thin trousers only to stop a sweat rash in the sleeping bag.
We were up and about shortly after 7:00am. Breakfast was porridge - not bad with loads of sugar, but it went cold very quickly. We were packed and ready by 8:30am. The days hike started with some awkward route finding, but we soon got sorted and were on easy paths. Lunch lasted about an hour from 12:00-1:00pm. The afternoon was a tough walk into the camp because the wind had got up and was blowing dust everywhere. I eventually resorted to sunglasses simply to keep the dust out of my eyes.
About 500m from the camp site, Aconcagua came into view. It is totally awesome!
As I was early, I set about putting up the tent. It required several large boulders to stop the thing blowing away. It was then that I realised my other bag was nowhere to be seen! It contained all my sleeping gear - disaster!
Danny discovered that the mule carrying my kit had slipped and dropped the load. It was all okay and would arrive presently. About an hour later, it duly arrived much to my relief. I had arrived about 3:00pm. By 4:30pm the last man, Mark arrived to report that Matt had turned back feeling very bad.
Today we moved up from Casa Piedra to the Plaza Argentina Base Camp. We had about 1,000m of ascent to cope with. The day started rather badly because we had a river to cross and no way of avoiding wading. As a consequence we all managed to get wet feet, except Jeremy who managed to completely submerge himself!
The route up was not without problem, there were several river crossings required, most of which we could jump - one or two had problems with that, but we all arrived safely without incident. The climb up is steep to start, but eases off and we decided in a lunch stop at about 12:30. This lasted about 2 1/2 hours before we decided that we had to move.
The second half was reasonably okay, tiring, but acceptable.
We arrived about 4:30pm and after sorting ourselves out, discovered that the only water was about fifteen minutes walk - luckily flat, so a few of us set off to fill bottles. The rest of the day was spent relaxing before dinner at 8:00pm and retiring at 10:00pm.
I didn't suffer with any headaches, but had a bad nights sleep - must have been the afternoon nap!
Altitude: 4,220m, Distance: 10.4km. Weather was hot again all day. It cooled off in the evening and trousers and thermal tops were required.
