High down here

I´ve been in Argentina since December 2. The first two weeks were spent in and around Mendoza and Cordoba. Drinking wine and attempting to untwist my Spanish toung (still to no avail).

On December 17 I met up with the group from The International Wilderness Leadership School (IWLS) which is run by Alaskan Mountain Guides (AMG). There are two guides Travis and John and four other guides in training/students Sanna, Emily, Joel and Jordan.

After meeting up in Mendoza we headed east to Penitentes on the 7 near the Chilean boarder. In Penitentes we spent a day packing all of our food and gear for 24 days into mule barrels. These needing to be 20>30kgs without any rattles or else what ever you pack will be pulverized upon arrival.

Where we spent the last 24 days was the Matienzo Valley directly west of Aconcagua on the Chilean boarder. We hiked into the valley in two days following the the Rio de las Cuevas.

The hike in was fairly gradual uphill until just before where our barrels got dropped having two consecutive river crossings and a steep uphill. After 12k with packs at the beggining of the trip before my legs had adjusted to the additonal weight was a burner.

Had a bit of a detour as according to the map that we had the "refugio" was on the other side of the river. I think the cartographers where drunk. Oh it´s not Aconcagua no one goes there we can fudge no one will notice. So we trudge way up this scree hill in the good old fashion of one step forward, slide two down high enough to see our barrels up on the other side of a non crossable section of river requiring some back tracking. Find a rock, sit and contemplate accepting that they´re not going to fly to you. Split a Clif Bar and put the pack back on.

The next few days were spent deciding where we wanted to go and hauling gear to our next high camp. The next camp was about 13.9K feet almost as high as Mount Rainier. Here we learned and practiced various techniques of self arresting using an ice ace, crampon techniques, anchor building and passing pro and of course climbing.

The first peak was one withought snow the Andes having had an especially light winter; but the scree skiing on the way down was epic. A climber once made the declaration "I didn´t know god stacked screek that high" in refrence to the Andes. I didn´t know it either. Love it or hate it, it´s impressive and despite it´s difficulties and hazards can be some serious fun. According to the map I´m looking at now I think this peak was Avion de B.Matienzo (4502M) but not a hundred percent sure as these maps are special at best.

The second peak we tried to climb didn´t get climbed due to severe weather conditions. After cautiously probing and crossing the glacier in two roped teams and traversing to our desired "door"/coular we had to navigate the bergshrund (where the glacier sepparates from the mountain, usually a fair sized crack or cavern). This is where we turned around, there was a snow bridge going accross but it was thin at best and with 7 people rather risky. When probed the probe dissapeared below Travis´ feet indicating he was standing on it.

Lightening, theres something to mention. When you´re as high as I was you´re in the clouds of electricity. Metal shit+ electricity= conductive buzzing. After a restish day of gear repair/maintainence and part of an afternoon lesson on crevase rescue it arrived. Grappel (a wierd cross between snow and hail similar to shreds of packing peanuts) is not your friend usually if not always indicates what you don´t want. We were up on our training slope near camp geared up with all sorts of metal when it starts buzzing and vibrating I don´t know how to explain it. So it was a quick down the hill to camp where it´s lower. We stripped and piled the gear and spread out into lightening position. This being a crouching heels together and hands on your head or behind your neck. Not a super plesant position to hold for extended periods of time especially when it is snowing. I think of it like a bad yoga pose.

After almost two hours when we thought it had passed me and one of the guides Travis when to fill the camp bladders and peoples water bottles from the Glacial stream near camp. On the way back up the hill we both started to hear and feel the buzzing. Packs off (notheing like a lot of a conductive substence in a wet bag attached to you wtih metal rods eh?) and back down the hill into lightening position it was for another spell. Before we reached the bags again despite being stripped off all but our zipper tabs we started to buz again and I´m pretty sure I was feeling the plate in my jaw. Haven´t a clue if that is even possible but I´m a little paranoid now that I might have a lightening rod screwed into my skull. Anyone have any ideas about this? I´d love to hear them.


The third peak was in the same glacial valley as the first and seccond. Accross from the first and further down the same side as the seccond. This foray started at climbing time (way too early for anything else but sleeping) roped up, and helmeted with headlamps on. The route was straight forward almost straight up a near vertical snowy coular all the way toabout 4674M of what I think is Las Cuevas again special maps. Special to the point that we might have actually been in Chile (illegally). The way down being so steep required several pitches of rapelling off of ice screws and picket anchors. Our descent also happened to coincide with another bout of buzzing mid slope for some of us above the others. We spread out a little, planted our selves in the snow and attempted to distance our selves from our axes hard to do when you´re screwed if you loose it. Finally down and in relative proximity to camp the weather was in near white out conditions. Having left camp before the sun was up I didn´t get a very good look at the way we came. Glacial morains all look pretty similar even when it´s not poor visibility. So me and Emily got a bit lost on the way back taking about an hour to do what should have taken un 15min. Caused some worry and almost a search. Feeling highly relieved when we did arrive back and also a bit sheepish, and guilty like a 6 year old.

This saga continues and will do so shortly.

Chau,
CT