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Published: January 13th 2007
Horcones Valley
With the dutch-german-dutch-argentinien expedition! Aconcagua
with its hight of 6962m, one of the 7 cumbres, the 7 highest mountains in the world! thats one mountain i would like to climb! It didn´t quite work out like that!
It started with the search in Mendoza to a real expedition! I was still alone in my search to the top, and people told me to look for more people, just in case! This wasn´t going to be the easiest mountain! A guide wasn´t an option because that would mean a big chunk out of our budget, even maybe going home afterwards, so expensive! Plus a lot of local guides and people who went already said, it was do-able by yourself, just meet people on the mountain and you can group up with others!
alright, lets do that then! And so i ended up going alone! But just 5 minutes before i left mendoze, i already had contact with this crazy German,
Axel he should come at the end of the day to
Puenta del Inca so we could share a mule together! There we met also this Dutchman (which turned out to going to the same school as were i
Plaza de Francia
With on the background a massive South Face of Aconcagua went!)
UNO and the Argentinien hero
Willie ! And an expedition was born!
There we left the 3th of januari, Easy day to start with, and within 3 houres we were at
Plaza Confluencia Nothing more, drinking a bit of Maté and walking around! Overall a nice start!
Its starting to get a bit cold already but you don´t here us complain! after the heat in Mendoza its nice and refreshing! Both Axel and i have all our stuff at the mules. So the only thing we could do was to eat the nice diners and breakfasts at the camp and bring the nice packed lunches! damn! think i gained a 5 kilo´s last couple of days by just eating so much! Heaven!
Day 2 brings us in the direction of
Plaza de Francia Willie decided to walk straight to Plaza de Mulas so its just the 3 of us! Here it starts to be a little more of a challenge, headache comes now and then but after 5 hours we do look at the brilliant and impressive south face of the Aconcagua! Down its a bit easier and around 1700
Plaza de Francia
Here we are at 4200m! we´re already hungry and waiting in the tents for our nice diner! Uno Decides then to go back to Mendoza and that leaves us 2 alone! gone is our little Expedition! But together we´ll menage!
Day 3: is like everybody said, one of the hardest days! A straight 9 hour walk or something! We´ll see! It starts easy, not much wind and not so much of an incline! Here and there we cross a river, which comes out wasn´t necessary after all, because we end up on the wrong side, and have to cross it again! Then after 5 hours when we think we´re almost there, we come to the sign ¨Plaza de Mulas-4 hours¨ Aah! well if it stays like this its alright! But it wasn´t The track decided to steepen up! Nice and easy! Crazy German went on running of, while i was a bit slower and just enjoyed the view etc.....
After 2 hours easy climb we came up on a wall, at least it looked like it! You could just see some little people zig-zag their way up to the top! There should be the camp....
Already at an altitude of 4100m i start the
Plaza de Canada
Brilliant view from 5050m!!!! ascent, arriving at the top 45 minutes later thinking thats the end! Nope, just another mountain more, maybe around the next corner? aaaaah finally arrived at basecamp, tired and totally broke! luckely we´ve got a day off the next day to acclimatise and rest!
But such a brilliant view around us now! Willie has also arrived here the previous day and is waiting for us to join the expedition again!
Day 4 brings nothing more then just a couple of resting moments, bit of reading! Axel is a bit ill, but he menages! I feel a bit headache-like all day, its getting worse in the evening and we just go to the medic to check! Everything is OK! Except for the oxigen in the blood, which is lower then normal (a person should have between 80 and 98 precent of oxigen) I had 73, which is fairly low! But its okay, it is only the first day here and we´re acclimitising.
Day 5 again a bad night, it was really cold! The check at the medic brought even wors news, oxigen dropped to 66! very very low now, just an extra day of rest should maybe do the
Plaza de Mulas
Last view before going down! Have to come back here though! trick! End of the afternoon just return and check again, 73 by then! bit better but still low! They check some more like lungs and blood pressure, but everything else is fine! The little koff i have from day 1 is just annoying but not life treatening! It makes sure i can´t sleep properly and causes some more headaches! really annoying......
Day 6, Again a cold night but i slept really well! I feel fine and went straight to the medic for the daily check! Still 64 oxigen! Damn, it just doesn´t work out! Had to wait until the afternoon before going up to
Plaza Canada at 5050m, because then it rose again to 75 and they let me go!
Now The mountain really starts! zig-zag your way up through the gravel and little rocks! Every second stap makes you slide down half a step again! Because Axel acclimatised a little faster then i did, he´s going to sleep at Canada, so i join to other Argentinians,
Vicente and Diego And after 3,5 hours we arrive with this new expeditition ! Awesom view! Clear blue sky and not a gust of wind! Really nice view
chopper!
very early... of the whole valley! This is why its so amazing to climb mountains!
Because of the gravel we´re down in an hour and we go straight to the medic for a final check to go up the mountain tomorrow to places where there are no fascilitys anymore!
The medic checkt, and checkt again, and asks his collegues to check, then says: sorry mister, you have a problem!
Turns out i have pulmonary edema, which means water in the lungs, that axplains the low blood pressure! Only thing i can do is going down! And because i´m travelling alone, it has to be with the helicopter!
But that one wasn´t flying anymore this day because of the weather! So i have to sleep supervised in the medic´s bunk! (so it wasn´t that urgent after all!)
Next morning up at 6.30 and hop in the heli, 30 minutes later i´m at the entrance of the park! Thanks, see you later, take care and your stuff will be down around 5! Good bye!
End of story!
So thats how it all ended! Now sitting in Mendoza feeling fine off course, but didn´t make it to the top which is a bummer! there
evening view
Every night one of those pictures while going to sleep! gonna be tons of other oppurtunitys! Plus there are enough other mountains around! We´ll see!
For now i just take it easy and relax and enjoy the wines and the Asado´s! Next week off to patagonie! Lets see whats over there to climb!
Cheers,
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