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Zoe Panchen: Aconcagua 2001
Over Christmas
& New Year I went to climb this big monster! Aconcagua is 6962m high, it lies in
the Andes about mid way down Argentina and close to the Chilean border. It's the
highest mountain in both North & South America and we also realised, while
pondering our summit bid as we sat in the tent at camp 2 on Christmas day with a snow
storm raging outside, that it is the highest mountain in both the western and southern
hemispheres too! There were just 3 of us on the trip myself, my boyfriend, Chris and a
friend, Diana. We planned to do the Polish Glacier route which is the glacier sweeping
down the right side of the mountain
So here we are at
the trailhead at Punta de Vacas at 2300m. Those that are quick at maths will realise
that we have 4.5km of vertical height to gain to get to the summit! We are pretty
pleased to have got this far on our trip, as our flight from Chicago to Buenos Aires
was overbooked and for a while we didn't have a seat, then when we did get to BA we
found out our luggage was still in Chicago!
And here is our
long lost luggage disappearing off again, this time on mules! We had hired 1 & 1/2
mules to carry stuff we would need on the mountain such as 20 days of food, warm
clothing & mountaineering equipment. Half a mule I hear you say, well a mule
carries 60kg and hiring of mules is in 30kg increments. We had 80kg of stuff for the
mule carry, hence 1.5 mules. The other 0.5 of a mule, you may be interested to know
carried coke & beer to base camp for the mule outfitters to sell to beer guzzling
high altitude climbers!
The hike in to
basecamp follows a trail along the Vacas & Relinchos Rivers. For much of time, the
trail clings desperately to the steep sided valleys. We took 3 days to hike into the
base camp at Plaza Argentina, hiking from 10 to 13km a day and carrying everything we
needed to hike in.
The hike in,
especially on the 1st 2 days, was very hot, with temps well into 30C. The scenery was
quite arid, almost desolate, but it was great to be in the mountains!
Stream crossings on
the hike in and out proved to be pretty exciting. The streams we crossed were glacially
fed with a strong current. We were glad of our walking poles to steady us as we crossed
these fast flowing, cooold streams. This is Chris crossing the Relinchos River which
was the coldest & fastest flowing by a long chalk!
This is our home
for the next 3 weeks. We are at the Casa Piedra camping spot at the end of day 2 of the
hike in
A beautiful
location where we got our first views of Aconcagua and the Polish Glacier.
From base camp on
up we got into the routine of rest, carry, move i.e. arrive at a camp, spend the next
day resting & acclimatising, the next day carrying stuff to the next camp up &
returning to sleep at the lower camp, then on the 3rd day moving to the higher camp. We
had 3 camps on the mountain, base camp at 4200m, camp 1 at 5000m and camp 2 at
5900m.
The hike from base camp to camp 1 climbed steeply up over moraine and then onto the snout of the English Glacier. The glacier was covered in these weird & wonderful spikes of ice & snow up to 3ft high called penitentes and formed by wind & sun action. We hardly knew we were on a glacier as it was almost entirely covered in moraine and even big boulders. There were no crevases, so there was no need to rope up across this glacier.
On the carry to camp 1 the weather turned bad. I was being blown off my feet the wind was so strong & it was almost white out conditions. We decided to dump our loads under a boulder, turned tail and made a speedy descent to base camp whipped by the wind! This was a good move as the next day was perfect weather, we were able to move to camp 1 and impress everybody at camp 1 with an extra mini carry!
For the rest of the trip we really
lucked out with the weather. We did have a snowstorm at camp 1 and camp 2 but it was on
our rest day so didn't affect our progress up the mountain. This is Camp 1 before and
after a snowstorm. In the back ground you can see the route up to the
Ameghino-Aconcagua Col, just half the route to Camp 2
This is Chris &
Diana climbing to the Ameghino-Aconcagua Col. It's 5000m up, the oxygen is getting thin
and we are really beginning to suck air! You get into the rhythm of moving steadily at
a very slow pace - take a breath, step & exhale, take a breath, step and exhale.
But by the time we approached camp 2 at 5900m where the trail was very steep and the
oxygen even thinner it was more like taking a few slow steps then stopping for a few
minutes, puffing & panting to catch your breath!
Camp 2 feels like
the roof of the world but there's still another 1000m more vertical gain to the summit!
The campsites are perched precariously under volcanic pillars of rock at the base of
the Polish Glacier with marvelous views across the Andes.
By this time we had decided that the Polish Glacier route was no go, the glacier was very hard ice covered by fresh layers of snow. Snow sloughs had been seen coming down the glacier & there was a risk of avalanche.
Nobody was doing the Polish Glacier route. Most climbers would prefer to get to the summit than do the aesthetically pleasing route. The plan now for summit day was to traverse round the mountain to the Normal route on what is known as the Falso de Polacos route.
Summit day started at 1.45am, we wanted to be on the summit before noon when the storms typically roled in. We set out for the summit at 2.45am guided by a full moon. It was bitterly cold and within an hour or so we were wearing every bit of clothing we had with us including down jackets. When the sun rose we were pretty keen to get into the sun but the route was on the west side of the mountain and it was 9.30am before we were able to bask in the sun (still in our down jackets though!). The picture on the left is of Diana emerging from the Caneletta, a steep scree filled gully with a reputation for being tough to climb - 1 step up, 2 steps sliding down! With all the fresh snow and in crampons it didn't present us with much problem. The picture on the right is of the final knife edge ridge to the summit with the South summit in the back ground.
On the summit,
that's me the Michelin man in blue! We had the most perfect day for the summit. There
was no wind on the summit, it was beautifully clear and sunny. We could see up and down
the Andes for miles! It had taken us about 9hrs to get to the summit and took us
another 4hrs to descend to camp 2. A long and tiring day but we were pretty happy to
have got to the summit!
The mega carry to
base camp. It had taken us just 8 days to get to the summit from base camp (11days from
the trail head). When we planned the trip this was the minimum amount of time we
figured it would take us, so we'd brought extra food & fuel etc to allow for bad
weather days and extra acclimatization days. Even though we stayed at Camp 2 til mid
afternoon eating & trying to reduce the pile of contingency food, we still had a
lot of stuff to carry down! Thankfully gravity was in our favour!
Now the thought of Argentinean steaks (for the carnivore amongst us) and papas fritas (for the veggies amongst us) was on our mind. We made it back to Mendoza on New Year's Eve in time to welcome in the New Year and celebrate our success with a cold beer or two!
