Aconcagua (6962m) - January 2014

Finally, this is it. This is what I´ve been waiting for, training for, thinking about and looked forward too for over a year now. I can´t believe it… now is the time to put all preparations into action. I can´t wait to get started…

Day one and two – 10^{th – 11th} January

Amazing Andes

Travelled to Mendoza via Copenhagen, Madrid and Santiago. My gosh what a long long journey. People who know me know I am a very restless person, and 3 x 6h waits on airports really pushes my limits. But, late afternoon the 11^th January we finally arrived in Mendoza, Argentina. One good thing coming out of such long travels is I got to know the other members of my group very well. They were Hilde, a Norwegian woman, Jørn and Sidsel, a grown up married couple in the 60´ties, Jens, who I also climbed Elbrus with last summer, and Peter, a very quiet young man just 12 days older me :)  They all seemed like a cool gang, with high hopes for the coming weeks. 

In Mendoza we also met Jakob, our Danish tour-leader. I was so happy meeting him again. He is a fantastic person, and I´m really admiring his way of seeing the world.

We also met Gabriel, our mountain guide from Inka Expediciones. Inka is the company Topas Travel works with in Argentina.

Day three – 12^th January

Today we got our climbing permits organized, checked all gear and walked around in the beautiful city Mendoza. People here do not speak much English, but with smiles, hand moves, and a few words of Spanish we came around. It´s lovely J It´s starting to sink in I´m really in Argentina, and the mountain is only a few hours away. It´s really hard to sleep… am I really here?

Day four – 13^th January

We drove to Los Penitentes, a ski resort place very near the entrance of Aconcagua national park. We´ll stay here for one night to sort out gear our mules will carry for us to both basecamp, and Confluencia, which is our first stop. Still, no signs of our massive mountain… I´m close to getting mad. How does this mountain look like?

Day 5 – 14^th January

Aconcagua Nationalpark entrance

Finally we started walking, and after 2 minutes, I could have a look at Mt. Aconcagua for the very first time. I almost lost my breath – it´s HUGE! Heart was pounding and I felt numb. Am I really going all the way up on that massive piece of rock? Now, I´m really here… for every step I take, I´m closer to my goal. I just know this is going to be the adventure of my life, and I´m smiling from ear to ear. This is really it!

We arrived in Confluencia, 3380m early afternoons and got settled in. We sleep in a big tent with bunk beds, very comfortable. I went out to pee during the night, and was stoked; I´ve never seen so many stars, or the full (I think) moon so close in my life. It was breathtaking. I just wish I could share it with you all.

Day 6 – 15^th January

The massive South-face!

Today I learned this adventure is full of BIG impressions, and I just need to get used to it all. We did an acclimation hike to Plaza Francia, near Aconcagua’s South Face. Another WOW, this South Face is 3000m high and you really get to see how massive and huge this mountain is. Take two sec and do some thinking… 3000m… that wall is higher, much higher than the highest point in Norway, from sea to summit, and I´m standing right in front of it! Little me and mine 156cm is itsy bitsy tiny compared to that, everything is tiny compared to it. It was wonderful :) 

We also did our first doctor check out of three today. The park ranges requires all people climbing Aconcagua to measure saturation (O2), pulse and blood pressure, plus they listen to your lungs for any nasty sounds. All of us was in tip top shape, and cleared to proceed.

Day 7 – 16^th January

Horcones valley

This morning we started early and walked our way through the Horcones valley and up to basecamp (BC), 4300m. What a fantastic walk, tiny humans in a valley with 5000m mountains raging on each side. I lost my footing a thousands times, and got a sore neck of looking up all the time - I really have no words, this was so beautiful! The walk took us 7hours, but with such a view it didn´t matter.

BC is like a small city; here we get breakfast and three course lunch and dinner every day. There are even showers, and Internet tents! I´m very happy we have this fantastic service. Now we can relax and get strong, fit and ready for the coming challenges.

Measured my O2 again, we do it every day now, and it was 79! I felt dead the minute I looked at it… jaiks, 79… if this was at sea level I must most likely get oxygen… Jakob assured me it was fine, and I did not have the lowest one. Still, “jump to bedtime” to get strong :)  

Mules carrying our heavy stuff

Day 8 – 17^th January

Rest day! And guess who got a shower J When climbing in high altitudes like this it is really important to eat and rest well, to gather strength. Our bodies are not meant to work hard in conditions like this, but luckily we adapt quickly. That is one of the things I like the most with climbing mountains, to see what we are capable of if just given the time to do it. Went to the doctor again today, and they measured my O2 to be 92 – yeah, I´m alive again!! :D

Day 9 – 18^th January

The day started with a bang, literally. I slept in an upper bunk bed and fell down from the ladder when going out for a pee. It was not a very high fall, but still, half a sleep, and BANG crashing to the hard frozen floor, breaking a dustbin, ripping up my down jacked and banging my hip really hard – I screamed. And… woke up the rest of the tent, of course. Luckily I didn´t break any bones, only got a long scratch on my back, and a very sore hip. Believe me, I woke up rather quick :) 

Penitentes - strange things

We went on a new acclimation hike to the Horcones glacier. Supernice, snow everywhere, and wonderful weather - loved it!

Afterwards, we started to organize what to bring to depot in Camp 1 (C1) tomorrow. It´s hard… I have never slept in a tent in snow, and have no clue on how much clothes to bring, food to carry or anything. Hopefully it´ll be all right…

Used some time to reflect on where I am, and what is about to happen also today. I feel strong; I have loads of energy, eat well, sleep well, and feel mentally prepared. Tomorrow will be our first steps onto the real mountain, that´s a big step for me. Finally after one year of preparations I´ll step onto Aconcagua for the first time. I have tons of butterflies in my stomach. Nice, sweet tingly butterflies that is :)

Day 10 – 19^th January

Today we walked all the way to C1, to lay a depot for later. Stepping onto Aconcagua was like stepping onto the moon. I am so very excited. The climb was pretty hard, but very beautiful. I could really feel the altitude on my body, and you feel there is just not enough oxygen to get you going. C1 is at about 5285m, and when we come back to sleep here in a few days, it´ll be the highest I´ve slept so far. We used 5 hours up, and 1,5 down. The downhill part was super fun; loads of snow and loose gravel to “jump” my way down in – absolutely loved it, and were pumped with adrenaline when coming back. A fantastic day!

View down to BC on the way back from C1

Day 11 – 20^th January

Another resting day :D Today my heart sank to the bottom of, well, I have no clue where to…. we were told there is expected to blow insanely strong winds, up to 115km/h on the summit the coming days, so it´s too dangerous for us to climb, and sleep in C1 tomorrow. Well, it´s not C1 that is bad, but it´s no point for us to stay in that high altitude if we cannot proceed any higher. I´m starting to get a little nervous, what if the wind don´t stop, and we cannot try for the summit? I needed to calm myself down, and tell myself to stay positive. Be nice to the mountain, and maybe she´ll be nice back. For now we decided to take another resting day tomorrow…

Day 12 – 21^th January

Resting day… and YES weather looks better, so we´ll proceed to C1 tomorrow – I´m so happy :) However, since the weather are very unstable here on Aconcagua, I´m not letting myself believe I´ll be able to try for the summit until I´m really walking towards it. I am positive, of course, and deep in my heart I know I will do it. It´s just important to be realistic, in case we need to turn back down.

Day 13 – 22nd January

Our "room"

We are on our way! Hopefully, the next time we come back to BC we´ve all been on the summit and are smiling from ear to ear. We walked back up to C1, and got ourselves installed in our two men tents. I´m sharing “room” with Hilde, she is so sweet, love her to bits and will do whatever I can to help her reach her goals. Up here it´s clear sky, but very windy… very, very windy…

Day 14 – 23rd January

We should originally have climbed a nearby top called Mt Manso, but due to strong winds we were not able to. We climbed to camp Nido, laying just a few hundred meters higher than us, and met with a few other teams there. It´s blowing like hell… this is not looking good. You can feel the tension in the air, and the spirits are not 100%. Will we be able to climb any higher?

Jakob and Gabriel explained to us we could have a chance on the summit on the 26^th… our last chance. This meant we needed to stay one more night in C1 before moving to C2. It also means we´ll loose one day in Menoza, but we all agreed that was not important. We are all here to climb this mountain, not to drink wine and go window surfing in a city. I crossed my fingers, toes and prayed to the mountain goddess, please PLEASE let us continue…

Day 15 – 24^th  January

Windy at camp Nido

Finally better weather, and we got to climb Mt Manso (5485m), a lovely mountain just next to Aconcagua. From the top we could see the summit route and the long traverse were we´ll hopefully walk in a few days time. Aconcagua just never stops to amaze me – it is sooo huge. From here it looked even bigger!

Later we got more weather info, and it seems like the 26^th is still standing, meaning we´ll climb to C2 tomorrow – yippy!! However, final decision was to be made at 7pm the following night, in C2…

Day 16 – 25^th January

We packed and repacked our gear, and started the hard ascend to C2. C2 is at 5950m, and none of us, except the guides, have ever been this altitude before. If we cannot try for the summit, at least we all have an altitude record. That is also something :) 

Taken from C2 with view towards our coming route

We got installed in a mini tent, and tried to force down some dinner. I promise you, eating in an altitude like this is not easy. It´s like the food grows bigger and bigger, and nothing taste the way it should. In addition to all the food you can force down, you also need to drink A LOT. Fluids is an important key to deal with high altitude, so the more you drink, the better you feel. Downside, is… yes, you´ve guessed it, you need to pee… also A LOT. But, with the magic starry night sky outside, who cares?! Now the moon was almost gone also, so if I saw billions of stars the other day, now I saw trillions – absolutely stunning!

Oh, and yes Jakob and Gabriel finally gave us “OK” to try for the summit, I was so relieved. Now a few hours sleep… then final departure! If we could manage to sleep that is, sleeping in 5950m is not easy, trust me.

Day 17 – 26^th January – Summit day!!

We woke up 2:30 to start our preparations, and to try to eat something. Gabriel made oatmeal porridge for us that was just completely impossible to get down, no offense to Gabriel, it´s just so hard to eat… I forced down a few spoonfuls, but that was it. Well, well, hopefully my body will find energy elsewhere the coming hours…

Before departure, still inside our minitent I feel nervous, excited, cold and happy at the same time. I´m sitting there really wondering what will soon happen, and if we all will be strong enough to walk all the way. Will anyone turn back down?

4:30 we went outside and saw Jens was not there… what?! He had decided to let this be it for him, and to stay behind. We really wanted him to come along, but it´s a brave choice, and we all admired him for that.

We started walking, and quickly split into two groups, Jørn and Sidsel with a guide called Sergio in one, and Hilde, Peter and myself with Jakob and Gabriel in one. My group was in front. It´s very hard to walk, the wind is freezing bits and pieces out of us, and after an hour or so, my feet were frozen solid. I could hardly move my toes. I was so scared. Not to loose my toes, I didn’t care about that, strange enough, but of not to be able to proceed. Jakob, who has loads of experience in the cold showed me a swinging move to get blood flowing again, and it helped, somewhat…

We continued to climb, trying our best to ignore the wind and freezing temperature, and to look at the brilliant sky, thinking positive thoughts. “One step = closer to the summit”

After sometime, when we had break, Jakob called the other group on his walkie-talkie. We got to know Jørn and Sidsel had turned back down, because they were freezing… shit, we were now only three left…

We passed the Independencia hut (ca 6350m), and started on the long traverse. Here the sun came up, and we could see the mini tents at BC, what a view! I´ve had been looking at this traverse for days and days, and now I was climbing it – amazing. Even though I struggled walking every step, I couldn´t let down a smile – I was now finally fighting the fight I´ve been preparing for a year. I couldn´t have been more happy. Then… Hilde said she couldn´t go one step higher, and she wanted to go down… she had a fever and could not manage to push herself any longer. I was so sad. I really wanted her to continue, to live her dream of climbing this fantastic mountain. But when your body says stop, it´s best to listen. Now it was only Peter and myself back…

Jakob then told us something nerve wrecking… with only him left as a guide, if any of us now wanted to turn, we both had to… jaiks… Then he urged us to continue, to a cave a few hundred meters up, and take a reality check there. I closed my eyes and mouth, shut of my brain and just walked and walked… I felt Peter started to get weaker, and honestly I was pretty weak too. This was so much harder than expected… finally after what felt like a million steps, we reached the cave.

“La Cueva” is at ca. 6660m. From this point there is “only” a 300m steep climb to the summit, and with steep I mean steep. We looked at the path, and could hardly believe it… the positive is just a few minutes after the start you can see all the way to the summit.

We took a semi-long break, discussed and decided to continue, but… after a very short while, Peter said stop…. and my world collapsed… literally collapsed. I saw nothing but darkness, and fully believed this was it, this was how far I could go, and it was over. Now I needed to turn around, and maybe, maybe come back to Argentina and try again sometime… 

Beautiful Aconcagua taken from BC

But my dear friend, motivator and amazing tour-leader Jakob, told Peter to go down in the cave and wait, then turned to me and asked: “Katrin, do you have the energy to push further?” I didn´t know what to answer, I was so soooo tired, exhausted, sad and upset. Not to mention confused and vary. I stumbled, and couldn´t talk but managed to say to him if he thought I could do it, I would do it. He said, “yes, you can do it – this is what you are here for Katrin, let´s try to climb this mountain together”. Still confused, I agreed, not sure if I really wanted to… but he had a point, didn´t he? To make it easier I left my backpack and brought only what I needed in my pockets. We then started what would prove to be almost indescribable. With baby steps we slowly ascended to fulfill my dream. Poles up, then one step with each foot, catch my breath and continue; so immensely hard.

Underway, Jakob cheered me up more and more, and after a while it started to feel better, my head turned, the darkness lifted and I knew in my heart I could do it. I felt stronger, my feet softened from solid ice to slush, and we overtook all the people climbing in front of us. This was my time to shine, my fight, the fight I´ve been waiting for and only find in mountains - I loved it, steadily, pushing myself one step at time, hanging over the ski poles, breathing like crazy, heart pounding… but with every step we came closer and closer… and finally; 11:45 the 26^th January 2014 Jakob and myself stood on the summit of Aconcagua, 6962m!! 

Jakob and myself on the summit of Aconcagua, 26th Jan 2014

We were number 5 and 6 on the summit that day. I couldn´t believe it, I just fell to the floor breathless; I am really here, we made it! I didn´t know how to react, whether to cry, laugh, scream or smile – I was just numb. What an achievement, what a fight! This is beyond far the hardest, toughest, most special and fantastic I´ve ever done in my life. I am still beyond words, and don´t know how to describe it rather than amazing. I´ve said it before, but will say it again and again. The feeling, the strange tingling feeling you get when managing something you´ve been thinking about for such a long time, is something that will live with me forever. The experience, how you meet yourself, how you need to master your instincts, and push yourself way out of comfort zone to be able to continue, the insanely hard fight, the lack of oxygen, the freezing temperatures, and the fact that you… despite all dark thoughts, can do it. It is the best feeling in the world. I felt like the happiest girl on the planet, just now at this moment standing on top of the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas. I´ve made a dream come true! :) 

Now, back in tiny Norway I´m still high on Aconcagua. This adventure has been very special to me, with big emotions all the way. I´ve experienced and learned not only loads about climbing high altitude mountains, weather, camping, snow, rock and ice, but also more about myself than in a long time. I´ve tested myself in ways I never could dream of, both mentally and physically. It amazes me what a human being is capable of when doing what the heart desire.  

I´ve also realized the reality… to be able to fulfill my hidden dream I need training in mountaineering, understanding, and how to master life in these beautiful mountains. A huge amount of training… I am not near being ready to adventure out on expeditions without help. I was and am still a rookie…. dreaming :) 

“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.”
(Greg Child)

Thank you so much to Hilde, Jørn, Sidsel, Peter and Jens for a fantastic adventure - hope to meet you again on another mountain :) And of course many many thanks to Topas Travel and Inka Expeditiones with lovely Gabriel, Sergio, the cool kitchen staff, shower boss, internet lady, porters and all sweet & smelly "mulas" who made this possible for us. A BIG hug to all of you!! 

Most importantly... a very special thank you to Jakob Urth - our Tourleader/Doctor/Nurse/City-guide/Trainer/Psychologist/Meteorologist/Motivator/Mountain-guide/Interpreter/Pathfinder and much more - you are truly amazing and I would never ever have done this without you… to use your own words; Live your Dream :)