The 22,800ft view

 HBS students summit Aconcagua

 It wasn’t much of a surprise: after a 24 hour journey and three connections to finally arrive in Argentina, we’re missing a bag pack full of climbing gear. Quick and loud, the questions leave little time to the airline staff to catch their breath … Where is the luggage? Why can you not locate it with your system? What do we do? …We need the equipment inside! The schedule is tight indeed: we have only 17 days to summit Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America

 But worries disappear the moment you exit the airport gates. Ripening in the 90F sunshine, grapes catch the attention of the visitor and remind the frustrated mountaineer that Mendoza is not a bad place to be stranded in wait for luggage. Tucked at the bottom of the Andes in the North West of Argentina, benefiting from ideal sun exposure and irrigation from the glaciers, Mendoza is the wine capital of the country, with gorgeous malbecs, semillon, syrah and cabernets…

 We are one day behind schedule when we start the climb. Our first stop is Confluencia at 10,000 ft elevation. That’s about the altitude where the body realizes that there is some serious oxygen deficit out there. We all suffer some minor headaches, which disappear after the right amount of sleep and hikes in the surrounding area (and ibuprofen). The weather is splendid the day we hike to Plaza Francia, where we get a magnificent view on the jaw-dropping south face of Aconcagua. The wall is about 10,000ft high (3,300m), which makes it the highest wall in the world outside of the Himalayas. The best mountaineers have tried this face, now routinely swept by avalanches and extremely dangerous. The impression left on the team is unanimous: it’s going to be a long hike. 

Four Seasons accommodation: winter.

Our route is the more traveled North face approach, aptly named the Normal route. We need to walk around the mountain, stay at base camp for acclimatization purposes for four to five days at 13,000ft (4,300m) before climbing to the higher camps. Plaza de Mulas, the name of the Base Camp, is a semi permanent set-up with satellite internet access and dining tents that can also be transformed into camping showers for a $10 fee. After four days at the camp, when there are few books left to read and fewer headaches to worry about, mountaineers watch the incessant ballet of the mules carrying through rivers and up steep climbs the luggage of more hopeful climbers. The other way people spend time at the camp is narrating summit horror stories. That’s when you learn that no one has summitted in December this season because of the weather. Or they try to figure out who had to return down to Mendoza in a rescue helicopter. Encouraging. Before night falls, Aconcagua, our “new girlfriend”, as our guide Carlos likes to put it, is teasing us, red hot in the sunset light. Tomorrow we leave for to the higher camps. We have all checked our oxygen saturation levels with the camp doctors: we are good to go!

Because of the one day delay at the onset of our trip, Carlos decides to shorten our stay at the higher camps. We’ll take only two days to go to Camp Berlin (17,500ft elevation, 5,800m) instead of three. Our camp stops have easier access to snow, which we melt to get water. This will also allow us to reduce the amount of food we need to carry. Despite this, the bag packs are heavy. The air pressure is less than 50% the amount at sea level now. It’s getting harder to carry the 30 to 35 pounds on our backs. We follow other groups:  Not much talking, a lot of drinking, steady slow progress. We make it to Camp Berlin without a problem. At Berlin, everyone is suffering to a certain extent from altitude. Getting out of the tent, lacing the shoes, picking up bag becomes an activity on its own right which requires preparation and due rest. The headaches persist. We are having a light dinner and preparing the drinks for tomorrow, the summit day. It’s Tuesday Jan 9^th 2007. We do not sleep much that night.

Hours later, at 5:00pm on Wednesday Jan 10^th, the HBS Outdoors Club team summits Aconcagua. The lack of snow this year has made it even harder. Hiking through moving scree takes a lot of energy. We reached the top exhausted but happy to be together. The average success rate on Aconcagua is only 35% but thanks to Carlos, his wife and an overall clement weather, Dan, Derrick, Sam and I all enjoyed the 22,800ft / 6,962m view as a team.

 -N

Sizing up the South Face

 On the North Face