The Aconcagua Ascent
- Hike to Base Camp -
Journal:
"January 14, 2000 - Day 3 - Hike to
Base Camp (Plaza Argentina) up the Relincho (neigh) Valley - Another 6:30am
wake-up call and then a faster breakfast of oatmeal cereal. The reason for
the faster breakfast was because Juan and Luis were bringing over the mules and
we had to have our bags ready.
By 8:30am we were starting our trek
toward Base Camp (Plaza Argentina). We started walking over the rocks of
the riverbed then switched into sandals to actually do the crossing of the
river. It was freezing! We each went turn-by-turn using our poles
and walking slightly upstream. The water was just over knee deep.
After crossing we started putting our
boots back on. Pumps had some doughnuts made to protect his blisters.
The sun was just clearing the ridge
behind us and the line of the sun was working its way toward us. In a few
minutes I was able to take off my fleece top and bottoms and put on the
sunscreen.
We started walking up the Relincho
Valley - which is what allowed us to see Aconcagua from the camp - but you could
not see it while in the valley itself. We started walking uphill - which
would be the theme of the day. The mules caught and passed us and we could
see them tackling the huge hills we were now approaching.
We did another crossing, this time a
smaller stream, and had a food break. Soon we were back to tackling the
hills - up and down and up again for hours - my legs were killing me.
Keith, Pat, and David were not having much trouble, but Pumps and I were really
feeling it. Bruce and Simon had gone ahead to get some good spots at Base
Camp.
After about 6 hours we finally reached
Base Camp, which stood at the base of Aconcagua. There were many other
tents around - since teams typically stay here for 2-3 days.
At Base Camp we are actually on top of
the Polish Glacier - though you could barely tell with all of the rock and
dust. In places you could see the snow and ice exposed where part of the
glacier fell away.
To get water their was a pipe tapped
into the glacier catching the run-off.
I was wiped out and took a short
nap. Then joined everyone for dinner.
Base Camp is a very established camp
with larger, more permanent tents for kitchens, park rangers, and a radio
room. We ate inside a large blue tent that looked like a small airplane
hanger - a tubular half circle.
After dinner we played hearts for a
while then eventually broke for bed.
I was having a very difficult time
sleeping - I was extremely hot - even at almost 14,000 ft."
