- Hike to Camp 2 -

Journal:

"January 20, 2000 - Day 9 -Rest Day for Keith and I, others carry to Camp 2 - Up at 7am for a breakfast of skillet-fried bagels and cheese.  I eat a huge amount and feel great, but I will still be staying at Camp 1 with Keith today.
    The rest of the crew prepares while I get water (by dipping the top of a thermos through a break in the ice on the stream and pouring it into the 5-gallon jug about 150 times).
    The others are off by 8:15am and I watch them ascend the huge hill toward Camp 2.  Once people are on it you get a true appreciation of its size.  After an hour they were just halfway up, and after another they were out of sight.  The hill ends at a saddle between Aconcagua and Amaghino - its sister mountain.  From the saddle I was told you can see the stretch of the Andes in their glory, with many peaks and glaciers.  Once you hit the saddle, you walk to the left to conquer another huge hill to get to Camp 2 - this hill is not visible from Camp 1.
    I decide to take some pictures of Camp 1, filter some water, collect some more, and pack for my carry tomorrow - Keith and I will carry while the others rest and then we will all move together the following day - a bit fast for me, but I have to catch up with the group on acclimization, or just do with less as the case may be.
    The others arrive back at 2:15pm, running down the huge hill - we have a strong team.  They are sliding through the small rocks and dust like running down the side of a large sand dune.
    We have tea, hot cider, individual cups of soup, and then start playing hearts.  Pat is the champion of hearts at Camp 1."

"January 21, 2000 - Day 10 -Keith and I Carry to Camp 2 - Keith and I wake from our tent at 7am and prepare our packs and breakfast.  We have only 1 small bowl - I don't care for this oatmeal.
    By a little after 8am we are off.  Our tent site is furthest from the hill of almost all sites and I am getting winded with just the uphill walk thru camp.  We start the ascent of the hill and by the time an hour comes around we are no where close to where the team was yesterday.
    My legs feel awful, but I am not winded - though it is incredibly windy instead of the calm of yesterday.
    Keith tells me it is a bad day to push myself and that I should save it for the move tomorrow.  So I give him my food, crampons, ice axe, and harness - only the 6 days of food has any weight to it - and I head back down.
    This turns out to be a bit of a blessing.  I had felt that I had too much gear, especially clothes, and Keith told me that we were not stowing gear at Camp 1.  When I asked Bruce he said that we were - GREAT!  I could probably lighted my load by 1/3!  So I spend the rest of the morning sorting through things and determining what I do not need - it was a lot: thermal underwear (tops and bottoms), some dirty clothes, an extra fleece, extra food, candy - it added up to a good 5 pounds or more.  So I put the extra into some plastic bags and brought them to Bruce.
    We played hearts and watched the mountain for Keith.  We eventually saw him bounding down the hill, dust streaming to the side about 40 feet due to the winds.  Bruce made sure that Keith had a hot drink when he reached us and then got the short story from Keith on his travels - not much to tell, he didn't find the prior stash, so we will have to join the two stashes tomorrow."

"January 22, 2000 - Day 11 -Move to Camp 2 - Keith had told me the night before that he was sleeping in, so at 6:30am the rest of us got up, ate breakfast (oatmeal in powdered milk), took down all tents but the one Keith was in and prepared the packs.
    Each of us took our personal gear and then some group gear - stoves, pans, fuel, etc. - and we started hiking.  For some reason my legs were really tired and heavy and I was fighting to stay with the group.  Bruce saw this and made no bones about "If you can't keep the pace, you can't make the summit." He took out my group gear and said I had to wait for Keith - who would make the call on whether I go up or go down.
    I convinced Bruce to let me wait for Keith at the boulder halfway up the hill - this way I wouldn't have to retrace steps.  He said OK but that I had to tell Keith that if we didn't make it from the boulder to the col in 35 minutes it was Keith's call on what he did with me.
    It was 10:05 when I reached the boulder, just behind Bruce and crew.  I sat below it looking down on Keith's tent and watching the other climbers work their way up.  I had come to recognize a lot of faces and groups and I would say hi as they passed.
    An hour went by and I was starting to get pretty cold.  I decided to put on my pack and hike to the end of the current switchback and back across to the next which put me just above the boulder.
    Keith was still not out of his tent and the wind started picking up hitting me with small rocks and blasts of cold air.
    11:30 and the tent was still up with no sign of activity.  It would be an hour from the time Keith was packed until he reached me.  I decided to wait until 12pm, if there was no motion I would execute Bruce's test myself.
    12pm came and I put my pack on and marched upward, it was surprisingly easy.  I passed one group and within 20 minutes was at the col - now I was one switchback above the boulder, but even adding 5 minutes put we well within Bruce's limit.
    The col was gorgeous, a hollowed out piece of land between the two summits of Aconcagua and Amaghino.  It had a slightly yellowish color, rock formation rising 100 feet in the center, and rock protection areas for tents.  beyond the col in the distance was the stretch of the Andes going for thousands of miles.
    I had tons of energy, but I had to stop and take a few pictures - fighting the wind which at this point could almost throw a person over.  Then I continued upward at the very top of the hill above Camp 1 and walked over the saddle onto the western side of Aconcagua.  I was halfway to Camp 2.
    The trail became more confusing as there were several breakoffs from the path I was on.  Once I even did a traverse to move from one path to another.
    I would continuously look up to catch glimpses of other climbers to ensure I was heading the right way.
    The path was often steep and full of scree.  Eventually I could see a rock outcrop and was sure that Camp 2 was on the other side, but I had two trails to choose from.  One was very steep and full of loose rock, but it went directly to the rock I was looking at.  The other took a more gradual slope to the far right end of the rock.  As I was debating, I saw a person heading up the steeper route and them others started climbing down, so I went that route.
    It was tiring.  I had to constantly kick steps in the scree and when groups would come down they would loosen the rock making it easier for me to slide downward.
    I pressed on, moving at angles to save my strength when finally I saw a tent - inspiration.  I became more robotic, simply moving, kicking steps, moving, and counting steps to occupy my mind.  183 steps later and I was at that tent and I saw Ken, a friend of Bruce's.  He pointed me downward to where the other, less strenuous route would have taken me.  It was 3:25pm.  If you extrapolate my time to add the extra hour up to the boulder I made the climb in 4 hours 25 minutes - which included all stops and picture taking, not far off from Bruce's 4+ hour time.
    So I started toward camp, now wandering if Bruce would kill me for not waiting for Keith.  Such was not the case, everyone was thrilled to see me, and with so much energy after a long climb.  Pumps was extremely emotional - he had apparently almost cried when Bruce made me wait behind, and now he was nearly there again seeing me at Camp 2.
    I can't explain what happened, but it seems similar to the move to Camp 1 and my attempted carry to Camp 2.  My legs just needed some time to get back into the swing of things.  Once they were stretched out, they were good to go.
    As for Keith, it was very good that I didn't wait.  He did not start out until 1pm, arriving at 5:30pm - (same pace as me).  I would have been sitting by that boulder for 2 more hours.
    Greg, from Poland, who we had met at Base Camp, stopped by to show us a piece of iron pyrite he found in the col - he had slept there one night.  he would be attempting the Polish Direct tomorrow - a technical ice climb straight up the glacier.  We wish him well, we have not been impressed with him or his skills, but no one wants to see anyone die on the mountain.
    Simon, the lead guide from a UK team, stopped by and chatted as well.  They are on the same schedule as us.
    Snowflakes are in the air.  Ice pools are all around us.  The temperature drops quickly, but the view is great, but clouds are on the summit and so are climbers [bad news]."

"January 23, 2000 - Day 12 -Rest Day - We wake at 9a to see several people attempting the Polish Direct - 2 soloists (one is Greg) and a team of 3.  Greg is moving erratically and towards the center of the glacier - a big mistake.  Fortunately conditions are good and after a break he sees the other team of three on the outskirts of the glacier and he begins to correct himself.  In a few hours all climbers are out of sight.  It is a long day for them since they started around 4am in hopes of finishing between 2 and 5pm.
    We have another oatmeal breakfast and take an easy day preparing.  We ensure our crampons are sized properly, we remove all non-essentials from the packs, including the head piece, and we filter through our gear to identify exactly what is coming and what is staying.
    We are trying for the summit early tomorrow morning.
    When we got up at 9am our sleeping bags were slightly wet in some places and frost-covered in others.  The inside of the tent was entirely frosted over and small flakes would fall now and then giving the appearance of snow.
    The climbers tackling the Polish Direct did not climb out of sight but had taken refuge behind some rock.  We see them emerging and starting to ascend - they are running very late, probably one of their climbers is not up to the task today.  not good.
    Hours later, 2 o the 5 climbers have descended some, the other three, including Greg, remain huddled high on the glacier.  The sun is down and the temperature is well below freezing, their only hope is to stay warm enough to survive the night.
    We begin to prep for our summit attempt - stuffing anything that needs to be kept warm into our sleeping bags (water, inner clothes, boot liners, food) and then we jump inside the bags and wait for Keith or Bruce to make the go/no go call.  They will check the weather every hour and if things are good at 2am we go."

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