- Hike to Casa de Piedra -

Journal:

"January 13, 2000 - Day 2 - Trek to Casa de Piedra - Eggs and fried salami are cooking shortly after our 6:30am call.  We pack the tents, prepare our gear, and load the mules.  A mule will take us across the Vaca River to start our day.  While we wait a red rescue helicopter flies over and up the mountain.
    The way is again very rocky as we follow the river - which is now to our left.  We travel over small ridges, up and down, for hours.  We take a short break - very short for Pumps and I since he has been needing extra time and I have been staying with him, or walking ahead and waiting.
    We travel another hour and cross what looks to be a former lake or spill over for the river.  It is a 1/2 mile across and the wind is blowing right into our faces at about 30mph.
    At the other side we hide behind a river embankment and have lunch.  Both Pumps and Pat have blistered feet and Keith helps them work on the blisters.  Keith puts on an ointment, and band-aid and duct tape - yes, duct tape, the fix-it all on trips like this,
    45 minutes later and we are back on the trail, which is now more dusty than rocky.  We hike for a while and then have to cross another large riverbed of rock and dust with the wind coming at us.
    We can see over the rise that in a few miles the valley banks hard to the left - since Bruce told us we could see Aconcagua from this next camp, I assume we are almost there.
    Sure enough we reach camp a 1/2 hour later, closer than I thought - I thought we would look up the Vaca River Valley to see Aconcagua, but the Relincho Valley comes in from the left before the Vaca turns.  There up the Relincho Valley I get my first glimpse of Aconcagua - it looks enormous!  You can see the valley rise for miles and when it reaches it highest point, Aconcagua rises another 8000ft above it - a huge pyramid of ice, snow, and rock.  It is one of the most picturesque peaks I have ever seen, even in photos.  We can only see the false summit, a wonderful triangle of ice - the true summit hides behind it.
    We pitch our tents, being even more careful to envision wind hazards - which is easy since it is blowing pretty good - we need the practice because we will be doing it for real very soon, and a lost tent would be a huge setback.
    We were the first to arrive to this camp, but others start filing in and a small tent village is formed.
    Pumps and I take "showers" by first rinsing off in the cold waters of a stream feeding the Vaca - it runs right through the camp - then we fill the 5-gallon jugs, move away from the water into a dry, rocky area and take turns holding the water up and pouring it down while the other quickly washes his hair and face.
    Imitating the Crocodile Hunter has become a common theme - everything is "a beauty."
    We were in bed by 8:30pm.  During the night we could hear the mules walking around and neighing - the mule team leads slept in Casa Piedra - a stone house about 150 yards away - and the namesake of the camp.
    Some people said they could hear Wanacas - a type of llama - I have yet to see one."

[Previous] [Next]