Trip Reports

Aconcagua - 26 Nov to 18 Dec '16

Written by Leader Mara Larson, December 2016

Well why not start the season off with a true adventure? That is how it’s been here on Aconcagua this mid-December. We’re sat back at base camp now, most of us hacking away with dry mountain coughs that we’re hoping to cure in our 12-hour blast back through Mendoza, before the team members jump aboard flights back to UK early Saturday.

Our aim, as we mentioned in the previous post last week, was a try for a summit window last last Sunday, 11 December. Only then we stayed radio-silent a little bit longer.

That first window was ambitious; we aimed for a narrow window predicted between a couple days of snow and then very severely high winds, forecast at 90kmh on that following Monday. Wasn’t perfect, but we were a strong team, well-acclimatised and ready to see whether luck would stay on our side.

So we packed up, headed up the mountain and aimed to push slightly ahead of schedule to catch that Sunday window.

How to summarise the rest?

We left base camp for our relatively mellow climb up to camp one in what was meant to be clear skies. Only, the snow began to fall 200 metres above camp. An early arrival of the system, we hoped. But no. In fact, the minor snow system predicted turned out to be one of those surprise once-a-season (once a decade?) dumps. We shook tents of snow throughout the night at camp one, only to wake to a true winter-wonderland: we were snowed in! The mountain services decided all teams should remain where they were on the mountain and issued a request all across the mountain. Even base camp and Confluencia were digging out! So we settled in to a day of cooking, snow melting, and getting to know our French, Italian, and American neighbours. Some were slightly more vocal than others about the now white-coated views all around us.

The next day was another rarity here on what’s typically a windy, dry mountain. With crampons on we ascended up to camp 2 through a path thankfully broken by a strong team of local staff who made their way up the mountain in the very early hours. Much credit to their trail-breaking powers. Myself, Ilan and Andy, the other local guide camped beside us, had planned a long, steady day of swapping leads breaking the way. So we were delighted instead to make it a 5 hour day through well-broken trail, rather than what might have been doubly long.

And as you might have guessed, arriving to camp 2 we were met by a few other teams, stuck in by the system. They too had tried pushing up through this surprise thigh-deep snow attempting to stage their summit push from the high camp at Colera camp 3 that night. But while the winds had started blowing some of the snow off, it just wasn’t quite enough. They decided to make a challenging push directly from camp 2 later that night.

Three teams in particular were also aiming for this “perfect” little Sunday window. And sharing a camp together we arrived to Lucas kindly waiting for us with plenty of water all around. Myself, Ilan, our local porters and some very generous other guides set out to dig platforms for all the tents while the team hydrated and recovered inside with Lucas. By late-afternoon we were settling in, recognising that this snow was simply too much for us to push through given our snow delay. We sat down together as a team and went through our remaining options: Now the snow had stopped falling and the gale winds were arriving we had two choices, head down and call things off and enjoy the highlights of Mendoza back at the valley floor full or vineyards, sun and nice food, or elect to batten down our tents, prepare for the impending gale force winds mid-mountain and try and wait-out two days of near blizzard conditions. If we were strong enough, we would continue moving up from there for a possible window three more days away. There was virtually no debate, we were all in.

The next couple days were almost impossible to describe. We battened down the tents, the whole team putting in concentrated efforts at tying strong guy lines and making rock gardens around their respective perimeters. Ilan, myself, and the only other team (also Brits!) remaining here got to boiling copious amounts of water, cooking up all the food we could find. This time the forecasts had it right: winds screamed down and across the mountain. For a full 24 hours the tent flies whipped, the walk to the sheltered toilet required goggles and poles, the once-white trails were scoured of snow blowing and sublimating into the skies. A nearly indescribable scene.

And we moved only as was necessary. 20 feet to the dining shelter dome, then 20 feet back to the tents. 40 feet to the toilet, then home again. It was Life of Pi, only on somewhat dry land. Ilan and myself called in as the sun went down that evening for an updated weather forecast. “Hijo de puta!” the wind speeds the following day were trending down, but not as far down as before. We tucked in to sleep wondering if we’d gone through all this effort only to be turned back again.

And the next day we woke up to... the sound of silence.

The weather gods rewarded our patience.

The winds died down this time, even more than predicted. We packed, ate quickly and began the slightly dizzying and electrifying process of digging out frozen tents aiming to make our move up the mountain.

By 10.30 we were packed up. Dave decided here to make the move down to base camp and support us the next 24 hours from there. Asling, Craig, Phil, Emma, Ben, Ilan and myself made our way slowly up.

The silence that day was unbelievable. An eclectic team of characters was in awe of the changes the mountain showed us. Peaceful skies, rocks now melting out below the weekend’s storm. It was breathtaking.

We arrived to camp three now realising we had the mountain almost to ourselves. The extended storm meant most teams (those with us at camp 1 and camp 2) had had to retreat due to time constraints. Around us were a scattered group of 1:1 client:guide groups, we were the only big team who’d stuck it through. So from here we settled in to what turned out to be our most peaceful couple nights on the mountain. Up at 6000m in more settled weather we ate outside in the sun, warmed against rocks now the snow had melted out in large sections and packed for a 6am push up to the summit Wednesday morning.

It was a picture-perfect day. We set out in relatively warm conditions, given our suffering of previous days. We arrived to the white rocks above 6100m taking in a sunrise we’ll all remember. We arrived at Independencia still as a full team. Here, Aisling decided she’d met here altitude limit so she ditched her pack, climbed up over windy pass to have a view across the now-mild winds of the traverse – and wished good luck to the rest of the crew moving on up.

From there Ilan, Colo, Ben, Emma, Phil and Craig pushed on steadily up the Canaleta and to a clear-skied summit. A height record for all the team bar Phil. For Craig in particular, nearly 10,000 feet higher than he’d ever been! For Emma, well, we’ll let Emma report about her height achievement in her own post one day.

For Aisling and myself, feeling good at 6500m we sat and had a picnic at Independencia for nearly an hour taking in the Andean views. We dropped back down to white rocks and siesta’d again there making the descent to high camp probably the most memorable day of the trip. And back at camp 3 Aisling took over making up afternoon meals and me water for the whole team on return. It was a team effort if ever there was one and when the rest of the team dropped back in just after 6pm we had our last high dinner of quesadillas, buttery mashed potatoes and then crashed out for the long descent back to base camp and the swift park exit just in time to catch our flights out Saturday morning.

To the team of Aisling, Ben, Craig, Dave, Emma and Phil, a great congratulations for an epic trip. To the staff of Colo, Cabesa, Pablo, Lucas, Gianni and especially Ilan, a big big thank you for one of the more memorable adventures up the mountain for a very, very long time.

-Mara & team Jagged Globe « Previous report | Next report »

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