Aconcagua - Normal Route, 11/2015

On Tuesday December 1^st, the fiveremaining expedition members made the move to establish camp at Nido deCondores, carrying additional supplies and also retrieving bottles of white gasremaining at Camp Canada along the way. After arriving to Nido inmid-afternoon, two tents were quickly set up in calm weather, but it was soondiscovered that half of the third tent, which had been sent up earlier that daywith the porters, was missing.  This situation caused a few minutes ofanxiety until it was realized that the second porter had not yet arrived at Nido. Sure enough, the porter soon arrived and was greeted with great relief. Heexplained that it was his first day on the job and that he had gotten a latestart.  Team members spent the next few hours melting snow and cookinguntil we were treated to a spectacular red sunset late in the evening.

Wednesday December 2nd

The next morning, the group leader, who hadspent a sleepless night suffering from acute altitude sickness and was notexperiencing relief from the symptoms, descended alone and arrived safely to basecamp a few hours later.  Since there was a decent line of sight runningfrom the edge of Nido to the valley below, the leader and the group were ableto continue daily communications by walkie-talkie, exchanging news and weatherupdates.  The four remaining team members rested all Wednesday atNido.  The weather worsened during the day.  The wind directionshifted and substantially increased, and there was low visibility due toblowing snow.  To act as a barrier against the drifts threatening to coverthe tents, snow walls were constructed.  During the day, we walked over tothe government hut and spoke with the two GuardaParques (Park Rangers)stationed there; they advised that they would be descending tomorrow, and theirreplacements would arrive in a couple days.  The team decided that anacclimatization hike up the mountain would be attempted the next morning ifconditions permitted.

Thursday December 3^rd

The poor weather continued and the wind howledunabated all night.  By Thursday morning, conditions had improved at theNido level; however, the weather was still bad at upper elevations (high windsand no visibility), and it was decided to delay the exploratory trip until thenext day.  The team spent another day resting, eating, and hangingout.  With the rangers gone and no other groups present, we were alone atNido.  During the day, another pair of Colorado climbers arrived from CampCanada on a caching trip and visited with the group briefly before headingdown.  During the scheduled daily radio contact, the leader relayed thatthe weather forecast for the summit was very favorable for Saturday morning(calm winds and no precip), but that a big snowstorm was expected to arriveSaturday afternoon.  After consultation, the group determined that thebest window for a summit attempt would be Saturday, and it was agreed to moveup the mountain and to establish a high camp at Berlin or Cholera on Friday.

Friday December 4^th

The group got off to a slow start the nextmorning.  Visibility still did not look very promising higher up themountain, but it was decided to continue anyway.  The plan was to bringonly one tent along for all four of us to sleep in.  We packed the largesttent (the leader’s NorthFace VE-25) and left the other two tents pitched. We informed the newly arrived Park Rangers of our plans, and they advised us toremove the poles and flatten our tent before leaving for a summit attempt, andthey also said that we should stick to a turnaround time of 2pm on Saturday(due to the impending storm).  After briefly speaking with the leader byradio, we started hiking around noon.  Due to the elevation and thelimited visibility due to blowing snow, we made slow but steady progress up themountain.  We were generally able to follow the established trail of theNormal Route, but sometimes needed GPS.  Wearing crampons from thebeginning, we traded off at the front of the line, breaking trail and kicking steps.Upon arriving at Berlin (19,490’), we found the camp empty.  After lookingat possible camp sites, taking pictures and a brief rest, we continued ontowards Camp Cholera, which was a few hundred feet higher.  The terrainbetween the two camps became rockier and icier, and we made good use of a fixedcable/hand rail that ran along the steepest part of the trail.  We arrivedat Camp Cholera (19,690’) in inhospitable conditions, with bitter winds andblowing snow, and found it deserted.  After quickly surveying the most“sheltered” camping sites in this barren place, we elected to set up the tentright next to the aluminum emergency shelter (named “Elena”) that was apermanent fixture there.  Since all four of us were stuffed like sardinesinto one tent, it was very cramped quarters, but we worked out a system forarranging our sleeping gear, and melted snow for dinner.  The plan: Wakeup at 2am for the summit attempt.  The mood was upbeat as we went tosleep.

Saturday December 5^th

At 2am, we woke up and ventured outside toassess conditions. They were not good. Looking up the route towards the summit,the wind and blowing snow continued unabated, with very poor visibility. It was decided to wait and assess conditions again at 4am with the hope of seeingsome improvement.  As we drifted back to sleep, flashes of light could beseen on the tent walls.  Although no thunder could be heard, we eventuallyrealized that lightning was occurring far in the distance.  At 4am, thewind and lightning continued without improvement.  At dawn, around 6am,voices could be heard outside. Investigation revealed that a large,well-outfitted expedition of climbers from Dubai (with their own videographerin tow!) had arrived and were congregating in and around the Elena shelter andour tent.  They were all wearing crampons and were stepping very closearound our tent’s lines, and this caused us some alarm.  There was somefriction between members of the two groups in the crowded conditions.  TheDubai group’s guides decided not to continue on the route above Cholera due tothe hazardous conditions, and the whole group eventually left camp anddescended.  Meanwhile, we also met the two other climbers from Colorado(they were making their own summit attempt from Nido), but they also descendedafter looking at the weather conditions. 

The group discussed our options.  Onemajor complication was that the groups’ sleeping bags and other gear had gottensoaking wet from the condensation caused by four people breathing all nightlong in cramped quarters. It was doubtful that our sleeping bags would dry outat Cholera, and this made the prospect of spending another night there verydubious, due to hypothermia concerns.  Also, we had only brought enoughfood and fuel for one night.  In addition, we did not want to get pinneddown by the impending storm at Cholera. It was eventually agreed that the bestcourse of action was to break camp, descend to Nido, break the remaining campthere, and then to descend down to base camp that same day.  Now aloneagain at deserted Cholera, it took some time to dig out the frozen tent stakesand snow bollards, stow the tent, and pack our gear.

The hike down to Nido was quick anduneventful, and visibility markedly improved as we descended to lower elevations. When we arrived to Nido, we began disassembling the two tents.  There wasa large surplus of gear, food, and fuel remaining from the original cache leftby all the members of the expedition who were no longer on the mountain, andthe four of us would be unable to carry it down.  We radioed the leader,who arranged for two porters to take the excess gear.  Luckily, the ParkRangers in residence at Nido agreed to take all of the extra food andfuel.  In the early afternoon, after meeting up with the porters, wedeparted Nido for the last time and descended safely to Plaza de Mulas within acouple hours.