Monday, January 10th, 2011
Camp 2 was wild. Beautiful, amazing, pristine and deadly all at once. We had just signed off on our radio check with Jeremy and Carly at 8pm, making sure they had gotten back safe and assuring them that we were settled. A storm was blowing in and the winds were starting to pick up, when I heard Joss yelling for me from outside.
I opened up the tent, and Joss asked if we still had radio contact with C1. I let him know that we had just signed off for the night, and then he and Zach informed me that Zach was having splitting headaches which he feared might be serious and had decided to descend immediately. I asked if he could make it himself in the dark (although I doubt I would have had the strength to have been much assistance) and was assured he would be ok. As he was getting ready to descend, I had a sudden burst on inspiration and asked him if he needed a Dex to get down safely. Dex (Dexamethasone) is a pretty common steroid in the climbing community. I was really only thinking about it as potentially giving Zach an energy and strength boost to get down safely, but we would later find out that he was going through the early stages of High Altitude Cerebral Edema at the time – and Dex is the exact treatment for that condition.
Zach would descend to C1 that night, and the BC the following day where he was helicoptered out. He would end up being fine.
That night, was the first real test of my new Marmot Alpinist tent. It was one of the few single-wall tents we had seen on Aconcagua. At only 5lbs, the weight was fantastic, but I was still a bit nervous about it’s ability to hold up against the winds of high camp.
I’m thrilled to say – it performed brilliantly. As the winds howled against the tent, we stayed warm and dry. I barely slept that night, concerned about the raging storms, but my worries were in vain.
The next day brought more incredible views of the mountain, and more challenges. We spoke with a British group who had tried unsuccessfully to summit the day before, and was heading back down. I strapped on crampons and grabbed my ice axe and decided to do part of the hike both to acclimitize and simply to get to know the trail. I spent about 2 hours on the traverse, and was surprised at how difficult the going was.
When I got back, a key order of business was trying to get Nina in better shape. Taste buds change quite a bit at altitude, and hers had decided to rebel completely. It’s always tough to have an appetite in thin air, but getting her to eat was almost impossible. She couldn’t eat almost anything we brought up (while forcing herself to finish a granola bar, she had literally thrown up, exacerbating the problem.) One group which had headed down left a cache of food, and Joss had lots extra since Zach had decended. Jeremy and Carly had slowly decided they weren’t coming back up, leaving that extra food and fuel as well.
We cooked up everything we could think of, trying to find stuff to eat. Nina was finally keeping some spaghetti, bacon, and cookies down, which I was hopeful would help her turn the corner.
The following day was another rest day, while we waited for some decent weather. Each morning was crisp and clear, but storms were generally upon us by noon or 1pm, with heavy winds, and lots of snow. Although the weather reports varied widely depending on whom one spoke with, there were persistant rumors of a Jan 31 weather window for a summit attempt. So, we hunkered down and waited, with C2 occupied by only Nina, Joss, myself, and two empty tents.
Jan 29 was another rest and weather day, but we still didn’t have Nina in great shape. She still wasn’t eating, and to complicate things had picked up terrible sunburn outside that day. I could almost see her strength slipping away. By the end of the day, she was barely speaking to conserve energy.
Anyone reading this blog who knows Nina will know that she is extremely proficient at two activities; eating and talking. The fact that she was doing neither was a HUGE cause for concern for me. That night, I layed awake while trying to decide what to do.
In the middle of the night, she woke up with her eyes watering and her face swollen. She was understanably concerned, and I tried to reassure her that it was a bad case of sunburn which could be addressed the next morning by heading down the mountain. She was relieved, and I certainly was – believing the difficult situation had resolved itself.
The next morning, however, her fire returned and she made it clear in no uncertain terms that she wanted to stay at C2 to try to summit. By this point, however, it was a fait accompli. She had simply gone too long without eating well, and didn’t seem to have sufficient strength. Toss in the facial swelling, and there was no way she should be up at C2, much less try to go higher.
Over the radio with Jeremy and Carly, I let them know the situation and asked for help. Jeremy jumped in, and volunteered to come help get Nina down the mountain. It was decided that we would bring all our unnnecessary gear, meet Jeremy on the trail, and he would take the gear and Nina down to C1.
I owe a HUGE debt to Jeremy for being willing to be so helpful. I know he was feeling terrible, and wasn’t happy to be going back up the mountain. He was even less happy when he saw the size of the load he would need to shoulder down to C1. It was an incredibly generous and selfless act – one of many that he would demonstrate during the trip. He certainly put his discomfort and pain aside to help out his friends and teammate – I’m not surprised but was certainly impressed.
As I was taking Nina down, there were probably 8-10 climbers coming up the hill – everyone staging and preparing for the potential summit assault on Dec 31. They would not have much time to acclimitize at C2, but the word was that this would be the only possible window for at least another week, and they didn’t want to miss it.
On the way down from C2, we missed part of the trail and tried to cut across the slope to catch it. We had heard repeatedly that there was nowhere on Aconcagua where there was avalanche risk, and we were going across a slope that wasn’t steep. I was cognizant of the fact that snow conditions were right for a slab avalanche (lots of snow at night with hot days to form slabs) but thought little about it as I cut across the snow to catch the trail. Boy, was I wrong. The combined weight of myself and the pack was simply too much for the snow, as I felt a slab break loose below me. Before I knew it, I was being pulled down the mountain – I tumbled about 30 yards before ending up on the trail.
Luckily, I was fine, just a little beat up. My left leg and arm were bruised and scraped up from landing on the rocks, but nothing I couldn’t walk off. It certainly shook me up though, and I resolved to redouble my efforts to be cautious on the mountain.
The rest of the descent was uneventful, we met Jeremy, and then I headed back up to C2 where I met with Joss and moved in with him for the night. We had a warm dinner of beef and brocoli, exchanged treats and stories from our respective countries, and got ready for the next morning. We set our alarms for a 4am wakeup, and got ready for the all important Summit Day!
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