Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ushuaia unwind

A quick ¨later"...

At the risk of this turning into a real blog (ie self-important ramblings to take the place of actual conversations with those I care about), an afternoon of reading Three Cups of Tea and a wander on the waterfront have done a world of good. There´s something about the ocean that brings calmness: perhaps the finiteness of land. Like a peak, which, when reached, denotes a concrete end to effort, the ocean is an undeniable boundary, unlike rivers or ranges that merge into others to draw you ever onward. Tierra del Fuego (if not Ushuaia itself) is indeed an end of the earth.

Speaking of which, Erratic Rock is a local company which runs expeditionary trips to the southernmost tip of South America, not a drive-to-it destination like that of Africa or Australia. Check it out... Which got me thinking - Point Barrow in AK is slightly lower in latitude than Murchison Promontory in Canada, and it turns out a place called Cape Chelyuskin in Russia is the northernmost point in Asia. It´s a 5-day trip here to the southern land´s end - wonder what adventures would be involved in getting to the north? Think about that til I get back...

Aconcagua, round 1

Back down from the mountain, everybody safe and sound. Aconcagua is, indeed, both harder and easier than expected - for a tall mountain, involving lots of acclimatization and attention to potential altitude issues, it is intensely non-technical. The carries to higher camps and rest days in between were uneventful, especially since we had great weather. Last year was crazy windy, but this first trip was pretty mellow - only one day of wind and a moderately cold summit day.

I was not able to summit this time around, having brought down two climbers who didn't have the energy to continue to the summit and back. I turned with them at 21,000 feet, which is my high mark, hopefully just until the next trip. My body seems pretty happy at altitude, so I´m looking forward to summiting with the next trip. (And the ones next year, and the next...)

These are just two of several amazing photos lent by one of the climbers on the trip. (Thanks!)

After three weeks with people, I booked a quick (and expensive!) flight to the southern end of the continent and am in Ushuaia, Argentina, for a week or so. It´s not so easy to rent a kayak independently, so I´m headed to Tierra del Fuego National Park for some hiking and may do a kayaking trip early next week before returning to Mendoza. A funny little tourist town down here, but beautiful, with green and water and spiky peaks, a much-needed contrast to the driness of the Aconcagua area. More later...

Friday, January 4, 2008

Off to the big hill...

One spanish-speaking country to another with a completely different (and therefore less useful to my Mexico-enhanced comprehension) set of words and pronunciations...

Back to work after three months off - a little strange since it´s essentially the same environment but with more demands and people! We´ll be calling in cybercasts for friends of those climbing to keep track of our progress on the mountain (talk about contrary to my personal philosophy!), so if you care you can track us, Group 3 on their cybercast page here: http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp

Catch you on the flipside of Aconcagua...