My tentmate Huey recommended the following words of introduction to kick this trip’s blog off:
“In the land of mule and condor (and Malbec) 12 Humans with extraordinary drive (and cell phone batteries), attack the highest peak outside of the Himalayas (after hot meals in warm tents)….Will they make it to base camp?…stay tuned…..”
I really don’t think it was as luxurious as that, but you’ll have to judge for yourself! My flight itinerary was Portland -> Dallas -> Santiago, Chile -> Mendoza, Argentina with total travel time coming to about 23 hours. My first time on this continent, I’d always thought South America was closer than Europe, but it is deceptively far! I confirmed that the world is in fact round going down too.
While waiting in the boarding line at Santiago de Chile, I spotted many people with fine-looking color-mismatched backpacks and boots. Given that this is the Aconcagua climbing season, I came to the conclusion that these bizarre people without fashion sense were fellow mountaineers. I started talking with some of the them and incredibly met Huey, another climber on my team! He was flying in from Texas and happened to be on the same flight. It turned out that we would become fast friends, and tentmates for the trip!
After the short flight into Mendoza, we took a 20 minute cab ride which cost us $5 apiece to get to our hotel, Hotel Nutibara, or as Craig, a team member from New Jersey with a penchant for colorful language liked to call it – The Nudy Bar. It was a decent basic hotel, though strangely lacking in nudes. We met up with the rest of the team in a large work room within the hotel. It turns out that the International Mountain Guides(IMG) have used this hotel for decades as they let them dump tons of ugly mountaineering gear in this room to prepare for climbs.
Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any pictures, but it was impressively messy! Here we met our lead guide Luke, assistant guide Kyle Kevin, local guide Martin(pronounced Martine), as well as some of our fellow climbers – Craig, Matt(also from NJ), Omar – from the Dominican Republic and who will attempt Everest later this year, and Tom – a veteran mountaineer who has summitted Denali. Alison, Greg and Jamie would show up later, completing our climbing group. Turns our Jamie is an ER doctor, a very welcome addition to a team going out into potentially hazardous conditions!
After settling in to our somewhat rustic room, Kevin and Luke came by for a gear check, as well as to give us some info about the days to come. Both Huey & I somehow passed this rigorous exam, though I’d need to pick up a second foam sleeping pad I’d forgotten, at the gear store tomorrow.
Planetary Muffin Expeditions 