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Today was awesome. We got to experience river crossing on muleback, climbed about 3,000 ft and arrived at Base Camp while it was snowing. The climate and weather changed dramatically – it really felt like we were on a mountain now.
This was my first time riding anything resembling a horse, and it was certainly interesting. I clearly didn’t have the right technique as I was bounced around to an unbelievable degree. I hear mules are much less comfortable to ride than horses, but I’m sure my inexperience didn’t help. The mules were roped to the leader, ridden by a local Gwapo Gaucho kid who I think was around 16 years old. He’d ferry two people across the river every trip so it took awhile before the team was across.
We ended up climbing about 3,000 feet today to get to 14,000 ft so it wasn’t as easy as the other days, though it was child’s play compared to what we’d be encountering on the upper mountain. I remember a time when 14,000 represented a summit. It’s hard to believe that I’m climbing a mountain where that elevation is where base camp sits!
As we progressed, the weather turned worse until it was snowing on us when we got in. We did however have a pleasant surprise. Set-up for us was a Geodesic dome tent with tables, chairs and food waiting for us! We hadn’t expected this kind of luxury so we were ecstatic, especially so due to the wind & snow.
Tincho had gone ahead of us and setup the tents by himself – I have no idea how he managed to do this given the gusts of 30 mph winds, but he is seriously awesome for doing that for us! It’s hard enough to setup a tent in high wind with two people.
The team hung around the dome tent while I headed over to have a shower. That’s a right, a real shower! What luxury I thought, until the hard truth was revealed to me. The shower was heated water that was poured into a a 5 gallon jug sitting about 2 inches on top of your head. A tiny hole at the bottom with a valve was the “shower”. That would have been ok had it not been for the ice cold draft flowing through the tear in the tent. I’d wondered why the lady who filled the bucket said I was brave for having a shower on such a cold day. Now I know. I had the odd sensation of having a warm shower, and freezing afterwards. Still, I was clean so that counts for something right?
Tomorrow is a rest/acclimatization day so we’ll be doing all of absolutely nothing!
Planetary Muffin Expeditions 