Mt. Aconcagua
I must admit, I’m pretty proud of my Dad right now. About a year ago he started planning a trip to Mt. Aconcagua (in Argentina), the highest mountain outside Asia. At 22,841 feet, it’s a killer of a mountain. For comparison, the highest peak in the continental US is Mt. Whitney at 14,505 (we did that a few years ago as a family). While some may minimize Aconcagua since it’s not technical, the real threat is altitude sickness. Man was not created to survive at such elevations and after a certain point (I forget what height that is) you slowly start to die. But with some acclimatizing, your body will increase the production of red blood cells, allowing for short visits at such elevations. My dad has been training very hard for this trip, working out every day, taking small training trips to the smokey mountains and southern ohio with a 70lb pack just to hike up and down “hills”. Hopefully all that work will pay off in the next couple weeks. He is on the mountain right now, and will be for the next 12 days. Over the next week they will move back and forth between base camp and two other camps moving equipment and allowing their bodies to acclimatize. On day 9 they are scheduled to make a summit attempt, with 2 extra days as backups in case of bad weather. He is with his brother (my uncle) and 10 other people along with a couple of guides. None of the 10 other men or women are from the US and ages range from 33-69…how cool is that!
Any who know my Cousin Ben will understand who is responsible for their carrying a small device that transmits information to family and friends via satellite. They press a button and it sends an e-mail to us with GPS coordinates and a googlemap. It’s really pretty cool. If you are interested in tracking their progress, here is the link. You’ll have to zoom into Argentina to see their progress on the mountain.
I’m definitely a bit jealous of Dad’s adventure and all the super cool new gear he brought for the trip, I think subconsciously that’s why Sara and I hiked The Twin Sisters yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park. It wouldn’t have been all so bad if there wasn’t snow on the ground and I was in better shape! The wind at the top was incredible! We had a hard time standing without getting blown over by gusts of wind! It’s encouraging that we can still hike in the winter, I wouldn’t have thought that before moving here.
Sara atop twin #1
Our water bottles got frozen over!
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January 22, 2009 at 4:45 pm
You start to “die”? and what part of this is fun? Really, I’ve always loved hiking but just haven’t been able to for awhile. And I’m probably a fairly fair weather hiker.But it’s cool that your dad is doing this. When does he get back?
Also Sara what was that kayak trip you took at Ocracke? I would like to try something like that.
January 25, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Kathi- They summited a few days ago and are coming back on tuesday! This is definitely a relief as while they were down there 5 people died on the mountain in two separate incidents…
It’ll be great when you guys come out…we’ll go hiking in “fare-weather” :->
Sara said she’d answer your ocracke question when she talks with you next…
Hope you’re having a good weekend!