Summit of Mt Aconcagua (6962m/22,842ft), Andean Range, Argentina. Jan 1, 2005. 

Aconcagua

Prologue
Dec 30, 2004, Plaza de Mulas Base Camp (14,000ft).
09:00H. We were waiting for the mules and mule handlers to pick up our stuff. The expedition has ended and we were ready to go back to civilization and celebrate the New Year. 3 of our team members went ahead days ago due to sickness and discomfort. We got struck by windstorm in highcamp1 (16100ft) and also got pinned in highcamp3 (19000ft) for 2 nights by snowstorm. All remaining 11 team members aborted the climb and got down to Mulas base camp on dec29 - - nobody made it to the summit.
Two years of waiting, several months of preparation, one bad luck after another, I was simply not ready to accept defeat. I’ve decided to get back my stuff, said goodbyes to my team mates and stayed in Plaza de Mulas... Weather hasn’t change, snow still falling, wind still blowing, but I’ve decided to stay… to make one last, desperate attempt to reach the summit…


Intro
Mt Aconcagua at 22,842ft/6962m is the highest mountain in the Americas, and the highest mountain outside of Asia. It’s one of the most coveted peaks, as it is one of the popular 7 summits. It is located in the northwestern part of the Argentinian Andes, half-way around the globe from Philippines. It is one of the most inhospitable places on earth, with winds that could exceed 130kph and where vegetation can only survive up to around 13,000ft. It is also one of the most underestimated mountains, leaving death toll to a high number due to high altitude sickness and accidents.

Mt Aconcagua has several routes; the daunting southface technical route, the moderately technical Polish Glacier route in the east, and the more popular classic route in the northwestern ridge. I’ve chosen to make an attempt via the normal route to re-live history (first ascent on this route) and to make my life a little bit simpler (and so I thought). Normal route has this famous ‘Canaleta’ that is considered to be a tough hurdle on the way to the summit. It’s like the “Hillary Step” of the Everest south route. I’ve read the Canaleta challenge in many books and articles, I wanted to personally see this part, and see myself struggle the way up the summit, and that would be my planned spice of the trip.

Flying to the far away dreamland was not that easy, I have to pass by Kuala Lumpur, then stop over at Johannesburg and Capetown, hop to Buenos Aires, then fly domestic to Mendoza. It is a cheaper and simpler option than the eastern flight involving stops at terror-phobic US airports. It took me 1.5 days of flying to reach my destination. First bad news came when I landed in Buenos Aires – my baggage has somehow acquired an alien life form and ejected itself out of the plane in Johannesburg. Damn! Losing baggage could easily mean aborting the trip as my survival gears were all in the big bag. Alternatively, I could spend thousand of $ for rentals or for purchase of new gears.
Malaysian Air promised that they will deliver my bag ANYWHERE on dec15 (it was dec12 when I got in). I was a bit confused and surprised how they would be able to do that, as I planned to be at 14,000ft base camp on that date. I gave my Mendoza outfitter contact number so the airline could arrange for the haul, and simply said a silent prayer that I would get my baggage before we hit highcamp1.
“Romeo? Hola Amigo!!” was the first greeting I got from one of the guides who met us in Mendoza airport. I was with the 2 South Africans in the same plane, and we were all part of the advance 8-man team who will move up early to base camp - for an extra acclimatization climb.

Mendoza is a nice friendly, quiet city – where one would feel like everyday is a Sunday or a holiday. It has only 1.6 million residents and 5 to 6000 tourists visiting Aconcagua park every summer.
The primary dinner choice - - steak! For lunch – steak! After-climb recovery meal – more STEAK! The difficult part was adjusting to the cultural habit of setting everything late, their bio-clock mechanism seems to have a computer bug making it normal to ring the belly bell at 10pm for dinner. Geez, I have to eat extra Mcdo at around 5 or 6pm so I could survive the wait for the normal late dinner. Even their noon siesta lasts to about 3 to 4pm giving Mendoza the impression of a desolate, abandoned zombie city where people start crawling back to life near the late afternoons and on until early morning (2am-ish).

Confluencia Basecamp
Malaysia Air promised 100Arg pesos of extra spending money for extra clothes. That’s only around 33$. I bought spare t-shirt and socks for my trek up, rented extra sleeping bag, a ski pole, and a pair of crampons (all in excess of 140$).
I did a couple of update emails late at night in the hotel, then bumped into this guy who was recently airlifted from the base camp. I thought the recent news of 3 dead climbers in the base camp was enough for me to have a proper mindset. Now this guy was telling his story on how he had survived a night with obvious pulmonary edema (HAPE). He was on highcamp2 (17600ft) and apparently couldn’t sleep, when suddenly he started coughing fluids and started hearing gurgling sound in his lungs (ala-Vertical Limits). A quack doctor with them gave him a dose of med, and he was brought down to base camp the next day, and consequently airlifted to safety – and now in front of me drinking cerveza and Baileys in the bar. Well, he was one lucky fellow.
We quickly hauled stuff and butts and move to Puente del Inca the day after, covering 180km of road. We stayed for one night in Inca to get to know each other. Most climbers are veteran of African mountains (ex. Kilimanjaro), or some sounds-familiar mountain from somewhere. We all felt everybody is in the right shape to tackle the challenge of Aconcagua.
Mules were arranged to transport our heavy bags to the base camp. Except that, I don’t have anything for the mules (lost baggage, remember?). It was a good thing that I carried my Shell and Down jacket with me (hand-carry), along with my fleece and waterproof pants.
Next day we move to Horcones trail-head, and started the short 3-hour walk to our first base camp – Confluencia at 11450ft/3500m. We all felt the altitude while walking, but felt the excitement just the same – we were all trying to hit a new altitude record in this expedition, and we were starting it.
Next day was a simple acclimatization walk (“climb high, sleep low”) to the view deck (4000m) of the Aconcagua Southface. It took us around 5 hours in total, we all felt better compared to the first day. Plus the day was nice, it gave us good photo of the target mountain.

Plaza de Mulas Basecamp (14,000ft/4370m)
It was a long walk to the real base camp, took us 8 hours (out of expected 9-10hrs). The way across the valley reminded me of the expedition in the Karakoram (Pakistan) – dry and arid, windy, lifeless. Only the occasional appearance of the rancheros and mules made the day a little bit lively as we all got on automatic mode to pull out the camera every time a life form pops up.

We soon started ‘making homes’, erecting sturdy and windproof tents, sorting equipment and gears, memorizing little trails to the toilets, and generally trying to settle down to our home away from home – our little paradise in this God-forsaken, Mars-land.

BC day1
We rested the next day, and visited the medical ‘office’. There are checks on O2 saturation (% oxygen in blood) using an oxymeter, blood pressure, and other checks on altitude-related sickness. All team members were ok, so far. I got an initial 82% O2 reading, and generally felt quite ok. I don’t care about my BP as I don’t see that as my problem. I have to acclimatize and improve on %O2 , and hopefully reduce my increased heart rate (due to altitude) for better climbing performance. Something I can only influence, but not fully control.
For some strange reason, one of our American teammate decided to call the trip off. His friend later relayed his complaints about too much discomfort in the mountain (umm, now isn’t that normal) or a possible loneliness away from his new GF (he calls her everyday over his sat-phone, wow!).

BC day2
Next day was a challenging climb, designed to stretch our muscles, boost our cardio, and expedite acclimatization. We spent around 7hours of walk-- back and forth, and successfully climb Bonete Peak (5004m). I felt the strain of the steep trails, I was 2nd to the last to summit, and was 20 minutes behind the lead team. Not good. Living in a tropical low land made it difficult for me to train properly before the trip. Our Swedish team mate was obviously in tip top shape, having been climbing in Peru and Ecuador for the past 2 months. I could only bike, hike and swim but no more, no mucho alta montanas en Pinas. Yes, I did struggle in the climb, but my focus was kept on preserving health and avoiding sickness, that would be the eventual make or break.

Back in BC, good news finally arrived – my lost baggage was here. Mwah! - like finding Nemo in the ocean, I would make the summit attempt after all. Wohooo!!

BC day3
I woke up the next day from a commotion outside my tent. Apparently, a climber has a BP reading of 240 and he was about to be airlifted to the city. Wowie, that sounds like a high number.
The other 6 members of the 14-member team finally arrived. The first 8 (me included) arrived earlier in BC to do extra acclimatization activity, it’s for those who are deemed poor in adjusting to high altitudes. I took this to allow myself some extra acclimatization time, learning from past trips that my body is ‘diesel-type’, I have to warm up properly for high altitudes.
We did a little review ‘training’ on crampon-ing and ice-axe use. That was grade school stuff and we all just played in the snowfield like little boys and girls. One memorable part was the 50m ‘crampon race’ (short run with crampons on). I competed with an Irish, a Venezuelan, and the Australian, -- all others conceded. Guess who won? Hah! Asa pa sila…

Everyone was still ok, except the different complaints on certain things. The South Africans (women) complained about the frequent night visits to the toilet due to the enormous 3-5 liters of fluid intake requirement. One recorded as much as 9 visits during the night, Geez! The American seems to be comfortable though with his 2-liter Pee bottle and somehow manage to fill them up (to full) by morning.
BC day4
Now we’re ready to stomp on the real trail up the summit, towards highcamp1 (Camp Canada 16100ft/4900m). We did the trip up, then went back down to BC. This will be our last acclima-climb, and ready or not, we would soon start to move up to highcamps the day after. In the trek up, I was 3rd from the last (out of remaining 13), with a 5min lag from the main team. Better than the Bonete climb, but I still struggled.

BC day5
This is our last rest day. Time to sort the gears, what goes up, and what stays in BC. I managed to reduce my pack weight to just around 15kg. We would be wearing plastic double boots from here on; (alternatively, some use trek boots to highcamp1 and burden themselves with extra heavy weight plastic boots in their backpack).
From here on, only extreme-weather rated gears goes in the pack, poly thermals, windproof fleece, rated Down, waterproof shells, no cotton whatsoever.
I ate my last hamburger, have taken the last decent dump in the makeshift toilet (we would be using plastic bags for our toilet business in the highcamps), and almost wrote my last will, aborting it the last minute as I recalled that I do not have any valuable assets anyway.

Days of Misery
Highcamp1
The following day, we started to move up to first high camp – Camp Canada (16100ft/4900m). It was a short climb of around 3 hours. I didn’t lag that time, and I could feel that I was progressively improving in my physical performance. Two of our team members were in the state of deterioration though, getting slower each day. Acclimatization has 2 components, first is to adapt to changing atmospheric pressure so you don’t get AMS (acute mountain sickness) especially, its advanced form of edema (HACE/HAPE). That’s the base. The 2nd is, to acclimatize enough to improve performance (increase %O2, normalize BP, near-normalize heartbeat). You may not be sick, but your body may be deteriorating (getting weaker as the altitude increases) and that affects climb performance - - and chance of summit success. You have to acclimatize more than just to preserve health, the body has to perform as if in lower altitudes.
That night, one of the weirdest weather anomaly visited our camp – a strong windstorm swept the camp. We were bombarded with packets upon packets of strong winds reaching to about 50kph and more. Old tents were smashed flat on the ground, debris flying around, voices echoing with near-panic tone - - it was like being attacked by fighter planes, you would hear the distant roar, approaching with vengeance, and smacking our tents with a loud BOOM!
This didn’t do us any good, we got stuck for another day in this camp.
Then, Christmas day! We celebrated Christmas with cold steak, cold wind, and cold everything. I never felt so lonely and cold, we all just stayed in our sleeping bags, all lost in our thoughts of where we should be during the festivities. This sacrifice has to bring us something good, we just tried to sleep to forget, or daydream of warm roasted chicken and cold beer.

Highcamp2
We walked up the next camp after 2 days, and enjoyed perfect weather. Nido de Condores (17600ft/5380m) is a huge camp nestled in the northwestern tip of the Aconcagua pre-summit base. It has a magnificent view of the north and western Andes, and provides a surreal feeling of being on another lovely but lifeless planet. This has become my favorite highcamp, and to add a flavor to that feeling, I chanced upon a severed wing of a Condor, I pulled out one feather for luck and kept it in my backpack. We stayed for another day to better acclimatize, and hopefully be healthy and fit for the next highcamp.
I was surprised to find out the next day that the 2 South Africans have left, one of them got sick and could no longer recuperate, they aborted their climb.

Highcamp3
Snowclouds started to drift towards us, ignoring and silently praying for a fine day, we moved up to highcamp3, Camp Berlin (19,000ft). Took us just around 3 hours, but this is high altitude, and the highest camp we all have been so far, so we all quickly settled down to rest. Snow came in, then more snow, then wind and snow, snowstorm hovered above us. We met in a refuge and discussed our option, the Venezuelan and the Australian considered going down immediately, all the rest called for a “chance day” – we would wait for 1 more day for a weather break, then go down if the weather is still bad.
We waited in vain, at 4am, the lead guide shouted in each of our tent “No Go, No Summit!”. We all stayed in our sleeping bags, it was -15C outside and staying warm is the only thing we could do.
We all woke up the next morning with clear mark of disappointment in our faces, we were officially aborting our summit bid, we would all go home empty-handed. The Swedish (being the strongest in the group) has been very vocal about his disappointment and had expressed his desire to attempt even with semi-desperate condition. I silently and reluctantly gave up on the summit, but couldn’t fully accept defeat as I haven’t even stepped out of Camp Berlin. It’s 8-10 hours of walk to summit (from this camp) and so none of us could dare take a risk to sprint up the summit, the weather can close in on you in a matter of a few minutes.

We all went down wearing our gloomy faces, and marched down towards Mulas basecamp. I went down and headed straight to the hamburger station for the much needed morale boost (they sell hamburgers for 5 dollars), bad luck hit me again – no hamburgesa today!
The walk down gave me time to think thru the whole thing, I traveled half-way around the globe for one objective, the summit, and I haven’t achieved anything – nothing!
That echoed inside my head, bouncing skull to skull – and finally was vented out in an audible form – “I will go back up for the summit”!
The German was convincing me to call it off and just celebrate New Year with them, it was very tempting – Argentinian steak and wine! But lost battle without a real fight was something I couldn’t take, I have to go back.
The Swedish who seemed to be more disappointed that anyone else decided to leave BC earlier to fix his park permit, with the plan to go back next couple of days for a re-attempt. I decided not to leave BC to make sure I don’t lose my acclimatization and do a re-attempt quickly before my 300$ permit expires (well, in reality it will take 2-3weeks to lose acclimatization.
With the extreme altitude of Aconcagua, I would need a climbing partner for the re-attempt for safety reason – the target altitude is beyond my current level of experience. (I recall seeing a climber going down from the summit, roped up with his buddy, seemingly possessed or Soul-less. He was literally being dragged down, I saw him slumping down on the trail, legs up and seemingly dead. We later found out that he got Cerebral Edema on the way down, but was luckily airlifted to safety. This is something that I always consider, better to have a more experienced buddy in case I run into similar problem). Gladly, one Argentinian guide was unselfish enough to sacrifice a New Year with his family for my re-attempt, he would be my buddy.
Some members do not believe that a re-attempt will be successful due to still-present-bad weather, and especially with my outrageous plan. I told them that the plan is to hit highcamp2 (17600ft) from basecamp, then on to summit – skipping 2 highcamps. I was feeling strong now, as I have stayed for 2 nights in 19,000ft. I’ve never felt so acclimatized and strong. With a tone of sympathy for my strong desire to summit they all wished me luck, they would all go back home (except the Swedish who will soon be back for vengeance).

The Re-attempt
The day the team left was my rest day in the BC. I was not in need of a psyche up as my intuition was telling me that I was making the right decision. Brushing all doubts aside, I started to daydream of softdrinks, and beer, and Greenbelt – Aah, the best morale boost.

The next early morning (Dec31 before-sunrise), while I was half-dreaming of kwitis and super lolo, I heard a strange sound hitting my tent. Rain? I ignored it. I was awakened by the same stubborn sound, this time at first light – more shower, rain?! I peeped through my tent to discover big granules of snow raining down on the whole of Mulas basecamp. HOLY SHIT!! Weather has turned from bad to worse.

Bad weather or not, the show must go on. Together with the Argentinian, we started our long walk towards highcamp2. I heard him curse several times during our agonizing walk, fighting slippery trails and dodging strong winds – I could see the doubt in his eyes, seemingly saying “this re-attempt is a mistake!”

We arrived at Nido after around 5 hours. We both carried full packs with food supplies for 2 days of summit gamble. We radioed basecamp and learned that the Swedish was back, and will set out from Mulas at 2am straight to summit (now that’s a real stunt!).
The whole night seemed depressing and hopeless, winds continue to hiss around us, snow falling endlessly. The Argentinian seemed to have frostbite problem, but good thing his feet were just cold and numb. Damn, his plastic boots were wet on the way up, I dried mine after Berlin, he forgot to dry his. I let him rub and heal his feet, while I gather snow outside and melt them for water. I even cooked dinner (which was simply done by adding hot water in a foil container).
We heard a rescue request radio call from a ranger asking assistance to search for 3 lost climbers in Nido. I couldn’t be bothered. After one hour, the Argentinian responded and went out to ask about. He went back with big smiles, said the 3 lost souls were ok, and stayed somewhere just outside Nido. Whew!
Meanwhile, the wind continued blowing wildly outside our refuge, I started to doubt my instinct and was about to lose my optimism in the re-attempt.

4:30am. Ring Ring said my watch. This is go/no-go check. We unzip our sleeping bags, put on our plastic boots, wear all available cold-weather gear, and step out and check on the weather….. CLEAR!! A Christmas miracle? Or a dream? It took us several minutes to comprehend and accept what we were seeing. The Argentine looked at me, in big disbelief, his eyes protesting that this couldn’t be true. It was unbelievable, the weather cleared overnight, no clouds, no snow, only light wind, near ideal! A chance we couldn’t miss. We could make a summit attempt after all! Big smiles on! Then laughter!! Wohooo!

Soon we were on our feet, stomping the icy trail towards Berlin. After more than 1 hour, we reached highcamp3 (early morning) and rested a bit. It was very cold. I was wearing four layers (torso) – undergarment, fleece, down and shell – and I could still feel cold air penetrating my bones. I started eating special food reserves for the summit bid, instant Jello Gelatine! Sarrap!
“ROMEO!” came a loud shout from somewhere, it was the Swedish, the hombre was here! Hahaha, we greeted and felt glad we were again a team (sort of), that was for morale boost.

We continued the walk up towards the Independencia (6400m), super highcamp4. I was feeling strong and ok the first 5 hours. The Swedish was wondering how I managed to keep lead (was ahead of him) with my 1-breath,1-step pace. Walking at high altitudes requires sufficient oxygen intake, the key is slow steady continuous steps. He does sprint-stop pace which in the long-run is slower than my turtle move.
Next, Traversia! That was where I drained all my strength, and mental patience. The steep trail with soft snow made our pace “2 or 3 minus 1”. You do 2 or 3 steps, then you slide back 1 step. Crampons are of no use on soft snow. We simply struggled for around 3 hours, draining strength, draining patience, draining morale. First time I cursed on my way to summit, then more bad words.

We finally reached the foot of the Canaleta, and I was really exhausted. Took me endless minutes to put on my crampons (for steeper Canaleta), I felt like a gulay! It was hard to breathe, hard to stabilize cardio - -which by then was doing pa-thump pa-thump big time. Geez, I haven’t started with the Canaleta and I was already doomed. The Swedish decided to go ahead, he somehow got over the Traversia pretty well.
On with the challenge, but with a slower pace – a lot slower. I think I was doing 2-3 breathes every steep stride, plus extra 5 breathes every 4 steps made. Geez! A turtle could out walk me here.

The Canaleta is steep, and the going was really tough, and I was already using the last of my energy reserves. My whole world was just focused on making one useful step at a time, nothing else matters. Oxygen seems to have ran out, lungful upon lungful of labored inhale seemed to be of little use, but one step every few seconds is PROGRESS, and I was making a little of it, somewhat endless, but at least moving forward. I thought I heard cheering, I thought I saw smiles around, and it didn’t somehow register, nor matter. I walked baby step at a time, eyes on ground, and somehow the ground leveled flat. I stopped, I simply felt blood-drained and lifeless. As I walked a bit more, around the flat ground, and observed my surrounding, blood and prana started filling me up again. Then I realized, I was in the summit -- “I’m here, I’m really HERE!!! It’s over, it’s done!! Hahahaha! Wohooooooooo!!!!”

Failing the first time made me want the peak more, and then, we finally summit-ted with this overwhelming feeling of euphoria. All lost energy was brought back in an instant, and I almost jump up and down with joy, well at least in my heart I did. It seemed hard to believe that I was standing there -- what we’ve been trying to do for the past 3 weeks, we’ve finally done in 2 days! Wahooo!
The peak was awesome. The view of the Pacific Ocean to the west was magnificent, and the view of the entire Andes range to north, east and south was simply stunning! The day was perfect, a small speck of clouds to the east attempted to obstruct the otherwise clear and clean view of the entire mountain range, all peaks were somehow smaller and shorter - giving us the feeling that we were far above anything on Earth. I remember the feather that I picked up from Nido de Condores, it may or may not be a real lucky charm, but yes, being in the summit was probably like how a Condor feels when it is soaring across the sky, it sees the same splendor, the same awe, and feels the same thrill! Before I went down, I took a deep breath, glanced at the 360-view one last time, and put on my biggest smile, yes – I could feel and see like a Condor -- flying over the summit of Mt Aconcagua!


Epilogue
It has been 2 good days in Mendoza, we just ate tons of beef steak, drank beer and enjoyed the surroundings – especially the site of beautiful Latinas around us. I was doing last minute shopping on my last day in the city, and on the way back to my hotel, 2 guys stop me on my tracks and machine gunned me with audible signal that sounds like Spanish. I finally decoded them and smiled back, “Si si, muy suerte!” After, I stopped by a small store to buy Sprite, and the shop owner rattled with another set of code, this time I couldn’t get a hint of what he was saying so he excused himself, get a copy of UNO newspaper, and showed me my picture and story printed in the said newspaper, “Is this you? Felizidades!”. I politely replied, “Si si, hehe, Gracias!”.
It was funny that at least on 4 occasions, locals actually recognized and congratulated me for reaching the summit. The local newspaper mentioned that first Filipino summit-ted Aconcagua. I could only smile and reflect back on that glorious summit day, yes – it was indeed a historic day.

For the Record
Climber Romi Garduch successfully summit-ed the peak of Mt Aconcagua on the 1st of January 2005 at around 4:15pm. He and the Argentinian left highcamp2 Nido de Condores a little before 6am early that day (10.5hours to summit). They went back to Mulas BC the same day and arrived around 10pm (total of more than 15hours of trek in a day.
The Swedish climber left Mulas BC at 2am and arrived in the summit at around 3:50pm. He went down to Mulas BC with Romi and the Argentinian.

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