Matt Gives A Cybercast...or two...or three

Matt has been giving the past few cybercasts from Aconcagua. Sounds like they've been eating well and climbing strongly! Check it out here: http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp

They are team 10. My vote was for team "plasma shield" but apparently that never caught on. Plasma shield is the 4th option in paper-rock-scissors as told to Dave Heinbach (sp??) by a 5th grader. Dave is the lead guide for this trip who I got to meet during the 2011 summer/fall when I joined Matt for a few days in Yosemite (then a few more in Red Rocks). I thought it was cold in the valley....not sure how I'd fare on a 22K foot mountain.....!

On top of the highest peak in the America's

Matt's team made the summit today! I must have played the cybercast for 6 different people at work (basically anyone who came in my office). It gave 3 people shivers. :)

Secret: I won't know for 3 days if Matt was actually at the summit (when he's back in Mendoza and can make a phone call). Two of the team members had to turn back annd...since there are 3 guides at least one would have to go back......and he didn't speak on the cybercast shout out soooooo...The good news is that if he didn't make it he'll get another shot in a few more days with trip II up the mountain.

I'm so proud of him. :) It's fun to know someone doing something so cool, so adventurous, so liberating. What an amazing moment for those 6 clients. It makes my heart swell just to think about their excitement and pride at what they accomplished.

Earplugs and Oxygen

Judging by the cybercasts for the past two days (go to http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp) --- Matt's team has been getting quite a bit of wind. Winds are steady at about about 40 mph with gusts as high as 50-60 mph. The lead guide, Mark, said these are called the "vientos blancos" or white winds. Apparently they nestled in today at camp III (coming out of their tents for about 30 minutes to eat eggs for breakfast) but they're hopeful the winds will calm down and they'll make it to high camp tomorrow (20600 feet) and have a good summit day following. Matt brought the book "For Whom The Bell Tolls" to read on these kinds of days.......I'm imagining the day passed very slowly for him.

Carol (Matt's mom) alterted me to a website where you can see the forcast all the way up the mountain...highs of 14 degrees Fahrenheit today at 19,686 feet!
http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Aconcagua/forecasts/6000

She also has potentially deciphered their team name as something related to an Argentinian boxer named "Pepe" Raul Horatio Balbi, a light weight boxing champion from Buenos Aires. I googled and found a ladies store in Buenos Aires named "Pipi cucu" which I also think is a close contendor. :) I also found some interesting videos on you tube that use similar terminology....

They are 5 hours ahead of us in Oregon (only 2 hours ahead for those of you in crazy places like Vermont and Florida) - so send some calming wind thoughts when you wake tomorrow morning!

Following Matt on Aconcagua

So....as many of you may know Matt has been in Argentina for just about a month....and he'll be there until mid February. He's guiding two trips on Aconcagua for Alpine Ascents International (AAI). He flew to Mendoza on December 14th to take a spanish immersion course, prepped food for the 20 day trip with the lead guide Mark over the Christmas Holiday, then met the clients and started for the mountain on 12/27.

So...I finally did my due dilligance today and found out just how tall Aconcagua is, what it looks like, and just what Matt is in for. :) (see image below)

First, Aconcagua is the tallest summit outside Asia at 22,841 feet (in comparison Mt. Everest is 29,029 feet and Mt. Hood is somewhere around 11,240 feet). It is one of the seven summits and is located in the Andes Mountain range (between Argentina and Chili). A map is provided below.



Second, the standard trip itinerary for and AAI trip up Aconcagua can be found here: http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-dtd.asp
They climb Aconcagua via the nontechnical Vacas Valley Route (Polish Variation). If you go to the following link and scroll down until you see the Google Maps image, they are taking the route marked with blue flags.
http://www.purebound.com/aconcagua/

Third, AAI gives about 17 days to get to high camp and 2 days to get back (I'm going to have to ask Matt about the math on that one). There is actually a pretty cool webcam of the basecamp that you can see here (disclaimer: I'm not sure this is the basecamp that Matt's team used): http://www.aconcaguanow.com/indice.php

This is the 3rd highest webcam in the world. The image is updated ever 3 minutes during daylight hours....and there's even a timelapse option. Watch out on this site because there are links to other webcams ALL OVER THE WORLD. If you start exploring you won't get to read the rest of my post. :)

Fourth, each AAI group does an update via satellite phone approximately every evening (it's about 23 seconds on average..........and depending on wind conditions you may or may not hear it). According to the most recent update Matt's team (Team 5 or "pee pee....coo coo", although honestly I can't understand the last words and I'm not sure I want to given they're using "blue bags" for this 20 day treck) made it to camp III at 19,200 feet today. There has been snow for the past few days and they were breaking trail through 5-9 inches. I wonder if Matt wishes he would have hiked up to Council Crest a few more times right about now....

Fifth, judging by the standard AAI itinerary Matt and his team should get opportunities to summit between Wednesday (1/11) to Friday (1/13) of next week. According to local guides - there's approximately a 30% success rate for summitting the mountain. One reason for this is that Aconcagua is only 80 miles from the Pacific Ocean, so it can get hit with extremely high winds and storms like Denali in Alaska. [can you tell I just stole that from another website?] A few other reasons might include: altitude related illnesses causing climbers to descend before the summit and poor fitness. However, the really good news is that there are few fatalities on Aconcagua each year (by few I really mean "few"...the annual average is 3 according to internet sources).

So...it's been fun to gain some insight into Matt's reality today. I'm got a little listful as I watched the sun rise and set on the basecamp timelapse video today. There's also a nice YouTube video someone posted of the hike in to Plaza Argentina (the 30 mile trek in to base camp). The images remind me of hiking in the Wallowas...except we didn't write in spanish. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAzDNj_4SyY

I'll keep you posted as I learn more! Until then, enjoy exploring these links and living vicariously through Matt's adventure (i.e., work). :)