Entries from Aconcagua

Our hearts are heavy tonight and the dinner conversation a bit more somber. Some of our party went down with a guide to head for base camp early. All for different reasons, their decision to descend is the most respected choice in mountaineering, one that takes strength, maturity, and courage. Climbing tall peaks is never about how far we can push ourselves, but about respecting our limits and knowing when, for the sake of our team, to call this day our summit. And that is why our hearts are heavy.

Since we began this trek two weeks ago, we have come to deeply care for one another. Conversation has flowed beyond the biographies of our lives to the maps of our souls and the gentle silence reserved for only the most familiar friends. We do not climb to reach summits alone but to plumb the depths of our inner lives as well.

That’s why this note is to our group six months from now, when everyday life feels routine, and the memories of this trek will have faded:

Dear Friends,

By the time we read this on August 2nd much will have happened since our cold nights and card games on the mountain. Mary Beth and Jess will have summited Everest and brought needed attention and funding to Ovarian Cancer. We’ll all have read Tim’s book, Jack will have a fresh harvest of greenhouse tomatoes, Dom might finally have a sunburn from his beach vacation, David will be signed up for Denali, Cameron will have spent the better part of the summer in Costa Rica, and Gator will be a legend on Mount Rainier. The infrequent emails we share will take us back to this moment and our memories together. But we won’t remember the hard parts, for that tends to fade.

Instead, we’ll remember the early dinners, deep laughs, nicknames, and lessons that brought us home different people from when we left. We’ll remember our gratefulness for those who spent their careers serving our country and the allure of Alaska. We’ll remember the basics of geology 101 and the majesty of how the Andes first reached for the stars. We’ll remember trying to avoid sunburn and yet yearning for the first kiss of morning sun on our tents before breakfast. We’ll remember going to bed at seven pm, rationing batteries, forgetting if we filtered our water, and the magic of a Garmin inReach. We’ll remember the Argentines who sacrificed months from home to make this climb possible, and we’ll remember the loved ones back in the states who picked up the slack so we could chase our alpine dream.

Deeper still than these moments are truths that will form who we become. For together, we’ve learned how to rest and seen that empty days have a joy all their own. When obligations, activities, and emails stack up we’ll remember our slow days as much as our climbs. And lastly, we’ll remember that a group of eleven strangers - folks with little reason to cross paths in our ordinary routines - became friends by sharing our stories and a common goal. We’ll remember that it’s true for most strangers we pass (yes, even that group) and hold a moment’s more space for the serendipity and friendship still ahead on our future climbs and ordinary days. We’ll remember each other and what we shared together with deep affection - and that’s what will matter most.

Climber Hudson Baird & Team 

Last night, we were sitting in the dome at camp 2. Dinner was finished, and everyone was in their tents for bed. The steam of freshly boiled water was rising as we poured the last of it into the hot pot.

We sat as a guide team, looking at updated weather and coming up with a summit strategy when in popped one of our team members,

“Hey, Can I talk to you guys?”

“Sure, sure. Come on in.”

She stepped through the door.

“I’d like to help carry this teammate’s weight tomorrow. I want this for him so badly and he’s struggling.”

This morning, after a breezy night straight into a breezy morning, I sleepily walked from the guide tent to the dome tent. Jack immediately handed me my little 1/2 L Nalgene filled with warm coffee,

“Dom made it for you.”

Packing up our bags to carry a load to Camp 3,

“How is your morning, Reacher?”

“I didn’t sleep well. I woke up early to the wind and helped tie down other people’s tents.”

Climbing mountains is an inherently selfish sport. We work hard to get ourselves to the top. It benefits us, the climber, more than anyone else. And there’s no problem with that.

I found my own healing in the mountains, my own growth, the ability to drive and push myself further than I thought possible.

And I fell in love with guiding because I loved helping others do the same - get out of their comfort zone, try really hard, take a really big risk.

But if there’s one thing this team keeps teaching me, one tiny miracle at a time, is that there is more than just our own little dreams happening. Even though 14 days ago we were total strangers, we are now people who have built deep relationships, so much so that we’ll offer to help carry another’s weight because we already believe in that other so much. We’ll share our bag of banana chips at every break, even though instinct tells us to hold fast to those calories we hefted all the way to 18,000 feet. We’ll tie down tents in the lonely early morning just because we don’t want our friends to blow away after a windy night.

And today, when all of us felt a touch alone in our struggle to Camp 3 at 19,600 feet, I looked a little closer and saw the sort of miracle that was a team coming together. Climbing a mountain not just for ourselves but with and for those we are inspired by. I saw that whatever has happened between us is profound and no matter if we stand on top or not, we won’t leave here unchanged.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel

I thought that some of our followers at home might enjoy an insider’s view of daily camp life. So, here it is:

The evening began with a six p.m. dinner of pasta lightly tossed in olive oil with sautéed bell peppers and onions and topped with grated Parmesan cheese. You could smell the delicious aroma circling the camp. After crawling into our tents, some of us watched videos, others read books, while Pops wrote poetry. Although we were tired and the weather was good for sleeping, we are each faced with a nightly dilemma - waking up with an urge to use a bathroom (which doesn’t exist above base camp).

The thoughts running through your head include: do I really need to get out of the warm comfort of my sleeping bag? Can’t I just go back to sleep and go later? It’s too cold outside! Will I disturb my tent mate? It takes too much energy. Where’s my toilet paper? Is my pee bottle already full?

These thoughts are on an endless repeat in your head until you finally give in and stumble out of the tent to take care of business.

With a sense of relief, you crawl back into your tent and kick yourself for wasting a half hour of sleep and not just getting up at the first urge. But the night continues with lots of twisting and turning as we try to find that perfect position until our arm or leg falls asleep - necessitating another turn. We still manage to get enough rest to climb upwards and onward.

Speaking of business - choosing a place to poop.

At camp, we do have a designated poop tent; however, there are many things to consider. We are each issued a big plastic bag which we can use in the poop tent by putting it into a big plastic bucket or finding a private spot and squatting. The upside to the tent is having a seat and the privacy of a tent. The downside is trying to separate pee from poop.

The other option is walking away from camp and squatting over the bag. The downsides are missing the bag, your private spot isn’t so private, and the huffing and puffing that occurs during the search. The upsides are the beauty of nature, no smelly hot tent, and easier to separate the pee from the poo. That’s probably TMI but this is part of camp life.

This morning we were gently awoken by Dom’s door to door tent service with hot drinks. It was the coldest night so far and none of us were particularly interested in leaving the warm sanctuary of our sleeping bags. Making the tent service much appreciated.

As the sun rose, our tents began to warm and we mustered the courage to emerge and begin our day of relaxing, recovering, and acclimatizing. The day started with another amazing breakfast of hash browns scrambled with bacon, peppers, and onions. Cooking this type of breakfast is no easy feat with limited pans, scarce utensils, and camp stoves that burn like jet engines.

We ate seated on rocks arranged in a circle while wearing gloves, hats, parkas, and puffy pants, as the morning remained cold. One moment, we are putting on layers and the next, we are taking them off. It’s a constant rotation of clothing. Conversations around the circle included what it’s like to be a cowboy, crazy outhouse stories, and how delicious rocky mountain oysters can be when fried over a campfire.

During the day, we take short walks around camp, eat more food so we don’t have to carry it, nap during the heat of the day, listen to music, read books, enjoy a variety of conversations, and play cutthroat card games. This recharges our batteries as we prepare for a carry to our last camp at 19,600’ tomorrow.

Mary Beth Kempner, aka “the editor”

PS Don’t worry Floyd, I’ve only temporarily taken over your job as editor. You are the editor of my life!

PSS Angela - thanks for your encouragement.

PSSS Shout out to Hudson for taking on the role of editor tonight

Monday, January 30, 2023

It takes the sun seven minutes to send its rays to Earth. It likely took the same amount of time for those rays to wake up the team once the sun was shining upon camp. We awoke to sapphire blue skies with out a cloud to been seen. The temperature quickly began to climb as the solar radiation has little to deflect it at this altitude. We too would soon be climbing but not quickly! Here on this mighty stone sentinel, we are but turtles, slowly but surely heading uphill. A symphony of grunts, moans and creaking joints was heard as the team emerged from their tents. A most excellent breakfast of bacon, eggs and bagel sandwiches was served slowly, giving everyone time for their coffee to kick in and to slowly stretch and limber up their bodies. Today is our third day on the move and the team is feeling the repeated days of exertion at these high altitudes. This continued movement uphill with no rest days since basecamp is not a punishment for poor expedition behavior, but instead a strategic move. Getting to Camp 2 (also known as Guanacos Three) will put us within striking distance of Camp 3 and the summit. We will rest here, acclimatize, and wait for the best possible summit day to appear. Tonight we will settle into our new altitude, enjoying each others stories during dinner while we sit outside basking in the pleasant weather, taking in the magnanimous views of the Argentinian Andes laid out below us, as far as the eye can see.

With much love from high above,

RMI Guide Jack “Gator” Delaney and the team.

When I first climbed a mountain years ago.  I did it to help a friend with a late life mid life crisis.  After that I continued to climb but never had an answer to the question “why”?  Today I found my answer. Today we trekked from Camp 1 to Camp 2.  A gain of around 2,000' in elevation.  On the walk it came to me that we have formed a mountain family. We have Dom the Dominating.  The father figure and leader of the group. Toothpick, the moral foundation.Gator. Charles Darwin. Origin of species. THE living fossil. David, the doc. Jack, the nephew that always says one more rep at the gym. Rossi, the long lost cousin from Europe.  Mary Beth, the aunt that always knows if your telling the truth or not.Hudson, hair = Epic!, Tim, the crazy uncle willing to medically treat your cats for everything. Cam, the strong but silent type. Today as we moved up the mountain.  We did it as a group with everyone matching speed and ability perfectly.  No one was left behind and all were in good spirits and willing to help anyone with anything. There were words of encouragement, and a sense of belonging - the likes you do not see very often. It is in this spirit that I can say everyone here is a Lion King compared to what you will see in an average day of work. Except Gator, he is more of a Gator King.

Signing out from Camp 1 with everyone in good spirits and health.

P.S. Jane I’m fine.

Climber Shane Chidester

Buenas from Camp 1 family and friends!

We have began our ascend up Aconcagua with the first familiar, yet challenging, climb to our new temporary home on the mountain. The day began with quick and strategic balance between gear packing and tent breakdown to allow for some overnight frost to melt. We devoured one of our last five star breakfasts for the next week, provided by our basecamp support team Ezikiel, Nadine and Laura! Truly the unsung heroes of expeditions. See you laters and thank you’s exchanged shortly after, the uphill climb started. Familiar zig zags and moraines appeared, quick breaks to refuel followed and meaningful conversations made the hike up enjoyable! Basecamp team had one more surprise for us upon arrival - tents already set up. With gear secured and camp established, we are all enjoying a new viewpoint of the Rallenchos valley below and a pristine snowfield above. Alternating between naps, reading, or podcast listening we are all replenishing energy. As we get ready for dinner and a restful night in this new rugged environment to my teammates I say ‘ Po paten vqtur’ / may the wind be with you/ , and those at home Obicham te/ We love you.

Camp 1 over and out.

Base Camp : Rest Day Before Moving to Camp 1

We spent the first true “rest day” since leaving the trailhead 5 days ago. Yesterday’s carry to Camp 1 was challenging.  This was and will be the most elevation gain in a single day aside from Summit Day. Combine the gain with the continued challenges that come with acclimatization and it was tough. The downtime on the legs and lungs has been greatly appreciated by all.

Whether it was reading, visiting with new friends, playing Kings in the Corner and Farkle, hiking, or just taking some time for self care, we each found something to enjoy and make the most of our time together on this Mountain.

Climbing forces one to be in the “now”. Focusing on each step to sure our footing. Employing the rest step to sustain and finish a long, steep ascent.  The kind that has you praying for a “long” traverse. Pressure breathing to best utilize the oxygen available to you. You focus on what you can control. Not what happened yesterday, or possibly what greater challenges await tomorrow. You tend to the now. Conversely, you “let go” of what you can’t control and you practice trusting others to handle those things. As such, each day the bond of the team grows stronger.

Tomorrow we move to Camp 1 and “really” begin to climb this mountain. We will Largely be out of touch except for text messages from a satellite device. We will have minimal creature comforts like the ones we enjoyed on the trek in and at Base Camp. We embrace the challenge however.

We will do this one step at a time … together!

PS .  Molly - Give Hadley Bear a huge hug and kiss from Daddy!!

Climber Cameron Presley 

January 26, 2023

The wind is a feral creature, lamenting into the void. Our nearly constant companion, shifting mercurial between head and tailwind the moment we accept whatever circumstances fate most recently dealt us. 

We sojourned beyond the impossible luxuries of basecamp, making our way up serpentine paths through scree and scramble, to deposit material ever higher in preparation for climbs to come. 

While the sun shown splendid, the wind conspired with the very rock to threaten barrages of stones upon our heads. Luckily, our benevolent overlords: Don Dom, Toothpick, and Gator, ensured protective gear emplacement, forestalling calamity and facilitating a timely return to basecamp, amid jubilation for our first successful climb of the trip and empanadas without equal, from our generous Grajales hosts. 

Climber Jack R

Good day faithful readers,

We have concluded our 17 day Aconcagua Expedition. With a final 8mile walk out to the park entrance, we have made it start to finish. Our final night was spent bellies full of Carne asada and a crisp starry night to glance up at intermittently as we rolled in our sleeping bags. It's surreal feeling having been sleeping hypoxic at 19,600' and then in 48 hours on the valley floor. Three hours of walking brought us back to where we started and a quick wait brought us back to our clean clothes at Penitentes. Once back in Mendoza the team cleaned up and became new people. It's crazy what a shower, new clothes, and shave can do for someone's appearance. We enjoyed bottles of wine and listening to everyone tell their highs and lows of the trip. It's been an amazing time in Argentina from the people, the food, the scenery, and the company. On behalf of all three guides, we would like to thank our team for a great expedition. Thier commitment to train and be ready for this trip showed and their ability to adapt and bond as a team has made these three weeks truly enjoyable. So congratulations team, hope to see you all on the next mountain!

That's a wrap,

RMI Guides Hannah, Ben, Dan, and Team

Howdy howdy,

We woke up for the last time on the mountain.

We opened our eyes to a frosty dome tent as we packed up our sleeping bags and got ready for breakfast. Today, we headed down the valley towards the park entrance. 8hrs and 17miles later, we arrived at Lenas, our first camp we stayed at 16 days ago.

We started our expedition with a carne asada dinner and ended it the same way. Bellies full of steak, potatoes, veggies, red wine. Our bellies no longer rumble and are now instead very full. The team earned this glorious meal cooked by a spectacular chef. With a light breeze we are headed to our sleeping arrangements, some in tents, others sleeping under the stars.

It's a surreal moment looking back at being at 19,600' just yesterday and now sleeping on the valley floor. Tomorrow, we finish our trek out to the gate entrance, concluding our 17-day trip up and down Aconcagua. Everyone is ready and excited for the hotel amenities - top on the list is a shower, a reliable toilet, clean clothes, and a comfy bed.

For now, we are content laying in the dirt after a long day hiking.

Buenos noches,

Hannah, Ben, Dan, and Team