El Aconcagua Report
Quang-Tuan Luong
> More people die on this mountain than any other in the world.
I seem to have heard that of several mountains. Could someone
substantiate this claim ? I thought that so far the mountain
which has claimed the most lives was Mont-Blanc with more than
one thousand killed. Can Aconcagua be worse than that ?
Tuan.
--
Quang-Tuan LUONG, Computer scientist at SRI, +1(415)859-5138
333 Ravenswood av. room EK231, Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493, USA
lu...@ai.sri.com http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/
Laura Hardy Deglomine
I got real busy, real fast and am finally getting to it. Arrived in
Mendoza Jan. 2, Puente del Inca the 3rd and headed up the Horcones Valley
Jan. 4. When we got up to 14,000', Plaza de Mulas, (1/6...we like to
acclimatize) it was clear, the next day snow. 1/8 we did a carry up to
Cambio Pentientes (17,200). It started with the snow again about 2 P.M.
This is the dry season. It gets worse.
Took a rest day 1/9 and went back to "Cambio" the next day. Pretty O.K.
weather 1/11 and we got slammed with snow 1/12, 1 - 1 1/2 feet. Big wind
gusts in the night. 1/13 we headed up to Berlin, feeling pretty
aclimatized. Again some nasty weather and lots of wind.
Our friend and fellow guide, Diego, reached Berlin (19,???') ahead of most
of us. There were two guys on the Gran Acarreo that had fallen from the
traverse. One fell like 1,500'. They were both part of a unit from the
Argentine Army. No Crampons. I guess this is the main reason I'm writing
this. The normal route on Aconcagua is non-technical, but don't plan on
going without crampons. The traverse is usually icy and very windy. And
its a long way down if you fail on snow and ice.
These guys hit a few rocks on the way down. One was unconscious with a
skull fracture and spinal injury, the other had a skull fracture and other
injuries. Diego took sleeping bags, roll pads and hot drinks to the most
severely injured of the two. He felt pretty sure he would die. Basically
kept the guy alive until rescuers arrived in the early A.M. One of our
guys spent the night in down parkas because his bag had the army guy in
it. Temps. were -20. We spoke with Diego via radio through the night. To
say the least, we took a rest day the next day.
1/15 we got a 7:30 A.M. start. We might have started earlier only it was
radically cold and windy. We had two in our group turn back. Some folks
left at 4:30 A.M. the day before, got to the traverse at sunrise and it
was -25 degrees. They turned back and packed it out. Like I said the
traverse was windy, but the Canaleta (sp?) was awesome. Sure, it was
longer than it looks, but with the snow on it, every step counted. If
you're not familiar with it, you are usually climbing in loose dirt and
rock...sree...we got lucky. The summit was clear and very windy. Six on
the summit all together. And we have video. My mom and dad finally got to
see me on a summit!
Got back to camp by sunset. Eat, drink, sleep. As we were packing up to
head out the next day a military guy appears at Berlin looking for help.
There was another guy on the Gran Acarreo that fell from the traverse.
Argentine Army and no crampons! Unbelievable! This guy "only" had a
fractured shoulder and broken ribs. Diego again goes to this rescue and
Mark (my husband and fellow guide) and load up Diego's gear to bring down
to 14,000'. I only mention this because my 125 lb. frame was not made to
carry 60 lbs. downhill 5,000'. Well, actually I handled it O.K., but it
took my feet about 4 weeks to recover. Big deal, right?
But the irony of it was about 300 feet above Plaza de Mulas these 5
Argentine Army guys show up behind me and take my pack for me. Hey. I'm
not proud...I was in pain. Anyway, they were teasing me about have too
much stuff, "rocks in your pack", when I told them my friend was helping
with their friend's rescue and I had his stuff. Boy, they sure knew who
Diego was! And the teasing stopped.
As a follow up, all of the army guys survived. There was a big article in
the newspaper in Mendoza and Diego should be up for some sort of medal. I
hope so. Amazingly, the army paid cash to replace our friend's sleeping
bag which was damaged in the rescue. (R.E.I Down Time -20)
And lastly, I tried to cover a lot here very quickly. Please don't think
my reporting of these rescues as nonchalant. This was very serious stuff.
More people die on this mountain than any other in the world. I have been
told its mostly from poor aclimization, late returns from the summit when
people become ataxic or disoriented and bad judgement. Not necessarily
from falls. Take it seriously.
Happy Climbing
We return with a new group and new adventure Jan. 26, 1997. Laura
Steven R. Eckert
>I would ask the question: what is the cause of death in most of these
>cases? Certainly it is not the terrain. I would suspect that altitude
>and weather contribute to most causes of bodily harm on Aconcagua.
Having just summited, and heard several death stories on the way,
my conclusion is this: The leading cause of death is a lack of respect.
One guy sat down to adjust a crampon, and slid to his death on
the Gran Acarrero (a broad scree field covered with drifted snow).
He did not want to carry an ice axe, and thought ski poles would
be just as useful. I wonder if he thought that while he was dying?
Another guy failed on the technical polish glacier route, but after
receiving treatement for frostbitten fingers he headed back up the
standard route. He died from exhaustion (immediate cause was hypothermia,
but he was probably unable to generate heat from being worn out).
In our group, the strongest climber began to slow near the summit,
so his climbing partner left him and summited alone. He cannot account
for about 45 minutes, and he did not make the peak. He says it was
cerebral edema, but who know? Later, on the way down, he slipped and
did not get up - he told his partner he just wanted to go to sleep in
the snow. If that had happened while he was alone, he would have died.
If it had happened traversing the Gran Acarrero, he would have died.
We all split up, wanting the peak more than we wanted safety (well,
four of us out of fourteen summited together, but the others climbed
alone). Even on the way down, some of us left the slower people behind,
to make their way out at an easier pace - and they left the sickest
and slowest guy on his own at 17600' while they hiked down to 14200'.
You don't conquer a mountain. You are allowed to share the top with
the weather. When you forget that, you get in trouble. Aconcagua is
tall enough that "trouble" often means "death". Just my opinion.
BTW: Netcom has had some trouble with lost news postings. I saw this
post, but not the one it appears to be responding to. Could you
email me the original?
--
SRE
* * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * *
* Eckert Enterprises Steve Eckert eck...@netcom.com *
* * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * *
* ftp: 192.100.81.1 415-508-0500 fax: 415-508-0501 *
* * * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * *
TRY THIS:
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln256%Pln256/snlbx]sb3135071790101768542287578439snlbxq'|dc