4 - Aconcagua, un long way of humility

- Descent by the valley of Los Horcones (normal way)

Lost in their thoughts, they follow the Rio Horcones for several kilometers now. The first passed without glancing to it. The last felt the presence of its mass and stop one last time to contemplate it.
The monster seems to crush them from the immensity of its Southern face and to laugh at their failure. Could they have overcome it without this wind? Were there any other solutions than this precipitated descent? Could have they held on one day, one night more to wait until this storm ceases?
In spite of their bitterness, all know that there was only one decision to take. One of them however, victim of his inexperience and his thoughlessness, the face burned , striated by scabs, lips bursted, the eyes purulent, is perhaps the only one who is living the 36 kilometers of descent like a relief.
At the bottom of himself, in the moments of clearness the attacks of fever leave to him, he can measure the distance separating his pretension to the humility this mountain inspires with.
Then he looks in front of him those guides (*), small points in the middle of this stones vastness. He cannot help admiring them, them who will make 5 times more during the season this effort that appeared to him so inhuman. Them, who already overcame tens of time this mountain. Them, who never complain and who attend to everything, "those conquerors of useless... " (end of the history of an expedition among so much others )

(*) To Adrian, Matias, to the 2 Diegos, to Cedric...
To Catherine, Tony, Kevin and José

3 - Aconcagua, un long way of humility

- Camp 2 (5600m) and camp 3 (6000m, known as "colera") - alternative of the Poles way .

The days passed: they do not know any more very well since how long they left. They arrived at camp 2 the day before at the evening, in a snowstorm. One of the guides had preceded them to set up in the urgency a tent so that they can take refuge there quickly. This time, they had been afraid. Exhausted, the face pricked by the hail, the tip of the fingers already painful , wiping their mask covered by snow, staggering of tiredness, they had searched for the tent during minutes which had appeared an eternity to them. They already imagined themselves frozen . When the guide had appeared few meters of them, they had known that they could put an end to this nightmare. All huddled ones against the others, it had taken to them several hours before feeling blood again circulating at the tip of their fingers. The mountain had taken another dimension, that none of them with his weak experiment knew. The next morning, the sky is limpid and they can see the Glacier of the Poles upon them. They know that they cannot move back any more. There is not other alternative that to remain in the tent to regain forces or to continue to go up. They choose to take the progression again, without respecting the day of rest, in spite of their tetanized muscles, in spite of their state of tiredness, in spite of the load of 20 kilos they have to carry. Some of them already start to count the days separating them from a bed and a shower.At the camp 3, at 6000m approximately, they wait one day, then a second one that the gusts of frozen wind stop so that they can try the rise of the summit. But the mountain decides differently. The wind come on worse during the night, transforming them into desarticulated puppets in their tents which cannot any more shelter them. Then the guides take the only decision it should be taken: to go down... (to be continued)

2 - Aconcagua, un long way of humility

- Base camp (4200m Plaza Argentina) and camp 1 (4900m) - East face

At the end of 3 days of walk and 2 nights of sleep, they reach the base camp. The less prepared, the ones accustomed to Alpine greens pastures or the tourists give up. Those which remain, feel in their muscles the 2000 meters already climbed . They think of having achieved the hardest but the days which come will be more. They do not know it yet...
A glacial circus, almost lunar surrounds them. The shade of Aconcagua slips slowly on the camp (*). All return inside the tents but outside the cold of the night is not bearable. Each one takes the rhythm of the camp. They will spend 3 days there to rest and be acclimatized.
Snow falls during the night. The following day is a rest day and each one at the bottom of his tent kills the time which passes, slowly, trying to forget the wind which slams the tarpaulin. One fills frantically the pages of a log book, the other avoids finishing quickly the only book he has carried to not find himself alone with sinister thoughts. In this place where no more wound heals, there is worse than the physical suffering of the days of rise: there is this feeling of oppression, born from the minutes which appear hours, locked up in this prison of which wind and cold are the watchtowers, to smell each day more nauseous odors emanating from his body. Unless they are those of his neighbor.
To avoid the symptoms of "the apunamiento" (headaches, nauseas, giddinesses...), they must drink, drink unceasingly: at least 3 liters per day and piss as much. To piss, they should slip on 2 indeed 3 thicknesses of clothing, to put their shoes on : minutes of effort and as much when they undress themselves.
Then they piss in the tent, in bottle and go outside for the number two, they make in a plastic bag. They will have to transport their excrements. No waste must be abandoned on Aconcagua: even not these. Many is unaware of these scatologic details before leaving. Which become with the passing days, a throbbing concern, more difficult to support by those who have at the beginning a high opinion of themselves...(to be continued)

1 - Aconcagua, un long way of humility

- approach by the valley of the guanacos

They were five. None arrived at the summit. But this broken dream was perhaps for each one of them, a victory over himself...
Many comes to Aconcagua, proud of their preceding experiments, of their physical condition in spite of the advanced age of some and the non recognized lack of training of others. All are convinced to go at the end of the adventure. They thought of it for many years sometimes. Family meetings or society cocktails during the months which precede, are the occasion for them to evoke this project, the temerity of which win them admiration of those who know at least that Aconcagua is a stone heap of 7000 meters (*), somewhere in the middle of the Cordillera. They repeat to the listeners pretending to impassion themselves, what they read in the reviews or the guides. Seeking to reassure their anxious entourage, as much as reassuring themselves, they repeat that this adventure does not present any technical difficulty and that it is only a succession of quiet excursions, each day a little more high.
When comes the evening, by bedside lamp light, they read again however this article about "the apunamiento", this mountains illness specific to the Andes which can go to the cerebral oedema, fearing in silence to be its future victims. A few days before the departure, they are impatient to test the glowing equipment, "Gore Tex" or "Windstopper"marked, which must multiply by ten their force and in which they absorbed a fortune. They pack, unpack hundred times their 80 liters backbag, sitting down above so that all enters in, contemplating it lovingly during hours, seeing themselves already, proud mountain dwellers, on the "Americas roof". In Mendoza, 2 days before the departure, the meeting with the guides and their future expedition companion suddenly dulls a part of their superb assurance. Measuring their respective experiencesit come home to them that theirs is perhaps a little slight, that the adventure in which they launched out, is perhaps not absolutely safe. Still worse, it looks risky...
After a few hours of walk, there does not remain a lot of each one grandeur dreams : the flag planned for the summit day is forgotten at the bottom of the bag. The front wind, dry and cold, raises whirlwind, depositing the tracheitis germs which will not leave them any more, at the bottom of the throat of those who did not understand the importance of the "bandana" before the mouth...(To be continued)

(*) 6962 m