for photos from the trip.
Chronological narration by Sam Carpenter
12/19: We arrived in Mendoza. Great city! 90 degree temperatures. 2,300 feet elevation. BIG trees on every street, calm. Relaxed.. 1 million people in this city. Very little English spoken here. How refreshing. I discovered that siestas are the center of the day for these folks-nearly everything shuts down from 1pm to 5pm. Makes sense to me...every day, I too took naps...stayed at the Zymora hotel. $10 U.S. per night and the BEST coffee ever, served to me in my room when I awoke...No one spoke English. Kind of a charm to that, as I quickly picked up rudimentary Spanish. The quick take: this seems to be a wonderful family-oriented society
12/22 Rick (Rick Treleaven,, my friend and climbing partner from Bend, 45 years old, powerful climber and good guy) and I took outfitter's bus to Plaza Del Inca, 100+ miles west of Mendoza. Stayed at little hotel there. The hotel is at 8,000 feet elevation.
12/23, 12/24, we hiked into Aconcagua base camp. 18 miles 7,000 foot gain. Long hard hike. Lots of climbing teams heading up there. As one can imagine, Argentina's Andes are spectacularly beautiful.
12/25, Saturday Morning/Christmas day. Scheduled rest day. For me, 2nd night in a row with nearly no sleep. I couldn’t fall asleep as every time I did, I woke up gasping for breath. Base camp doctor assumed I had been having panic attacks. In afternoon, shot my butt with valium so I could sleep. But, still could not sleep, drifting off every minute or so, and then immediately waking with gasps for air, all night long. AAAWWWW! Rick is a trained therapist/psychologist and helped me out a lot, talking me down. getting through the two long nights. I thought I was losing my mind. I think he did too. The doctor had misdiagnosed me.
12/26, Sunday morning: I had slept 2 hours in the past three nights and was experiencing extreme sleep deprivation. I could hardly walk: was weak like never before and beginning to hallucinate. As I mentioned, I couldn’t fall asleep as every time I did, I woke up gasping for air. Very interesting that THIS day was the day of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and as I struggled for breath, 200,000+ people on the other side of the world also struggled, but in vain, as the water swept over them. The base camp doctor still insisting I had simple panic attacks, recommended strongly that I go back down to Mendoza immediately (not by foot, or by mule-but by helicopter) where, he says, I should recover quickly. He said I should see a psychiatrist for my “panic attacks” and then maybe come back and try again "in a few days"- if I am mentally fit per the shrink. He said I would need to get the psychiatrist’s letter of approval or the Argentine Park Service would not let me back in the park. So, they evacuated me by helicopter to the trailhead: fun ride despite my delirium. Funny, last year, in the fall, I was enjoying a helicopter ride down through the Indus Valley, from K2 base camp in the Pakistani Karakorum. That flight was scheduled; not related to an emergency evacuation. Rick stayed at base camp, declining what was to be a spectacular helicopter ride to the outside, to try to do the climb. He ultimately reached 18,200 feet but decided not to climb further. He descended to base camp and the next day hiked out the 18 miles to the trailhead that afternoon and headed back to Mendoza via shuttle.
12/26, afternoon: 100+ mile bus ride back to Mendoza. Arrived at 3:00 PM. Very beat up but breathing OK. Also, I was very down psychologically as I had not only ruined the climb for Rick, it seemed to me I was not mentally fit enough for seriously high mountains, in this first test. It was important to me to be able to cope with altitude because, for this next spring, I had a 26,000 foot mountain in China in mind
12/27. Rick arrived back in Mendoza. He and his wife Kelly and her friend Ann, headed out to other parts of the country to do the tourist thing.
12/28 morning: saw psychiatrist who gave me my authorization letter to climb again only after I threw a fit: his first thought that I should not go back to the mountain for “a long time.”. He didn’t know anything about climbing and asked me if I was "a nervous person." Damn. Unrelated but significant: I noticed that I had bad blisters and some infection in the two smaller toes of my right foot. Hmmmm. Not good…started antibiotics.
12/28 afternoon: went back to Aconcagua provincial park headquarters to get another permit. They said "come back tomorrow morning to talk to our boss who is not here right now." So, I hung around Mendoza, enjoying the town. Lots of street vendors and open restaurants. I really like this place. Hearing more and more about the tsunami but unable to get a grip on how bad it was, all the papers were in Spanish and hardly anyone spoke English
12/29 morning. Went back to Aconcagua HQ and they said "no, we talked to our boss for you and he said you can’t climb Aconcagua again because you wee evacuated by helicopter." Threw another fit, got appointment with head Aconcagua doctor in an obscure part of Mendoza. Almost got lost/mugged/heat stroke trying to find the place...
12/29: afternoon. Met with chief Aconcagua doctor who said his staff doctor on the mountain AND the psychiatrist were wrong in their evaluations. I did not have panic attacks, I had simple sleep apnea (“Cheyne-Stokes Breathing”) that often occurs with climbers at altitude. He said, "no big deal, my wife had the same thing when we were there a while ago. Go back and climb the mountain but do it with Diamox." He gave me a prescription for the drug. Doctor told me that if his staff doctor on the mountain had diagnosed me correctly and given me Diamox instead of valium, I would have been able to sleep and then climb, no problem. Great. Explain that to Rick. The staff doctor's misdiagnosis cost us the climb. Bought Diamox at bus station pharmacy as I picked up my return bus ticked to Aconcagua trailhead (bought piles of Damon for next to nothing, bus station pharmacist gave me back the written prescription so I can buy more, as much as I want).
12/29 evening. Packed for return trip to mountain in morning, where I would take public bus back to trailhead near Plaza Del Inca. Of course complications such as recurring sleep apnea (despite the Diamox), weather, or my strength could stop everything. Considering those things and the infected small toe on my right foot (for which I had by now applied massive doses of antibiotics), I gave myself a 50-50 chance of summiting if I was to go back to the mountain.. Other thoughts, that I recall at the time: I love this place, Mendoza, I realize and yes, I would consider a semi-relocation. Before, I was thinking of the far east but those languages are simply too impossible and the distance is too far. Like the Chinese and Pakistanis, these South Americans are good, good people, still attached to each through their families, their neighborhoods and their general culture, not to mention their history. I want to learn Spanish, there is this siesta thing, these mountains need to be climbed, there is a cycling culture here, and skiing...and probably I have been in Bend way too long anyway: kind of lonely for me sometimes. If I relocate it will be later, maybe next fall. I will keep the house. I'll always love Bend. It's where my kids grew up. I would stay in Argentina for maybe three or four months and then come home for the summer and fall. As for the immediate situation, I would decide in the morning if I was up to the climb…
12/30 Anticlimax: woke up and my toe was infected BAD. So, I packed my things, headed for the airport and headed home. Long flight home, through Lima, Peru, I landed in Redmond on 1/2, Sunday afternoon. Except for my foot, I was feeling pretty OK but very disappointed. Rick and I will return to the mountain to give it another shot, next fall.
Click here for photos from the trip.