Happy New Year from Mendoza, Argentina!

Since they are 5 hours ahead of us (Pacific Time), Scott & Aaron have already welcomed in the new year and have nodded off to sleep some time ago.  They are staying in a hostel in Mendoza, where they celebrated an Argentinian-style BBQ with their fellow travelers.

I'm happy to report that they made it safely to Argentina, as did all of their luggage, and they successfully  obtained their climbing permits, so they are ready to roll.  They also did all their shopping (food and fuel for the stoves) this afternoon.

Tomorrow morning at 11am, they leave for Los Penitentes as planned.  It will be a 3-4 hour journey and they will spend the night there on Saturday night.

Happy New Year!

2011 Aconcagua Expedition is officially underway!

Scott has reunited with his friend and climbing partner, Aaron Saari, to make another attempt on Mt. Aconcagua over the next couple weeks.  Aaron and Scott summited Denali (Mt. McKinley), the highest point in North America, together back in 2007 on May 16, which is also Aaron's birthday.  [You can read more about that expedition in the Blog Archive and more info about Aaron in the May 16, 2007 posts.] 

They have a LONG travel day ahead of them today.  After leaving PDX at 8:30am, they have a couple stops in the U.S. (Texas, Florida) before they land tomorrow morning in Santiago, Chile and then finally in Mendoza, Argentina at 10:30am on New Year's Eve day.  Whew!

The first hurdle will be to make sure all the bags containing critical climbing gear made it safely, and the second will be to make it to the Visitor's Center in Mendoza in time to acquire their climbing permit in person for Mt. Aconcagua!  (It seems not everything can be done online!  The office closes early for New Year's Eve, so it's important that their flight arrives on time so the guys can get there before they close up shop.)

Scott has rented a satellite phone, and he plans to call at least every other day with a brief update.  So stay tuned and hope for safe and timely travels for both the guys and their gear!

Back Home Safe in Portland on 1/11/09

After leaving the mountain and a day of recovery at 9,000 ft., Scott felt back to full-strength, other than the disappointment that he had to abandon the climb, and then he had a week to explore other areas of Argentina.

He spent 3 days in the small resort town of Malagrue checking out a lagoon, Las Lenas - a ski area, some volcanoes, and a cool cave where he did some spelunking.

(photo of cache drop at Camp II- 17,700 ft. )

Then he headed to the Cordon del Plata mountain range near the Andes hoping to get good views of Aconcagua. He made it to the summit of San Bernardo Peak (13,500 ft.), but unfortunately the weather did not provide a clear view of the "Big A." While camping in this area, there were some vicious storms (hail, thunder and lightning). Later we found out that this same storm resulted in a blinding snowstorm and an avalanche on Aconcagua. If Scott's original schedule had gone as planned, this would have been the time that Scott would have been descending from the summit of Aconcagua and could have been caught in this storm. In hindsight, it's a blessing that he was camped out in a different mountain range an hour away at 10,200 ft. rather than at 19,000 ft. on Aconcagua.

Below is a picture from the summit of San Bernardo and a couple photos from the approach to Aconcagua.

The rest of his pictures from the trip can be found on http://www.mountainwaz.shutterfly.com/

Change of Plans - due to altitude sickness

The delay in updates was due to high altitude sickness, but Scott is okay now. The climb is off, however. MountainWaz Aconcagua Expedition (MWAE) will have to be continued another year.

After several successful major expeditions and first attempt summits, Scott suffered a setback this time, but most importantly he is safe and has fully recovered.

After making it up to Camp II (17,552 ft.) to deliver a load of supplies, he felt strong and returned to Base Camp (14K) to sleep as planned. (Sleeping at a lower elevation helps your body adjust to elevation.) The next day he hiked up to Camp I (16K) and set up his tent there for the night. During the night he felt a gurgling in his chest, which is a sign of the onset of high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Wisely, Scott descended as quickly as possible back to Base Camp, which is the best prescription for HAPE. There he visited the doctor at the medical tent and was diagnosed with HAPE. Presumably they treated him there with oxygen and Diamox, a prescription medication that Scott took with him that helps the lungs expand rather than constrict as they react to the lack of oxygen and leak of fluid from blood vessels into the lungs.

The medical staff there insisted that a helicopter be used to transport Scott to an even lower altitude at that time, so they took him to Puenta del Inca (or base village) at ~9,000 ft to fully recover. There he was able to contact me where he waited for his muleteer and mule to bring his gear down the mountain and meet him. After one more night of rest at this lower altitude, he felt stronger the following day.

Then he was able to take the 4-hr. bus ride back to Mendoza, where he strongly considered trying to change his plane ticket and fly home early. Due to some language barrier difficulties and the fact that he is now fully recovered, he decided to remain there for the rest of his scheduled stay. He's spending some time south of Mendoza now until he leaves next Saturday (arriving home in Portland as scheduled next Sunday).

There are no long-term effects from HAPE, and he won't have any greater tendency to experience it in the future. It's not fitness-based and some high altitude medical experts say it often happens to young, fit climbers on the 2nd night at high elevation, which perfectly fits Scott's situation in this instance. It's a random occurance, and he has never experienced any severe altitude sickness in his climbing experience to date. Hopefully this was the 1st & only!

Thanks for your support and prayers. I am thankful that he was able to make good decisions in a very difficult situation, and that he is returning home safely, which we both agreed was his most important mission in this expedition.

Safe Arrival at Base Camp, mule included

I just got a call from Scott about an hour ago, and he is at base camp and feeling good. His muleteer and mule met him there with a large portion of his gear. Tomorrow he will make a trip up to Camp II with a load of supplies to stash behind some rocks for him to use when he reaches that point. He'll spend another night down at Base Camp as part of the acclimatization process (so his body gets used to the altitude).

Though there are several other climbing parties there, the language barrier is a factor, so he will be climbing the Normal Route rather than traversing the Polish Glacier.

We figured out that he is 5 hours ahead of Pacific Time in the region of Argentina where he is located. I should get another call from him in about 5-6 days after he has successfully reached the summit and makes it safely back to Base Camp.

In the meantime, he is using the Spot tracker to send me "okay" messages every day so that I know he's alright. He also has a "help" message programmed in that he can send me if I needed to contact the ranger with his exact coordinates, but let's hope I don't ever get to see that message. I copied a link to this post that shows his last coordinates, so you can see where he's at on Google maps if you're interested. (just click on the title of this post) Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts!

Aconcagua Expedition - '08/'09

Merry Christmas Eve! Scott leaves tomorrow afternoon for Argentina, where he will embark on a climbing expedition to the highest point in South America. Aconcagua stands tall at 22,841 ft. in the midst of the Andes mountain range, where there are eight other major peaks over 22K. Aconcagua is the highest point in the Western Hemisphere, and it is located in western Argentina near the border of Chile.

Here are some pictures of Scott and I at the highest point in Costa Rica during our vacation this Thanksgiving. Reportedly you can see both the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans from the top of Mt. Chirripo (12,530 ft.), but unfortunately it was much too rainy and cloudy for us to get a view, but all 3 of us made it safely to the top - Scott, Dana and Bambino!

Team Shasta/Core Concepts at the finish line

Photos by Shan Weatherbee, Support Crew Lead

Congratulations on a 19th place finish!