Chad's 2009 route on Aconcagua - Medicine Buddah

Starting this weekend, Chad Kellogg will begin making his way up Aconcagua for a speed attempt to the summit, aiming to run and climb from the entrance of the park to the top of the peak in around 12 hours. Most guided groups who attempt the Polish Glacier Direct, the route Kellogg will climb, take 10 or 11 days to get to the summit.

Kellogg has already had a tremendous past three months by any climber’s standards, making the first ascent of Nepal’s 6,716-meter Pangbuk Ri in November 2011 and topping out on Cerro Torre via the Ferrari route in January. Those climbs, as well as his attempt on Aconcagua, are part of a series of around-the-world climbing adventures culminating in a speed attempt on Mount Everest in June 2012.

Kellogg will take two weeks to ferry loads up to the 19,000-foot high camp on Aconcagua and then descend and wait for a weather window to race up the east-facing technical Polish Glacier Direct route to the summit, up snow and ice as steep as 60 degrees. The Polish Glacier Direct is more technically difficult than the popular, non-technical Normal Route, but is shorter, and hopefully faster. Kellogg’s plan is to carry over the summit and spend the night as high as possible. The next morning, he’ll descend the Normal Route down the northwest face and head around to the French Camp on the mountain’s south side to look at conditions on the South Face routes. Ideally, he wants to attempt a complete circumnavigation of the peak.

Kellogg attempted a speed climb of Aconcagua’s Normal Route in December 2009 and made it as far as Berlin Camp at 19,200 feet, but discovered someone had found his gear cache and stolen his dry bag full of equipment (lightweight boots, crampons, dry socks, and food). Stopping 2.5 miles and 3,000 vertical feet short of the summit, the climb would have been 50 miles round-trip with 14,000 feet of elevation gain. Kellogg had made it to Berlin camp in 9 hours and 15 minutes.

The current attempt on Aconcagua is Kellogg’s last mountain training stop for his speed climb of Everest in June. Keep up with his around-the-world adventure from Pangbuk Ri to Everest here on VertiCulture.

Summit of Pangbuk Ri, Nov 11th

At the dead end at the top of a runnel, Kellogg and Gottlieb set up a rappel, the ends of their 60-meter ropes disappearing into the darkness below. They blindly rapped into what they thought was a large runnel to their left, hoping the ends of ropes reached something.

The rappel put them just above the 8 Ball. The route would go, in six more pitches, putting them atop the summit ridge at 2:30 a.m., 3,500 vertical feet and 22 ½ hours after they had started climbing.

“We took a chance rappelling into this overhanging terrain that we knew we would have an extremely difficult time climbing out of,” Kellogg says. “It was a game of poker – you gotta put in your ante, pay all your bills, and see if you can make the route go.”

As the men huddled into a crevasse at 22,000 feet to wait for daylight, they had 27.5 hours left – The anxiety of whether the line would go was over, but the battle to survive the climb had just begun. The sun would come up twice before they could lie down in a tent again and rest.

What followed put the Pangbuk Ri climb into the category of what Kellogg calls “Ultra-alpinism”:

“When you’re pushing over 36 hours, that’s where the word ‘ultra’ gets inserted,” Kellogg says. “The mega-push. Multiple days without sleep. You’re combining rock, ice, altitude, endurance, and you’re eliminating your standard camps, you’re eliminating oxygen. And pushing technical difficulty.”

After summiting at 8:30 a.m. November 11th, Kellogg and Gottlieb chose to descend via the West face, downclimbing and rappelling through seracs well into the next night, losing the full moon they had utilized the previous night, hidden behind the mountain for most of the night. Ropes got stuck. Headlamp batteries died, and they turned their lights off except when they put in rap anchors. For the overhanging rappels, Kellogg put in two v-threads for peace of mind, but otherwise left as little gear as possible. His calves began to lock up in the aftermath of their summit day, 3,500 feet of frontpointing. Neither of the climbers could spend any time climbing ice in the summer and early fall months leading up to the November climb – making Pangbuk Ri the “season opener for ice climbing” for both of them.

David trying to get in neighboring fluting

After 14 v-thread rappels and 14 hours of descending, Kellogg and Gottlieb were on top of the snow cone at the base of the face, both hallucinating. They began the 10-mile walk down talus-covered glacier back to their base camp. At hour 45, they ditched their packs under a boulder, packing only a few bars, cameras and headlamps.

“A 50-hour push in the Himalaya isn’t unheard of, but it hasn’t been done a lot,” Kellogg says. “A few teams have done it, but they usually bring some sort of bivouac gear with them. We just went all in, and brought clothes and a stove, and that was it. We knew the route was technical enough that we couldn’t do it with 40-pound packs. We needed 20-pound packs.”

At 5:58 a.m. Nov. 12th, 50 hours after they had started climbing on Nov. 10th, Kellogg and Gottlieb reached the cook tent at their base camp. Dowa, their cook – who had seen headlamps near the summit on Nov. 10th, had been ready for their arrival since the previous day – whipped up a batch of Dal Bhat for breakfast.

AS HUMAN-POWERED AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE
Kellogg and Gottlieb elected to walk into and walk out of their climb, an additional 50 miles and 20,000 feet of elevation gain on the way out, walking in via the Rolwaling Valley and out the Jiri Valley instead of taking a flight into the airport in Lukla – the standard approach for Everest and many other climbs.

The trek into and out of their climb was part of their effort to maximize their adventure and minimize the trace they left. In 14 rappels, they left only four pitons, two stoppers and one ice screw, and threaded their 8mm line through most of the v-threads they used to rappel. They used rechargeable batteries for all their electronics and solar panels to charge the batteries. Their food was locally made – no jars, minimal packaging. During the entire three week-expedition, the three men produced only five pounds of garbage.

THE SUFFERFEST CONTINUES
Next up for Chad Kellogg in his around-the-world adventure leading to Mount Everest is a month of climbing in Patagonia. Keep up with him here on Verticulture.

Pangbuk Ri

On a clear day sometime around the full moon on November 10th, Chad Kellogg and David Gottlieb will try to punch up 5,000 feet of climbing in a single push on Pangbuk Ri, the last significant unclimbed peak above 6,500 meters in Nepal.

Only two attempts have been recorded on Pangbuk Ri, and both were in the 1950s, by a British expedition and a Japanese expedition. There are easier lines from the Tibet side, but every line from the Nepal side, on the 4,500-5,000-foot South Face, is technical – all involving rock, mixed, ice and snow sections. Kellogg and Gottlieb have studied Gottlieb’s photographs of the mountain and picked a handful of lines dropping down from the summit, and will decide where to go on their summit push based on snow and avalanche conditions.

“The adventure associated with an unclimbed peak is that basically, you have a map without any lines on it and you can create whatever you want from the mountain,” Kellogg says. “So the choice lines are there to be had and discovered.”

Kellogg and Gottlieb have spent the past four weeks acclimatizing and walking from Lukla to Namche Bazaar with porters, then walking with yaks to the village of Chule, and another two days up the Pangbuk glacial valley to set up a basecamp and wait for a weather window for their summit attempt. Kellogg says he’s pessimistic about finding a place to bivy anywhere on the face for the first 4,000 feet, so the men will likely have to hammer out the climb in one long push.

Every step on the climb is the first step any climber has ever taken – a base camp has never been set up where Kellogg and Gottlieb are heading. The climb of Pangbuk Ri is still true exploration, a mountain whose summit is still untouched, in an era when so many of the world’s big mountains have already been conquered.

The Pangbuk Ri climb is the first in a series of four climbing expeditions for Kellogg, a career alpinist, mountain guide, climbing ranger, and Outdoor Research ambassador. The four expeditions – including Pangbuk Ri, an expedition to Patagonia, and a speed attempt on Aconcagua – will culminate in a speed ascent, without supplemental oxygen, of Mount Everest in June 2012.

Keep up with Kellogg’s around-the-world adventure from Pangbuk Ri to Everest here on VertiCulture and on Human Edge Tech. We’ll be updating this post as we hear from Chad on his progress

Continue to Chad’s updates from the field»

Base Camp with Khumbu Icefall

April 10, 2010 – Trek to Everest Base Camp
The [6-day] trek up the Khumbu was amazing! Gyanendra was the porter assigned to carry the one duffel bag that made it on the plane. The other two duffels will be sent cargo as second priority.

The first day we made it to Manju at the entrance of Sagarmatha National Park. There is a fire burning down the valley that is making the air thick with a haze of smoke. The elevation is about 10,000 ft.

Tuesday we set off at 8 am and pass through the park entrance checkpoint. Gyanandra has a heavy load so we stop frequently and check out the sights. The path winds up a steep section of trail and suddenly we can get a glimpse of Everest in the distance. We pass through two more police checkpoints between the park entrance and Namche Bazaar. According to the statistics there will be more than 4,000 visitors to the park in the month of April! We find a nice hotel in the thriving town of Namche called the Yak Hotel. My friend Matt Fioretti has a stash of gear here so I track it down to get 5 snow anchors for my tent at camp 2 and 3 on Everest.

Namche has grown vertically since I was here last in 1998. All of the guest houses have grown two stories to be a minimum of three or four stories now. The amenities have also become much more expensive. I am spending $60 USD per day for food and lodging. The lodging is about $5 per day and they make the money on the food. You are required to eat at the lodge you stay at or the cost goes up to $20 per night. I am pleased with the gluten free menu items though. There are always eggs, dal bat, potatoes and yak meat available. I get a rough night sleep at 11,400 ft but still feel healthy.

We leisurely start at 8:30 am for the five hour walk to Tengboche. Tengboche Monastery is a destination I am looking forward to visiting. I have made contact with Lama Pasang Sherpa through my friend Brittney Buckingham. When we arrive at Tengboche I get one of the last rooms in the tea houses. After a good meal I.. find Lama Pasang… on the front steps of the monastery and takes me for a tour. There are three main figures in the temple: Atisa, Shakyamuni Buddha and Manjushri. I get to go upstairs to an inner temple where the original statues that survived the fire in 1989 are kept. All the texts are housed here for learning and advanced teachings from the head Lama. This was a very special experience.

Following the tour we go to Lama Pasangs quarters and have some tea. He has some gifts for me to take to Everest; a protection chord, a traditional silk kata, a special kata of Green Tara and some auspicious prayer flags. I am supposed to fly the Green Tara kata from my tent before I begin my climb for protection from danger. In addition, I am invited for morning prayers with the Sangha at 7 am the following morning.

I woke early, ate breakfast [and] went to the monastery and enjoyed the morning session in my own way. My focus is very good and I feel very positive as we head out to Dinboche. On the way I met the Columbian Everest Expedition. Over the course of the hike we pass Ama Dablam and arrive to Dinboche after 6 hours. In view are Peak 38, Island Peak and Lhotse. We stay at the Hotel Arizona and are the only guests in the entire tea house. The elevation is 14,000 ft.

The following morning I have an enormous breakfast and get a late start at 9 am. We can see Baruntse, Makalu, Tawoche and Cholatse on the hike up the ridge out of town. The weather is blue skies and light wind. We begin to pass hordes of trekkers and porters on the way to Lobuche. My porter Gyanandra is concerned there are only 6 tea houses in Lobuche. We decide not to take lunch, but to pass as many folks as possible so we will have a bed that night.

I get the second to last room in town. The sheets and pillow covers have not been changed in a long time judging by the hair and dirt. Glad I have my sleeping bag. Trekkers arrive to find out that there are no beds and they will have to sleep in the dining area or head on two hours to Gorak Shep. We are sleeping at nearly 16,000 ft. The dining area is packed with so many people I eat a quick meal and stay away from all the sick folks coughing.

We get an early start with the plan to eat breakfast in Gorak Shep. At 7 am we are on the trail. Today we will reach Base Camp! I am extremely hungry when we arrive to the Buddha Restaurant. I order several plates of food. Across the room I recognize Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa. He has the speed record on Everest and works for American Alpine Institute. I say hello and we make plans to meet up in base camp later. Following breakfast we get up on an overlook where we can see the town that is over 600 people in tents on the Khumbu Glacier.

Slowly we work our way up the valley and onto the glacier. I find the High Altitude Dreams camp and am invited to sit while lunch is served. I tip Gyanandra well and he heads back down towards Lukla to pick up his next load. By the time lunch is finished my tent is set up. Home sweet home, I have arrived to Everest Base Camp for the first time.

Continue following Chad’s expedition by subscribing to VertiCulture RSS feeds. You can also find more information about Chad and this expedition on his site, www.chadkellogg.com

Chad Kellogg

On Monday, March 29th, Chad Kellogg is beginning an incredible journey. He’s going to the Himalaya with the goal to set a speed record ascent of colossal, 29,029-foot Mt. Everest. And he plans to set that record without the aid of oxygen or Sherpas. To attempt something this epic, with the hopeful and expected outcome of incredible success but also potentially extreme consequences, requires iron-strong will, drive and focus.

Before embarking on this monumental quest, Chad sat down with the Dirtbag Diaries’ Fitz Cahall to share the motivation behind his trip and how he’s prepared himself. Click to listen to part of this conversation; the first in the series Chad Kellogg: The Everest Quest.

Subscribe to VertiCulture to get updates on Chad’s progress as well as to hear the more of his conversation with Fitz.

The day after Rory was flown out, I hiked to Confluencia. I packed the second set of our gear for delivery to Mendoza where Rory was recovering and also packed technical gear for the South Face, arranging for a mule transport to Plaza Francia the following day. One snafu escaped my attention; the fine print on the permit required I bring a radio but I had inadvertently sent them back with Rory to Mendoza. So I had to pay for a mule to bring up a radio from Fernando Grajales to Confluencia and arranged to call in twice daily.

Rappelling into the route on half driven ice screw

I intended to attempt a new route on the left side of the face between the original French Route and the Romanian variation to the Slovenian route. On the summer solstice, I hiked to the base of the route to get a closer look and check conditions in the light.

The route looked foreshortened from the base of the avalanche cone. The initial bergshrund was crossable and the initial WI V+ pitch was flowing heavily with water and was best avoided. It seemed the majority of the climb was 65-70 degree snow and ice punctuated with vertical ice steps. The real difficulty lay in surviving ice avalanches from frequent serac falls. Only minutes after I walked away, a huge avalanche swept the route and where I had just been standing. Steeling my nerves against the possibility of being swept from any point on 6,500 vertical feet of the route, I told myself that this was the route. In eight hours I would be on it.

Two other climbers have soloed the South Face. One had other climbers preplace gear on the French Direct route and the second had soloed the French Direct in a day. I believed if conditions were solid I could climb the South Face via a new route in a day. Confident enough to not take a sleeping bag or tent, I laid out my gear mindfully, fitting it all neatly into a 40 liter pack.

With luggage packed for the mules, I left camp at 4 am following the trail to the base and crossed two large cravasses before reaching the bergshrund. Over the shrund and up the penitente covered snow slopes to the right of the route, the snow began to thin the higher I went. Delicately traversing, I wanted to reach a thin cleft in the face I hoped to ascend or down climb. When I finally reached it I was stumped about whether to go up and left or down the narrow gulley. I stuck a picket in a blob of snow 18” thick and down climbed gingerly on “rappel”. After 50 feet, I found a four inch thick section of ice to place a screw for the second rappel. Fifty feet later there was no ice. I nervously down climbed snow dusted rock to a thin ice patch, then placed an ice screw and down climbed another 50 feet close to the bottom of the gulley.

Top of the second ice step looking down on mixed terrain

I was in the Couloir proper now after nearly three and a half hours. Suddenly a massive avalanche came rushing past me. I clung precariously to the thin ice covering the rock and carefully gained purchase to reach the snow and better footing closer to the center of the Couloir. With sun moving across the top of the route ringed with seracs for over 200 degrees, I had to be aware if they would fall on the left side of the route or the right side.

Mid route, it was not clear which way to go so I climbed up a large ice step near an island of rock to have a closer look. Suddenly a huge serac released a massive payload! I looked up to see ice shooting off the top of the rock island followed by a billowing avalanche cloud overhead. I ran as fast as possible looking for somewhere to hide and with nothing, flopped on my face with my arm cocked for an air pocket preparing to be buried. I was blasted by 40-60 mph winds and frosted by a fine snow. It took me about five minutes to stop hyperventilating but I figured that it would be an hour before the next avalanche.

With my ice tools I tapped my way up rock covered by a half inch of ice. Falling was not allowed so each move had to be methodical. This was rewarded by a solid pitch of WI IV which led past into a large basin.

Serac bomb sweeps the route minutes after clearing the second ice step

The basin was scoured clean of snow as it sat directly below all of the seracs on the upper part of the route. I crossed the basin to the other side and looked back just as another serac released down the water ice pitch. I have little doubt that the thin veneer of ice I climbed was carried away with it. Timing is everything!

An hour later at nearly 20,000 ft, I encountered a 25 ft section of gently overhanging ice to surmount a bulge. I backed off when I encountered poor feet and pulled my android leashes off my harness to try again. This was the first time since I shattered my right arm last winter that I was able to lock off on my right arm. On pace to complete the route in a day, I moved away from the seracs and onto the upper glacier, completing the first 6,600 ft of climbing in about 12.5 hours.

After a rest stop to brew water, I continued toward the Mesner Route. Climbing over the upper bergshrund I encountered horrible, unconsolidated sugar snow. It took weighting all four limbs at the same time to be able to get any upward movement. Progress slowed to less than 200 ft per hour with nearly 3,000 ft to go to reach the summit. At 11 pm I encountered mixed conditions and decided to take a break after 19 hours of climbing solo.

Looking 6,000ft down the route near the top of the serac bomb

Realizing I wouldn’t summit in a day and with no tent or sleeping bag, I thought of ways I knew to counter hypothermia and frostbite as the temperature dipped below 10 F. I found a large block of ice to offer protection from the wind, then took the insulation out of my pack and placed it on top of my rope for an insulated seat. Donning extra layers and putting my booted feet inside my pack, I fired up the stove filling both poly bottles with hot water to put between my thighs and on my stomach to keep my core warm. A large electrical storm kept me entertained while I shivered the night away.

The sun’s greeting took awhile to lick away the cold of the night. After a meager breakfast I climbed back to my high point from the night before, discovering a thin section of snow that afforded better upward progress. I repeatedly had to climb over tenuous vertical sections of ice that left me vividly aware of the exposure nearly 7,500 ft up the wall. At one step I found an old fixed piton and tied in. The mixed step was deceivingly difficult and I carefully topped out onto the open face of the upper Argentinean route, within 1,200 vertical feet of the summit ridge but half a day away in the deep sugar snow conditions.

By now, I was hours late radioing the Guarda Parque, so let them know I was above 21,500 ft and getting closer to the summit, but stuck in poor snow conditions. My arms were continually deep in the snow, daggering with both axes for upward purchase and I did not notice the leather on my mittens getting wet. I desperately needed to reach the summit ridge by nightfall. All of the life force in my being was clawing slowly upwards as the sun went behind the ridge and the temperature dropped. I strained to keep up with the sun knowing when it disappeared from the top of the flutings that darkness would be close behind.

The option of spending another night on the face did not exist for the living! There were six other corpses on the South Face and I didn’t want to join them. I worked steadily when suddenly it dawned on me that I didn’t have any feeling in my thumbs. I pulled a mitt off and my thumb showed signs of frostbite half way to the first knuckle. Frostbite is easier to incur when the body is dehydrated and I had been without water for 12 hours. I moved closer to the ridge radioing my position to Gonzalo with the Guarde Parque. He encouraged me to push on and told me that rangers would be waiting at Camp Nido de Condores.

On the ridge crest, I walked like a drunken sailor negotiating the rock with crampons and with high winds buffeting me. Around midnight I descended into the Canaleta and familiar terrain having spent 42 hours on the South Face and thirty five of those hours climbing. Around 1:30 AM, Oscar, Gonzalo, and Juan greeted me at the Nido ranger station with hot drinks and a place to sleep for the night.

The Medicine Buddah Route

The next day was Christmas Eve! Working my way down to base camp, I was warmly welcomed by Pablo, the Grajales base camp manager. I had a three steak dinner complete with rice and vegetables. Although I was invited for other festivities I crawled into my sleeping bag and passed out hard!

Christmas day I paid a visit to the doctor who gave me vaso-dilators for my frostbite and instructed me to not refreeze my injury before it was completely healed. I notified her of my intention to speed climb the mountain in a few days weather permitting. She cautioned me that I got off easy and had seen men who lost all fingers and toes after encountering severe weather on the South Face.

A thirteen mile hike later, I was welcomed by Jeselda, the Grajales camp manager, at Confluencia. We walked over to the Guarda Parque station and had a wonderful dinner with the rangers I had been in radio contact with twice a day. We had a fun night recounting our various sides of the story.

The next day was a rest day. Gonzalo knew that I enjoy meditation so he took me to a “vega”; a green spring wildlife sanctuary. The vega was such a contrast from the experiences only a few days prior. These places are literal oases in the desert. I spent a fantastic afternoon surrounded by birds and creatures. After, I went bouldering with Gonzalo who needed a spotter for a few bouldering projects he was working on outside of camp.

The next afternoon, I hiked down to the park entrance and spoke with Senior Fernando Ledges about my intention to do a one day ascent. He mentioned that a Peruvian climber had the speed ascent and had started over a mile down the road. They offered me a place to sleep in the welcome center; a generous offer I was thankful to accept.

At 2 am my alarm went off. My plan included meeting Gonzalo at Confluencia with my second camelbak bladder and three liters, gloves and a down jacket stashed at Plaza de Mulas, and at Camp Berlin I had my cache of lightweight boots, crampons, dry socks, and food in a drybag. The route was 50 miles round trip with 14,000 ft of elevation gain.

Starting at 4am and at 8,700ft at the highway, I began to run up the paved road to the containers where I picked up my 10 lb pack. Jogging up the dirt trails, I made it to Confluencia to swap water bladders in 1 hour and 26 minutes. I ran down to the river, crossed the bridge, and then up above 12,000 ft into the wind and deep sandy gravel of the Horcones valley. Climbing steeply to Plaza de Mulas, I made it to the Guarda Parque hut in 4 hours 15 minutes where I broke down Rory’s base camp tent in 45 minutes.

Above base camp, I climbed rapidly to Nido where I got another liter from the rangers and made it to Berlin Camp in 9 hours 15 minutes. In camp I began to search for my dry bag. I had buried it under 200 pounds of rocks but someone had uncovered my cache and stolen my equipment. After 22 miles and 11,000 ft my speed ascent came to an end.

It had been a 45 mile effort stopping 2.5 miles short of the summit. I was more than a bit disappointed but was happy with my performance. I believe that I was on track for the second fastest ascent of the normal route.

I am satisfied at having put up the first American route on the South Face and hope my training for Mount Everest continues safely this winter. With good attention, the frostbite sustained in my right thumb should heal completely. Rory healed up well after his bout with pneumonia.

I would like to name the route on the South Face “Medicine Buddha” after my favorite meditation sadhana about the healing qualities of the “Ocean King”. Speaking the mantra is supposed to prevent someone from an untimely death. I give the route the rating: Medicine Buddha (Grade VI, WI IV, M 4, 6,500 ft.)

To my family, friends, teachers and sponsors, thank you for helping make this trip possible. No one is really solo in this world.

Check back as VertiCulture follows Chad on his training for his Everest speed record attempt

The beginning of the adventure

In early December, Rory Stark and I flew to Argentina for a late spring climb of Aconcagua (22,829 ft.). Our agenda: acclimate via the regular NW Route, climb an existing route or a new line on the South Face, and I wanted to try a one day ascent of the Regular route from the road and back.

The first two days in Mendoza and Penitentes were used to make last supply purchases for 18 days on the mountain and arrangements for mules to carry our gear. The weather had been unseasonably poor and to my knowledge, not one party had been able to summit.

The day we drove up to the park entrance at Horcones (9,600 ft.) was warm and sunny. At the Guarda Parque headquarters, we registered for the South Face which requires radio contact and an equipment check. Then, it was upward onto the dusty trails.

We quickly set up camp at Confluencia and decided to carry light packs six more miles up the Lesser Horcones Valley to the base of the South Face. By late afternoon we were at 14,000 ft, staring at the enormous wall that swept up 9,000 ft. Poor weather had preserved the ice conditions but we knew that it would only last a week at most in the intensity of the sun and we would have to summit via the normal route rapidly.

At Horcones, the entrance of the Aconcagua Provincial Park

Early the next morning we broke camp, shouldered our packs, and crossed the river below Confluencia beginning the grind up the Horcones Valley into the persistent headwind. Five hours later at the Guarda Parque checkpoint, we signed in and set up our main base camp. Rory had a slight cough but we both felt good and made a carry 2,000 ft. higher to Camp Canada the following day.

At Canada, 16,200 ft, in less than two hours, we made a cache in the rocks. As the season was early there were only a handful of tents set up. I remembered spending Christmas with Lara at Camp Canada ten years earlier. We descended back to base camp and as required, went to the medical tent to have our oxygen saturation levels checked; both satisfactory for two unacclimated folks.

Since we were leaving our tent unattended for the next few days we anchored it against the winds that blast the mountain with several hundred pounds of rocks and headed off after lunch at a slow but steady pace. Two and a half hours later we set up camp and decided to move to Camp Nido at 17,800 ft in a single carry the following day.

We awoke to yet another sunny day! It is a long, slow grind up to Camp Nido de Condores from Canada, but by early afternoon we had arrived. Feeling restless, I made an additional carry up to Berlin that afternoon to lighten our loads the next day.

Looking down the Canaleta Couloir

At Berlin (19,200 ft.) I was disgusted to discover a huge amount of trash from previous climbers. I estimated the approx. 900 lbs of trash could be removed in one day by twenty people carrying 50 lb. loads. Note to self for the future….

When we move to the Berlin high camp, Rory was beginning to cough quite a bit and stoped a few times on the way up. We talked with two other American climbers, Andy and Dave, who were also going for the summit the next morning. They were leaving at 5 am, expecting to summit by 1 pm and Rory decided to travel with them. I had lightweight boots for a speed ascent and wanted to wait until the sun came up before heading out so as not to freeze my feet.

I left Berlin Camp at 9 am, moving rapidly to catch the others before the summit. Passing numerous groups, I met up with Rory in the Canaleta. I arrived on the summit at noon and took a survey of the South Face route. The crevasse danger looked low as the high snowfall from the previous winter had sealed up most of the dangerous cracks. I passed the body of the climber that had died on a solo attempt a week previous and mindfully made my way back down the Canaleta. Rory looked a bit haggard but was only a few hundred feet from the summit so I did not expect him to be far behind.

Back at Berlin Camp, I began to melt water for Dave, Andy and Rory and packed to descend to base camp. Suddenly, Dave ran into camp telling me Rory was at the bottom of the Canaleta showing signs of high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). I rapidly headed up with the essentials. Fortunately, Andy had been able to help Rory descend under his own power with minimal assistance. I helped administer Niphedepine to alleviate the symptoms and almost immediately he began to cough up bloody phlegm. The rule of thumb with high altitude related illness is to descend at least 3300 ft and symptoms should start to improve. We decided to continue moving to base camp before the medicine could diminish its effects.

Self-portrait at the summit

It was nearly dark when we arrived. Rory and I rested inside the tent following our 9,000 ft descent until suddenly he sat upright and gestured that he could not get a breath. Getting him to the Medical tent, the diagnosis was that he had pneumonia. Doctors watched Rory overnight until he could be flown out the following day. The following morning I checked on my friend and packed his belongings at Plaza de Mules to send them down to Penitentes.

With intent to continue on, the next day I packed the second set of our gear for delivery to Mendoza where Rory was recovering and also packed technical gear for the South Face, arranging for a mule transport to Plaza Francia the following day.

Rory healed well after his bout with pneumonia. Follow Chad’s recount of his solo of a new route on the South Face and his attempt at a one day ascent of Aconcagua here.