Jantoon Reigersman recently set out on a journey “from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the world.” It began with a 152-meter dive off the coast of Egypt and will culminate with the summit of Mt. Everest this May. His challenge is to make the world’s first 9000-meter ascent.
I’ve just returned to Europe after the successful summit of Aconcagua in Ecuador. At 6962 meters, it is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas, resulting in high susceptibility for AMS (altitude mountain sickness). Read More…
October 2-22, 2009
La Jaula, Argentina
Those of us who climb mountains get asked a lot of questions. The one that gets asked the most is the shortest: Why? I usually like to say, “There are as many different answers as there are climbers.” But today, if someone were to ask me why I climbed the last one, I would simply answer, “For my friend, El Fede.”
Federico Campanini died last January guiding a group to the top of Aconcagua Read More…
Peter Whittaker reporting. After our celebration dinner and a good night’s sleep, we were ready to hit the trail early this morning. We had such a great day yesterday and our energy was still super upbeat today. We made good time getting into Casa de Piedra despite a few sore legs!
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Dave Hahn reporting. Last night at high camp, it just didn’t seem like we would get a chance to make the top of Aconcagua… it was snowing and socked in when I sent yesterday’s dispatch. But then, just before darkness came on, the snow stopped and the clouds dropped. During the night there were occasional waves of intense wind that could be heard coming from miles away, but these were short bursts and sure enough, at 4 AM the stars were out and the wind was gone. Our stoves were cooking by 4:15 and we were walking out of camp by headlamp at around 5:15 AM, bound for the summit.
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Dave Hahn reporting. Not too many of us got good sleep last night. Waves of wind rolled through, driving snow and rattling nerves. The alarm clocks went off at 4:30 AM but the wind hadn’t let up by that point. It did eventually calm down with daybreak… just a little too late for us to go for Aconcagua’s summit. We all crawled out for breakfast and to dry out and stare at the storm’s leavings. There was still some sign of wind up high, but all-in-all, we enjoyed a calm morning.
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Dave Hahn reporting. Up at 2:30 AM this morning to start the stoves and go for a climb. It had been a still and calm night until around midnight when a wind began, but it wasn’t a very strong wind and we considered ourselves quite lucky as we set out around 4 AM under starry and clear skies. The team wore crampons from the outset as our “trail” was packed snow on a long traverse to a camp called “Black Rock” on the normal Aconcagua route.
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Dave Hahn reporting. After that slight worry that the weather was going to fall apart on us yesterday, we experienced our calmest and warmest night of the trip so far. Followed by a perfect and cloudless morning at Camp One while we knocked the tents down and loaded up for the move to high camp. The route is now familiar and we chugged along with very few other climbers in our vicinity.
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Dave Hahn reporting. The sun hit our tents just after 7 AM and we got out fast for our carry to high camp. There was a distinct change in the weather as we saw a wind sculpted cloud cap hovering above the mountain’s summit for much of the day. We were walking by 8:30 AM in any case, fully prepared for big winds to begin… but they never really did.
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Dave Hahn reporting. Not so much to report today. An easy day for all as the weather was perfect and the schedule was delightfully uncluttered. The production teams got some shots of camp life, most went for short walks. Myself and Ed Viesturs carried gear to 19,200 ft, previewing the route to Camp II which we will retrace with the whole gang tomorrow. Dave
Dave Hahn reporting. No big parties last night, all was quiet at Basecamp until the morning helicopter began what seems to be its morning workout at 7AM, just before the sun hit. We were all up and half-packed by our 8 AM breakfast. Everybody had lots of details to chase down and loads to figure out before our 9:30 AM departure.
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