Feb 5, 2018- Move to Camp #1- After our carry to camp #1 we had settled in for the night but of course right as I was getting comfortable my tooth began throbbing. I took some ibuprofen and got a few hours of sleep. Luke had been checking in with me about it because there was concern that it would only get worse with the altitude but I wanted to keep pushing and find that limit. In the morning we packed up our remaining gear including tents and sleeping bags. Turns out I had underestimated the amount of stuff I would have to carry and my bag was heavier than yesterday. After breakfast we set out for camp #1 and this time we would be sleeping up there at 16,000ft. I made sure to save everything I had for “Hell Hill” which came again all too soon. We took a quick break at the base of the climb when suddenly it started snowing with thunder and lightning. Growing up in California I’m very accustomed to snow storms (at least California snow storms) but I had never experienced one with thunder and lightning!
We hauled ass up the scree and I tapped into my inner beast again to get the last section behind me. Immediately we begin setting our tents up in the storm. In hindsight I’m not sure we should have been holding metal tent poles in a thunderstorm but our options were extremely limited. We slid into our tents and let the storm rage around us. Hearing the thunder was awesome! We ate dinner in our tents that night and got out from time to time to clear the accumulating snow from our tents. This was my first bit of crazy weather on Aconcagua and it would only get worse from here. We finally went to sleep with the tent flapping all around us. Tomorrow we would carry loads to camp #2 and it was supposed to storm again. As crazy as it may sound I was excited for all of this. The hiking with heavy loads, the weather, the exhaustion… it was why I came here!
Climbing the 7 