Aconcagua Days #10 & #11

Feb 9, 2018- Last night the storm continued and I was freezing again. I layered my down jacket and my parka over myself and wore my boot liners to stay warm. I thought my zero degree sleeping would be warm enough but I was wrong. Laying in that damp frigid tent had also left me with a respiratory infection. I was super congested and coughing a lot. Waking up to hear that today would be another rest day due to weather was good news but a bummer at the same time.

The team ate a quick breakfast and then prepared to lay around all day. I had some movies downloaded onto my phone and the kindle app so I had some distractions. Jay and I would also talk to pass the time and I couldn’t have had a better tent mate. We didn’t get on each others nerves and helped keep one another sane. At dinner we found out that tomorrow the storm was supposed to weaken a bit. We would plan to carry to Camp #3 tomorrow even if the weather was poor so we could move up the following day and be be positioned for the summit if the weather broke. Worst case we would end up digging in deeper at Camp #2 or hunker in at Camp #3. Either way we were going to be moving and out of our tents tomorrow! That evening the temps dipped again but I had perfected my “sleep system” at this point with all my extra layers strategically placed to keep me warm.  My tooth bugged me a bit and I realized I would run out of antibiotics in two days. If I missed a dose the thing ached like hell and I was hoping that when I finished them I’d at least be back at sea level. Maybe even with access to a dentist. But now there was nothing I could do except put it in the back of my head with all the other stuff out of my control.

Feb 10, 2018- Day #11 and finally we would get moving and carry to Camp #3! I had been stuck laying in my tent for the past three days and needed to get out. I left my nylon “cell” for breakfast and started hacking and coughing. I spit in the snow after my fit and saw bright red. It was blood. I had just coughed up blood at 18,000ft and immediately felt my stomach drop. WTF?! Coughing up blood is a symptom of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) so I didn’t want to mess around. I went and found Luke who immediately  put me at ease. First, he had heard me hacking up a lung in my tent for the past three days and reasoned that I had burst some blood vessels with my violent and persistent coughing. Second, if I was in a stage of HAPE where I was coughing blood I wouldn’t be able to get out of my tent and walk over to tell him about it. He said given my overall fitness and attitude he felt comfortable letting me continue up the mountain so long as we kept an eye on the cough. I agreed and got ready to do my carry up to Camp #3.

The day was gorgeous and clear but the winds were crazy. During the climb up to Camp #3 we encountered 50mph gusts. Hiking in that was insane and I had to keep my face covered with my buff the whole time. This created an issue because the moisture from my breath would get the buff wet and then immediately freeze in the wind. My respiratory infection already made it difficult to breathe and doing it through a frozen buff at 20,000ft felt like being water boarded. I would rip my buff down gasping for air and then get a full blast of wind to my face. It was a lose lose situation. When we finally made it to Camp #3 I was beat up. I had felt strong as hell all the previous moves up the mountain but after three days laying around and getting this cough/ infection I was worked. We stashed our gear and headed back down to Camp #2.

The day had worked me and with the respiratory infection I felt like maybe I wouldn’t make it. The toothache was something I could push through but not being able to get enough air into my lungs at high altitude was something different. As I sat near my tent thinking about it, one of my team mates Dave came by saying that he was headed down. When we were up climbing to Camp #3 he felt something in his chest. A kind of palpitation and tightness that scared him. He decided he would head down to base camp and arrange for the helicopter to take him out. The news came as a shock but his mind was made up and with that we said goodbye to another team member.

Seeing Dave call it while I was managing all my stuff made me pause. Was I letting this whole “pushing my limits” thing get out of hand? I felt like garbage but I also had this primal voice telling me to keep going. We were all up here looking for something inside ourselves and the current situation wasn’t enough to stop me. It sounds crazy but I had come this far.

With Dave’s departure we shuffled tents again and Jay moved back into the guide’s three-man tent with Luke and Martin. I would bunk up with a guy named Yuki for the balance of the trip. We settled in and got ready for the next few days. Even though tomorrow’s weather would be just as bad if not worse than today’s Luke was betting that the following day would be clear. He had been using a satellite phone to check in with his team in the states and there was a chance that the day after tomorrow would be perfect for a summit run. None of the other teams at Camp #2 were going ahead tomorrow so we would be solo at Camp #3. If the weather cleared up the day after then we would have a solo shot at the summit. The thought of having the summit to ourselves got the team pumped!