Los Andes: Part 1

We wanted mountains. We got mountains. And mountain weather! It’s been an action-packed couple of weeks since last post with two back-to-back missions to report: (1) Cordon del Plata, and (2) Aconcagua base camp. The Andes up close and personal.
PART ONE: CORDON DEL PLATA


Literally “The Silver Cord”, Cordon del Plata is a mountain range embedded in the high Andes just outside Mendoza (about 80 kms). Along with a pile of peaks in the 4000 to 5000 m range – all doable as hikes and scrambles – it contains one of Argentina’s highest peaks: Cerro Plata (Silver Mountain). As a non-technical ridge walk right to the top, it was long considered the most accessible 6000-m peak in the world. On a perfect day you can literally walk to the top with a pair of running shoes (altitude and weather issues aside, of course). Although, recent surveys with more accurate equipment put the official summit elevation just shy of 6000 m (the map we bought says 5955 m). Whatever, 6000 give or take..it’s a big freakin’ hill!

Before



“Amy! We’re going to the top of a 6000-m peak! This is going to be incredible!!”.  I was sooo excited, I could hardly contain myself. The real beauty of Cordon del Plata and Cerro Plata, is that there’s no red tape. i.e., no permits, no guiding companies, no park fees, no expensive access issues...nada. Just show up and start climbing. It could be the single best non-technical mountaineering location in the world – certainly the best place we have ever been for camping in the mountains and scrambling huge peaks.

48 hrs later

The basic plan of attack for most parties is a 4 to 7-day mission culminating in the big prize on the last day: summiting Cerro Plata. The multi-day requirement isn’t so much because of the distances involved. A super-fit person could probably go from parking lot to summit in one gigantic day. But, the effects of elevation might just blow his/her head off. The standard approach therefore, is to slowly crawl your way up the valley, camping at various lower elevations, maybe bagging a lower peak or two along the way, eventually getting to a high camp and into a position to summit, all the while allowing your body to adjust to the elevation and thus avoid dying from altitude-related issues. From the parking lot at approx. 3000 m, camp 1 is at about 3200 m, camp 2 at about 3600 m, and camp 3 at about 4200 m. From there, most people take another day off to adjust and make sure their head isn’t going to explode, then summit the next day. So that was our plan: food for 7 days with an optional day-off and/or scramble up a 5000-m peak along the way. YEEEHAA!

But alas, as with a lot of things lately, Argentina had a different plan for us. Someone forgot to tell Los Andes that it’s supposed to be summer here. Things were going perfectly for the first 15 mins. :-) Joking aside, it was a perfect summer blue-sky day when we left the bus terminal in Mendoza, made it to the end of the bus route, caught a ride in a pick-up for the rest of the gravel road up to the parking lot and trailhead, strapped on our packs, and started hiking up towards camp 1. We arrived in perfect order at camp 1 under sunny skies, and started into the one celebratory cerveca we had packed just for this occasion. Cheers honey, we made it! Amy wasn’t done hers yet when we looked up and realized the sky was falling, as only the sky in the mountains can do. In a pseudo-panic tent-pitching scenario, we got the tent up and crawled in. Over the next 48 hours – in the midst of a good old-fashioned mountain snow storm – we emerged only for the call of nature, and to dig our tent out of the snow with a plastic bowl. We ran out of reading material on day 2.

The skies finally parted midday on day 3. In all, about 40 cms (knee-deepish) of nice fluffy snow had blanketed our universe – more, much more up higher. Hmmm, should have brought the ski-touring gear. My Patagouchy approach shoes just ain’t gonna cut it here. Not to mention our paper-thin full-mesh cycling tent. Funny thing. While shoveling out the tent with the bowl, I notice the name of the tent proudly displayed on the fly: MEC Volt A/C 2. Hmmm, I then realize what the “A/C” stands for: air conditioning...a reference to the full mesh interior...nice and breezy, perfect for those hot days on the road. I am willing to bet that the specs do not include “ideal for winter camping at high elevations in the Andes”. J

With 48 hours to think about it, we decide to retrace our steps back down to the parking lot, where we knew there to be a refugio – the classic South American version of a “cabin” – to regroup, check weather, get info, etc. The refugio was stuffed with Argentine weekend warriors out enjoying the long weekend. With classic Argentine hospitality, Adrian the “hut keeper” made space for us in the overflow cabin and we passed the rest of the day and night amongst the Argentines and sharing their beloved mate (i.e., yerba mate...needs its own post one day; long story there).

Next day, based on a good 3-day forecast, and coffee in the sun, we decide to head back up. This time we bypass camp 1 and head straight for camp 2. It’s easy going actually because of the posse of weekend warriors in plastic boots blazing the trail for us. As long as we don’t leave the trail, it’s all good. Camp 2 is nice. Piedras Grandes they call it, meaning “big rocks” because of the huge chunks of rock that have broken off the cliffs above and landed on the trail. Hmmm, good spot for a camp...can’t think about that though.

Next day onto camp 3. Again, blue skies and warm midday temps lured us upwards. Again the trail was blazed by the plastic boots of those before us, making it doable. The scenery is stunning with 4000 to 5000-m peaks in every direction. Although it looked and seemed more like ski-touring than hiking. We made it to camp 3, the high camp used as a base camp for those summiting Cerro Plata. It was upon our first view of camp 3 that we fully realized the absurdity of what we were doing. It could have been an advertisement for North Face. The MEC Volt A/C 2 was definitely going to be a story the boyz would be telling for many years...”so there was this gringo couple in running shoes and this ridiculous air-conditioned tent...what a couple of idiots!” I can hear the stories now, because that is exactly the story I would tell if I was them.

Anyhooo, we set things up, barricaded the tent with rocks as best we could, Amy did some yoga on a bare patch of rock, I made some tea, and we hunkered down for the night amongst the North Face crowd. The standard uniform was plastic mountain boots, North Face snow pants, and a huge puffy orange -30 Mountain Gear down jacket with full hood. We were dressed for a stroll on a windy fall day. It was really sent home when I went down to the water hole for water, and I was the only guy there not wearing crampons. When asked what our plan was (no doubt because they wanted to know if we were going to die or not), they all sighed in relief when I told them we were going down tomorrow. “La proxima”, they said, meaning “next time”. Yep, next time.

Funny thing about the mountains, especially big ones. Anything is normal, including intense gale-force winds in the middle of the night. Otherwise known as katabatic winds, this area, and indeed this very campsite, is especially known for them. Needless to say it was a sleepless night listening to the wind violently thrashing our translucent onion-skin tent, and waiting for the fly of the MEC Volt A/C 2 to cleave down the middle and just blow off into infinity – thereby leaving nothing but a fine mesh between us and the Andes. There was no plan B.

The sun hitting the tent in the morning was a gift from god, and we took it. Coffee, oatmeal, a bit more coffee, and we teased the rocks lining our tent out of the frozen ground. The 3-am summit teams were long gone when we started down, so we had the place to ourselves. It was a beautiful morning with a golden view of the high Andes. What could be better? By midday we were sipping a beer back at the refugio, watching the dark clouds rolling in. The Andes was not done yet with this system. It was a good call and good to be down underneath the weather. Disappointing to be sure though, given that the summit was only a 10-hr mission away if we had our gear that was tucked away in storage boxes back in Nelson. Ah well, la proxima!  

Cerro Plata from camp 3 -- so close yet so far