First Time Over 20K'?

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Jorts
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Re: First Time Over 20K'?

Post by Jorts »

Did Cotopaxi after 4 days. But I live at 10,000 ft so take that with a grain of salt. And I started feeling a little punch drunk over 19k.
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I Man
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Re: First Time Over 20K'?

Post by I Man »

pbakwin wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:26 pm
herdbull wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:43 am hmmm..... well 5 days for Aconcagua is impossible. 10 days is even tough and even at that you might suffer a day or 2 for gaining too much elevation at once.
"Impossible" is a dangerous word. When we climbed Aconcagua in 2005 my friend Buzz flew in from the USA on Monday and we summited on Thursday. But that's Buzz... I myself acclimated in Bolivia for a couple weeks, which was way more fun than climbing Aconcagua.
I was living in Colorado at the time, so that helped...but I think my friend and I were 9 days from Trailhead to summit.
Day 1 - Trailhead to Basecamp - Plaza de Mulas
Day 2- Rest
Day 3 - Carry to Camp Nido (officially Camp 2)
Day 4 - Rest
Day 5 - Acclimatization day - I climbed a nearby peak C. Bonete and my partner went to Nido again
Day 6 - Rest
Day 7 - Move to Nido
Day 8 - weather/rest day
Day 9- Summit
Day 10- return to BC

We probably could have gone a bit faster. If I were to go back now that I live at sea level, I would need a few more days. I think the key to success for us was to only use 1 camp on the mountain. I called it being lazy, but it really worked out well for us.
You can touch the void, just don't fall into it.

I fly a starship across the universe divide....and when I reach the other side...I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a Mountain Man again.
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jscully205
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Re: First Time Over 20K'?

Post by jscully205 »

Curious to know who told you Aconcongua isn't a good first 20k peak? In summary thought it was pretty much like hiking a very long loose 14er. It's a good place to learn expedition style tactics, i.e double-carries, acclimatizing, in a somewhat forgiving environment. You're on a trail the entire time with many others and retreat is generally easy. Granted, you would still want to pack an ice axe, crampons and micro-spikes, but if you had favorable weather you could hike up to the 19k camp Colera in trail runners. Accommodations were nice at the base camps (they had internet, bbq's, snack tent etc) I'd recommend it to anyone looking to take the next step-up in a high altitude environment and actually wish I would have done it before Denali.

That said, you still would not want to underestimate it; ironically it has higher failure rate than Denali, but I think that's because in my experience it attracted more casual trekkers than mountaineers.
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Re: First Time Over 20K'?

Post by Alex »

I Man wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:25 am
pbakwin wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:26 pm
herdbull wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:43 am hmmm..... well 5 days for Aconcagua is impossible. 10 days is even tough and even at that you might suffer a day or 2 for gaining too much elevation at once.
"Impossible" is a dangerous word. When we climbed Aconcagua in 2005 my friend Buzz flew in from the USA on Monday and we summited on Thursday. But that's Buzz... I myself acclimated in Bolivia for a couple weeks, which was way more fun than climbing Aconcagua.
I was living in Colorado at the time, so that helped...but I think my friend and I were 9 days from Trailhead to summit.
...
"Impossible" is not a dangerous word. I believe, the key word here is "Colorado".
Many years ago when I was there, there used to be mandatory oxygen saturation check in Confluencia. If the level was below some threshold, they just wouldn't allow to go to Plaza de Mulas. I had come directly from Colorado and was the only one in our group whom the rangers allowed to proceed.
Having said that, I need to admit, though, that the record time is in the range of hours, not days. So, everything is possible. :wink:
The only thing better than mountains are mountains to which you have never been!
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