Nousussa jo ennen nousua

English text bellow!
Finnish text first!

Edellisen illan kamajumppa venähti monilla yli puolen yön, mutta siitä huolimatta joukkiomme lähti pirteänä viimeisille iskuille lähikauppoihin. Perditan löytämä kauppahalli päätti vihdoin jo kolmatta päivää jatkuneen pähkinöiden ja kuivahedelmien metsästyksen, ja Miguel ja Michel painelivatkin saman tien turvaamaan snacksien riittävyyden parin kilon lisähankinnoilla. Myös ilmastointiteippiä löytyi viime hetken paniikkiostoksilla, joten nyt pystytään taas jälleen korjaamaan kaikki kuorivaatteista telttoihin aina yhtä tyylikkäillä hopeanhohtoisilla paikoilla.

Yllättäen kaikki olivat kuitenkin valmiina hotellin aulassa jo hieman ennen klo.12 deadlinea, ja ehdimme hetken aikaa ihailla varustevuorta ennen kuin Aymaran opas tuli hakemaan meidät peräkärryllisellä minibussilla. 2,5 tunnin matka Puente del Incaan sujui mukavasti koko ajan jylhemmiksi muuttuvia vuoristomaisemia ihaillen, matkan varrella pysähdyimme myöhäiselle lounaalle pieneen Uspallatan kylään. Tämäkin lounas oli varsinainen carnivore feast, eli lihaa riitti annosta kohden lähes enemmän kuin normaali suomalainen syö viikossa.

Puente del Incaan saavuimme neljän maissa, ja pari tuntia meni ihan huomaamatta vielä muulikuormia säätäessä. Väännön lopputuloksena meillä on käytössä 5 muulia, joista kukin avustaa meitä kantamalla 60 kilon kantamuksen selässään kun me taas trekkailemme turisteina vain 15 kilon repuilla kohti perusleiriä. Nopealla laskulla olemme siirtymässä Plaza de Argentinan leiriin kevyellä puolen tonnin varustuksella, ei auta kuin syödä hyvin että takaisin päin tullaan edes hieman tyhjemmillä kasseilla.

Puente del Incan kylästä ei muutaman nähtävyyden lisäksi löytynyt kovin ihmeellistä tekemistä, joten illanviettomme koostui lähinnä oikeaoppisesta nestetankkauksesta jo tutuksi tulleella Andes-oluella. Pienin tarjolla oleva cervesa oli miehekäs yhden litran pullo, joten uskomme olevamme varsin hyvässä nousussa jo ennen varsinaisen nousun aloittamista.

Giving fast facts about what´s happened this far:

The expedition consists of 7 persons from different backgrounds willing to summit the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas, Aconcagua in Argentina. Most of the people have climbed and travelled together earlier and some even have a longer mutual history. Neither of us has climbed to 7000 meters before, so this expedition is rather great challenge for all members. It will also be an experiment about what kind of effect will the thin air have on individuals physical condition. Nevertheless it requires as well a lot of mental strength to be able to overcome the physical challenges. We hope that the famous Finnish Sisu will be enough and that we will have enough of it. ? All of us have climbed, skied and done different type of extreme sports around the world for years. We travelled to Mendoza different times via different routes. Some luggage did obviously very different route, since it took almost a week extra time for it to arrive to Mendoza. Anyways we met each other there and had all the equipment at the spot successfully before the expedition really took off.

Last night in Mendoza was spent more with the mountaineering equipment than pillow. However, we were able to attack the stores around the city of Mendoza rather early in the morning. The last necessary pieces of gear and food were packed in the bags which together looked more like a small mountain in Hotel Cordillera´s lobby. Our travel organizer Aymara has plenty of experience of climber´s equipment bags´ volume and number and therefor arrived to pick us up by a minibus dragging a trailer behind it. On the way from Mendoza to Punta Del Inca we had a meal at a small lodge which had an atmosphere of a traditional skiing lodge. After arriving to Punta Del Inca, which is a small village where we spend our last night before 2-3 weeks in a tent, we had to check the weights of our bags. Part of our equipment is going to be transported by mules up to the base camp. Each mule carries about 60kg of gear and we have rented 5 of them. Totally we ended up having about half a ton of equipment and food, including the backpacks we are going to carry ourselves. Naturally the bags will get lighter constantly when the expedition proceeds, because we will “eat our bags lighter”.

In Punta Del Inca there is not that much to do, expect chilling out and starting the process of acclimatization. The process is naturally accelerated by shooting some local beer, already our old friend called Andes, served in one liter bottles. So this time it´s easy to say honestly that we had only few of them. We took a short walk around the village and found a cemetery, where are any lost heroes trying to conquer Aconcagua, buried. This scene makes a man rather humble and willing to take it easy on the mountain.

Tomorrow morning we will hit the trail with our backpacks and head towards the biggest mountain in our climbing history. It will take us three days to get to the basecamp, where we will have our Christmas meal in the evening. Let´s see if the Santa Claus will visit these heights during the Christmas.

The blog will be updated whenever and wherever. Stay tuned!