Aconcagua Blog
Jackie’s Summit Team:
(left to right) Ulises(guide), Manuel, Martin, Jackie, Huili, Jorge(guide)
January 10th, 2023 - Aconcagua day 1
Today we started from the trail head in Penitentes and made our way to camp Confluencia.
“Just arrived to camp Confluencia. It only took three hours to hike in. This camp is at about 3500m. I feel really good so far. No headaches. This camp is amazing! Fully functional toilets that are so clean! Right when we arrived they had food ready and it is delicious! We are waiting for the meals to arrive with our approach bags so we can get the tents set up with our stuff.
We were the forst team to arrive to camp, so we got the best tent selection. When our stuff gets here, I will take a nap and dinner is at 7:30 😊.
Dinner was so good, got to know the team way better. Ulises (my head guide) has so many cool stories from working in the Himalaya, I cannot wait to learn more from him.”
January 11th, 2023 – Aconcagua day 2
“I slept pretty good last night. Somewhere between 5-7 hours – im not sure. I had the tiniest headache but it went away with some water right away. We ate breakfast at 8, and then took off for our first acclimatization hike. It was 16km round trip, and we went up to almost 4100m’s of elevation at Plazofrancia. It was pretty windy at the top. We ate lunch and lounged in the sun, but bundled up from the wind. On the way down, we made our way out of the wind and it got very hot. I felt on the brink of heat exhaustion coming into camp. When we got to camp, they had pizza, watermelon and fresh cucumber water! Took my first camp shower, and took a nap. For dinner we had lasagna. I was feeling a little bot gross from heat exhaustion (probably). Still ate my dinner and chugged water hoping for a better night’s sleep.
January 12th, 2023 – Day 3
“Rest day! I slept way better last night. Woke up at 8, and had breakfast at 8:30. Had some avocado toast with eggs. SO good. We saw the camp doctor at 11 for our vitals. My vitals were pretty good for here, although I wish they were a bit better:
O2 – 94
HR – 62
BP – 134/94
It is only 11:30 after the doctor. Going to stretch, drink some water and do some meditating.
Stretchedf and meditated before lunch. Felt really good. Lunch was chicken parm with peaches for dessert. I played Yahtzee with Paul, Manuel, and Martin. I am going to eat dinner and go to sleep. We have an early start to base camp tomorrow.”
January 13th, 2023 – Day 4
“We moved to base camp today. The last 2-3 hours were brutal. It was hot, sunny, no shade, no clouds, no wind. Arriving at base camp I felt exhausted from the heat. My resting heart rate is really high right now – around 90. I am going to take a nap and try to do some recovery. Dinner is at 7pm and I am just going to rest until then. I cried a few times on the way here because I saw a couple dead mule skeletons along the way. I will check in after dinner.
Just ate dinner and am feeling way better. Dinner was delicious. I am nervous about the quality of sleep tonight but I will work with what I’ve got. Also going to use the pee bottle for the first time tonight … should be interesting.
Before dinner I played Yahtzee again. Here they call it Generala. My resting heart rate is dropping and I am feeling hydrated and way better than I was.
January 14th, 2023 – Day 5
“I slept really well and feel really good this morning. Breakfast was at 9:30 and was delicious. After breakfast, my teammate Jen and I went to the art gallery (Highest one in the world). We shared a little cry with the artist Miguel. Lunch was really good. It was a quiche with some salad. They have Sriracha here and I have been loving that. Pablo (the photographer) says I am the northern Mexican because I like spice. We are having Asado for dinner tonight to get us ready for our acclimatization hike to Benete (5000m). This will be my first 5000m peak. I think it is pretty exciting that I get two summits (hopefully) this trip. Right before dinner I got to meet Nims with my team. Cool guy. Dinner was delicious.”
January 15th, 2023 – Day 6
“Today we ate breakfast at 9 and started off to summit mount Benete at 10. I did not have as good of a sleep, but I still got around 7 hours. The trek across the valley to mount Benete did not feel easy this morning. A lot of up and down and you are already at 4300 meters when you start. One you get across the valley, there is a steep incline before it turns into some rolling hills. You go up one more steep push before you need to put your helmet on for the scramble section to the summit. My first 5000 meter summit!! 5052 meters to be exact. So proud of myself. I kept a slower pace to stick with Jen and everyone did awesome. We ate lunch on the summit before “foot skiing” the scree down. I feel a bit dehydrated and have a bit of a headache. My focus tonight is to rehydrate. We do our gear carry to camp one tomorrow.”
January 16th, 2023 – Day 7
Today we did our gear carry to camp 1. I was really nervous. There was a couple steep spots. I just kept my head down and focused on one step at a time. We stayed at camp 1 for about an hour. Coming down was really easy. Looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day after two big days. Uli (head guide) and Pable (photographer) told us a really cool story about how they found Janet Johnson’s camera in 2019. After this expedition, the new York times is coming to interview them.
January 17th, 2023 – Day 8
“Today is a rest day. We ate breakfast and then doctor check-in at 11;30. My numbers were ok:
O2 – 88
HR – 76
BP – 133/89
Going to nap and get everything In order for tomorrows move to the high camps. A combination of nerves and excitement 😊. Lunch was delicious – chicken parm again. Took a nap and ate all of the snacks today. I have everything ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow we for sure start moving through the high camps. We got confirmation on the weather. Dinner was also amazing. Feeling as ready as I ever will. Lets do this!”
January 18th, 2023 – day 9
“Today was a sadder start than expected. Jen and Paul both decided to stay behind. Paul has a really bad sinus infection and Jen has the worst tooth pain. Manuel, Martin and I all came up to camp 1 today. It was very hot and I was moving very slow. Took 3 hours to get here. Tomorrow we move to camp 2 for the first time. For now I am focused on rest and hydration. I took a nap after lunch and I am going to nap again before dinner. Shared some Mati with the team in the dome. That was cool. I can almost taste the summit, but a long way to go still. I am starting to miss home. Dinner was soup and cheeseburgers. So good for 5000 meters. Waiting for the sunset, and then bed time 😊. “
January 19th, 2023 – day 10
“Today we pushed up to camp 2. I was so nervous having such a big pack but it was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. My tent here has a lot of rocks underneath it and it is not very comfortable. The views get better and better as we move up. Glad we are taking a rest day here tomorrow. I am feeling very optimistic about achieving the summit. Focusing on rest and hydration. Two more days until summit day. Dinner was spaghetti. It was delicious. Preparing for our cold night ahead, thankfully I have all the years (and my pee bottle). Thankful for the experience that I have had so far.
January 20th, 2023 – Day 11
“I did sleep well last night, the wind was horrible. We had a late breakfast at 10:30. Everything was so frozen. During the day I napped lots which helped me feel better. Getting nervous for summit day. We are doing a late acclimatization hike at 4pm as we wanted to let the wind die down. Other than fatigue, I am feeling pretty good.
Feeling a bit more alive after going halfway to camp three. It is STRAIGHT uphill. Tomorrow will be tough, but summit day will be tougher. I am just going to hangout in the tent until dinner, maybe try to stretch. I have been listening to some podcasts that I downloaded and they are keeping me sane.”
Jan 21st 2023
Today we moved from camp 2 to camp 3. The first part was steep and brutal, but once we got into the switch backs it wasn’t so bad. Upon arrival to camp 3 I started getting some minor headaches which I managed to deal with with drinking fluids. Tonight I am sharing a tent with Uli but we are getting up at like 3 or something so really who cares. They have brought all of our meals to our tent at this camp and I am hoping to actually get some sleep before the summit push tomorrow. I’m filled with nerves and excitement. I can’t believe I made it this far. This morning also, Mustafa, the children’s book author had a heart attack, so I hope he is okay. Just a reminder to take it slow and steady. Hopefully my next entry with be a summit success entry!
H2O= 5L
Jan 22nd 2023 - SUMMIT DAY
we were woken up at 4:30, they filled up our water bottles and then brought us “breakfast” to the tent, cookies, toast and cream cheese. I had so much anxiety I barely ate. We started heading up at 6am, it was still dark out so we had to use headlamps. Right off the bat I started getting to hot but as soon as we got exposed to the wind it was cold the rest of the day. We took a quick 10 minute break by some rocks just after the sun came up, had some water and candy. To be honest, I had no idea what time it was all day, my only focus was the summit. We kept moving up this really steep section until we reached a small tattered refuge that was covered in vomit. We rested there for like 20 minutes. At this point I was already spent, I didn’t want to eat or drink. Uli forced some tea down my throat and then I ate a Aconcagua bar which I’m pretty sure brought me back to life. I had a nice little burst of energy for about 10 minutes until the traverse section where we got BLASTED, and I mean BLASTED with wind. I would try and take a step and the wind you move my foot to where I definitely didn’t want it to go. This section wasn’t that steep, but the wind was freezing and unrelenting. Literally never broke even once. After the traverse we started going up again. The goal was to get to the cave, but half way up we had to stop cause a guy had fell off the trail and slid down the mountain. This caused everyone to panic, people were being told they may need to turn around. Talk about mind games as if I wasn’t already playing enough of them in my own mind. Uli went up and checked the snow conditions and they were perfect, so he’s not exactly sure how he fell, so we pushed on and made it ti the cave. Here we took a nice long break. There wasn’t any wind and this was where we put our helmets on for the last 150m vertical push to the summit. We left our bags there, many people do to save energy. Uli carried water and snacks for us, and he reminded me to bring all the things I wanted pictures of with me(thank god I was I zombie at this point and definitely wouldn’t have remembered). after the break, we started pushing up. It was steep, the sun was making the snow blinding, the wind was going. Every step you didn’t even seem to get closer to the summit until finally, FINALLY it’s within reach. I was still about 50 steps away and I just started crying, because I knew at that point I was there, I could get there. And I just cried and cried and didn’t stop crying. I got to the summit! Standing at 6960.8m above sea level, barely breathing, freezing winds, and I fucking did it! We stayed at the summit for about 30 minutes, took all the pictures we could without our hands freezing off and then started to come down. Now in my head I know that going down is when the problems occur. My legs were jello at this point, my lungs were spent, heart was racing and all I could think was “you can’t miss a step cause mom would be crushed”. I was actually fairly sound mind, which isn’t always the case for a lot of people. The oxygen deprecation, the exaustion, it takes a toll. We got down to the cave safely, got our bags and took a long break. Next part going down was where that guy had fallen, about 10 minutes into the descent one of my team mates missed his footing, lost his pole and almost started sliding, it scared the crap out of me but thankfully nothing came of it. After that I stayed behind my team mates for the decent. I could tell Martin was pretty altitude drunk. When we took our next break at the refuge, he saw more people coming down from the summit and asked where they came from. We finally made it down to camp 3, completely exausted, but with a successful summit. Another team welcomed us with applause and hugs and all I wanted to do was cry and collapse in my tent. Which is exactly what I did.
A big thanks to Grajales Expeditions for making this trip all that it was.
