Roberto "Robbie" Sassmannshausen
Aiming for the stars, whilst staying down to earth. It all starts with a vision/idea…the rest is stamina & execution.
Today we had a rest day as yesterday we climbed for almost a 1000 meters. In the “ideal acclimatization” theory 450 to 500 meters per day is ideal, so having a rest day will balance this out.
For this day one task was planned: visiting the Mountain Doctor/do a medical checkup. The result was luckily fine, so tomorrow I can continue climbing/go to higher camps.
At 5:00 the alarm went. It was ready for action time. We did what had become the standard job standing up in the morning. Get out of the sleeping bag, let the air out of the sleeping matras, put everything in bags and deconstruct the tent/prepare the tent for (mule) transportation. At 5:30 we had breakfast and at approx 6:45 we started the hike. It started with an ice cold barefoot passing of the river, the water temperature being approx 2 degrees.
After this I was happy to hike up to Costa Dura as this gave me an opportunity to warm up my feet doing so.
The walk to Plaza Argentina/Basecamp is very nice and it gives some splendid looks down into the valley and up to the Aconcagua mountain/summit.
It took us a little bit more than 5 hours of walking – and a 1000 altitude meters – to arrive at Plaza Argentina. We setup our tent knowing that this would be our (Base)camp for the next three days.
As the strategy is to climb high and sleep low, Frank and myself continued for another 250 altitude meters above camp an took some rest there watching Basecamp under us.
Tomorrow will be a rest day – to get used to the 4200 meters of altitude and we also will have a medical checkup. The following (9 to 11 days) we will continue our ascent to the summit working in several days towards our goal. Once more off the grid & looking forward a lot to it.
This morning we had to wake up at 6:00. The idea was to start early with the walk (as you are permanently exposed to the sun/it becomes quite hot during the day. Furthermore the mules had to be loaded on time to leave.
As the day before I had experienced that the sun really burns, I had long sleaves, a Buff and even gloves on to protect myself.
We had a walk planned for approx 15km with 500 hmtr. The walk was good and after a couple of hours walk and some rest, we got for the first time to see Aconcagua (from the Polish glacier/route side. This was a very impressive view.
At about 15:30 we arrived at Casa de Piedra and we setup our tent/VE25:) This went a lot faster than the dat before, so luckily we were learning (later on/on high altitude everything costs much more energy, so it is very practical to this kind of jobs fast/efficient.
After the tent was setup, I took a little “shower” which was to put a waterhose with icecold water on my head (refreshing for sure) followed by some chilling in the tent and taking a quick nap before dinner.
Tomorrow we have to wake up at 5:00 (getting earlier by the day:) so at approx. 20:30 we headed towards the tent for some good rest.
After a good night of sleep we got our bags prepared for a last time, before leaving into the mountains. At 8:00 we had breakfast (enjoying fresh juice and fruit) and at 9:30 the permits would arrive. The check-out was done and the “city-bag” was left behind.
It was a nice picture to see alle the climbing gear together in the lobby of the hotel.
We got picked up at 10:00 by the guides and started our drive towards Penitentes. On our way we had a quick stop/tour at our guide company – Aconcagua Mountain Guides / AMG – showing us what went into the preparation for such a tour (communication & logistics wise)
After a good lunch we arrived at the AMG mountain HQ, were we sorted out what stayed in the Duffel and what to take with in the backpack for the coming days. 16:30 we did the checkin at Ayelen hotel and had free time the rest of the day. Plan for now enjoying mountain views and chilling in the sun.
When visiting a new city/country I always try to visit a local museum. I decided to visit Espacio Contemporáneo de Arte. So when Lahbib, Jurjen and myself finished lunch, we went there. It is a nice museum in a beautiful building. We found some interesting pieces of (mostly) local art.
After the visit we changed hotels and checked in into our new room. For the rest of the day there was a briefing incl. material check with the guides followed by a lovely diner (at the local Parilla) with the whole group, who by now had arrived. Tomorrow adventure starts and we will leave town for the Andes, looking forward a lot to it!
Last evening we had two goals: check the hotel (Diplomatic) where we would transfer to the next day & find out a new nice place to have diner.
We decided to go to a neighborhood called Aristides. Going that direction we would pass our new hotel, so that would be a good combination. On our way to the hotel we passed Plaza Independencia and it was crowded with people. Streetlife here in Mendoza especially in the evening is superb. Streets are crowded with people walking, sitting and even dancing.
After checking with the hotel (seems like a good place to stay:) we continued direction El Palenque (some research brought this place to our attention)
We had some nice small bites & also found a Malbec (La Flor – Pulenta Wines) from an estate we had passed by during the day(trip)
After arriving in Frankfurt I had plenty of time to get my luggage checked in (would that work? was it perhaps to heavy? was my Exped backpack to big for carry on the airplane?:)
After all everything was fine – although the cabin crew didn’t seem too happy, with me entering the airplane with such a big bag.
On time we left Frankfurt Airport and it was a classic “red eyed” flight to Sao Paolo. I had a interesting chit-chat with my Italian-Brazilian-Swiss neighbor (Carina) who told me how it was to live in the German and French part of Switzerland as a young person and entrepreneur.
The sleeping – although never comfortable in a chair – was surprisingly good and after around 6 hours of sleep breakfast was being served. After a couple of extra hours of flying we arrived at Sao Paulo airport.
We arrived there somewhere at around 4:00 local time and I was longing for a good cup of coffee. As I had approx. 1,5 hours of transfer time, that gave me plenty of opportunity to search for the best coffee in town/airport:) The trick that actually worked was: where do all the LATAM pilots and Cabin Crew go/drink the coffee. Observing this/doing my research brought me to a really nice place: Bauducco.
From there the journey continued and we flew miles & miles over land and rivers (what I assumed would be part of Brazil and later on the Argentinian Pampa)
After 4 hours flight we made it to Mendoza Airport. Part one of the journey was a succes.
Whilst getting out of the airplane I met a fellow climber (Prash) from the UK who was also on his way to Aconcagua (with Adventure Consultants) He was staying in the same hotel, so we could actually share a cab.
The rest of the day was spend walking through town, having empanadas, drinking some beers and exchanging experiences in the mountains in Europa and Asia. It’s nice to meet people you connect with well & understand each others drives/passions/ideas.
Later on Jurjen (part of the Mountain Network Expedition) joined us and we went out for dinner. Ofcourse we choose for some nice local wine (Malbec) for accompanying the Risotto.
It all starts going from A to B. Day one is mostly a local/European transfer from Rotterdam to Frankfurt Airport.
This travel is done by train and mainly the last part, travelling by ICE through Germany is a big pleasure/you get a smile on your face “low flying” from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt Airport.
So what to do/where to travel/stay in 2020 … Nice & inspiring list. Good to have Rotterdam on it (For the runners: Gothenburg half marathon is truly a wonderful race & for the island hoppers: Menorca is also a great destination:)
