Posted on

Reflections on what I was thinking November 2019

Reflections on what I was thinking November 2019: Central Banks are now doing whatever it takes to keep economies & financial markets afloat, it seems they are having a hard time doing this/financial markets seem not to react to positive on this massive interventions. What if they would not have added “this medicine” the past year (2019) when it was not needed at all (they did mostly because of “political pressure”)…

Posted on

Day 14 | 13-2-2020 – Basecamp to Penitentes – Climbing Aconcagua (360 route)

All together it has been a quite long journey & today this climb will come to an end. Today is the last day of climbing/descending. It will take us from Plaza de Mulas basecamp back to Penitentes/exit of the Aconcagua Park.

First off we had breakfast altogether as a group. Some people didn’t bother to setup the tent (which by now is very understandable) and slept on the floor of the dinner tent. Jurjen and myself choose to setup the tent once more the evening before and finished this ritual by disassembling it after breakfast. As we had a busy (hiking) schedule ahead, Jelle helped us taking it down. One last time packing up all the (dusty) contents of the tent.

Today we had 25-ish km walk (all day long) ahead in mainly flat valleys. Once again I was happy we did the 360 tour, so this would be all new terrain, mostly made up of dry river scenery. Somewhere halfway we found a rock (in the river) an to most of us that seemd as a perfect spot for a rest (finally some rest in the shade) but as Jelle is, he saw it as the perfect boulder location. Before we knew it, he had managed to do the left to right side crossing of the rock.

After the break the hike continued. Along the way we encountered something I had seen on one of my maps along the preparation. At one time a couple of years ago an Inka body was found. This is close to what is called the Pyramid Mountain. As we came from Basecamp you do not see it immediately, but if you are doing the standard Aconcagua climbing route (with Plaza de Mulas as your “default” basecamp) you cannot miss it. Pyramid mountain is an eyecatcher mountain with a silhouette which to me is as prominent as the Matterhorn. Our guide Giorgio told us something interesting as to the location of the Inka Mummy (and this I found interesting, because it could related to an ancient universal mountain theory – in Nepal it is also common knowledge) As the top of the mountains belong to the gods, no human being/body may stay there, so that possibly would be the reason for the body laying meters below the summit and not near the top.

After nearly 26km of hiking we arrived at our destination: the entrance/parking of the Aconcagua National Park. With this our adventure came to an end. We have endured headaches, very uncomfortable toilet visits, tons of dust, sunburns but also lots of laughing, happy moments with the group and in solitude, scenic views to the top of the mountain and down to the valley. New friendships have been created and unerasable/life long lasting memories have been shaped. Thank you Aconcagua that you have allowed us to be your guests.

Posted on

Day 13 | 12-2-2020 Camp 3 to Basecamp Plaza de Mulas – Climbing Aconcagua (360 route)

One would think that after such an intensive day – the day before – one would sleep for 12 hours straight. Unluckily this was not the case, mostly because Camp 3 still is at approx 5900 meters – which is just not comfortable for a human being (lack of oxygen, hurting throats, going to toilet in the outside/exposed to the wind)

The heavy winds ripping our tents (the reason in the first place why we had to do the summit push days earlier) also didn’t help with getting good rest. So the day after – we knew – would also be a day of not so much rest and hard work descending.

As soon as we woke up, we started undoing the tent and started the descent. Today we would finally start descending with more oxygen and perhaps a little bit more comfort. By now the circumstances were creating some stress and good rest was something I was craving for.

As we did the Aconcagua 360 degrees route, the descend would be through a different route than the ascent. We would also stay at a different Basecamp (Plaza de Mulas) I guess everybody was happy to move down as we went pretty fast down the mountain, partly skiing (On this part a word of thanks to Jelle for taking the time to give us some theory lessons about moving up & down the mountain)

At the end of the day we arrived at Basecamp/Plaza de Mulas. Jurjen and myself setup our tent one last time. By now we had become very handy at it and we made a sport out of it/to place on the best ground we could found (away from “possible” rivers and on flat ground)

After setting up the tent we joined the group at the main tent for food & (surprise, surprise!) some bottles of champagne. The Camp cook had prepared fresh pizza’s and it was a great evening to think back of what we had experienced and achieved the past days. Seeing Jelle and Giorgio working towards a draw on the chessboard, I decided it was time to get some sleep and try to achieve a 6 hours plus sleep, the first time in de past couple of says/since leaving Plaza Argentina Basecamp.