Steve Bonowski & Team Tackling Aconcagua

[MountainHiker]

It looks like they went on an acclimation climb to 16,500' today.

[uwe]

You probably know everyone in that shot, right?[/quote]

Actually no, but that is my ignorance. Fill me in!
I think this was the trip that we talked about in the 2006-07 Pikes Peak HAMS class. Yes?

[climbing_rob]

Awesome news MH, thanks! Looks like another chance then.

Uwe: that's Wayne H, myself, Laurie P and Andy W in the front, Rich M and Jeff K in the rear. Not shown but made the summit are Tom J and Alex P. Three others turned around lower, alas.

[MountainHiker]

The tracker is heading back down the Horcones Valley below Mules.

[uwe]

Update from Steve: "Thanks for note. Early season weather unusually bad. Return to PDI on 12/11; back to Mendoza on 12/12 for wine tours. Steve B "

We are heading back in 2015! Come join us! - Uwe

[climbing_rob]

Update from Steve: "Thanks for note. Early season weather unusually bad. Return to PDI on 12/11; back to Mendoza on 12/12 for wine tours. Steve B "

We are heading back in 2015! Come join us! - Uwe

Too bad. Thanks for the info. Yeah, sounds like two CMC trips going next season.

[SteveBonowski]

Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts. Our team got back to the US this past Monday. Unfortunately for me, my "antique" computer modem chose Monday afternoon to crash & burn. Just got back on line this afternoon (installed the new modem on Tuesday, but had to wait a couple days for a system speed upgrade to activate).

We had a great team of 6 that trained hard; all CMC members: Dana & myself from Lakewood; Sally from Boulder; Tom C. from Denver; Stan from Colorado Springs; Steve O. from Cedar Rapids, IA. Unfortunately, the mountain gods were not friendly. Normally, December is a good climbing month. We got, what some of the guides called, the worst early season weather in maybe 15 years. We sat in Mulas base camp for an extra three days due to high winds on the upper mountain, which greatly constricted our climbing itinerary. Our one & only carry of stuff went just to Canada, rather than to the planned Nido, again due to high wind and cold.

We had a team discussion and agreed to give it a shot if the weather improved, but with all realizing that our acclimatization could be faulty due to lack of enough time. Dec. 7 was a decent day to move our camp up to Nido. Several of us hired porter assistance to move stuff up, me included. My thinking was that I "paid my Aconcagua dues" in 2002 and 2004 by humping the 50+ lb. packs, so it was time to "be good" to the knees.

It unexpectedly started snowing after midnight, early on the 8th, which was to be a rest day for us. Got about 6-8" at Nido and we heard over a foot at Berlin & Colera. Very windy on the 8th and the night of the 8th. 9th was supposed to be a move upwards to either Berlin or Colera, with the 10th being our summit day, with our constricted schedule. Two of the team had persistent headaches despite staying fairly well hydrated; not a good sign. After discussion, all but one person was ready to head back down on the 9th; as an aside, company climbing guides also were turning client groups around. Turned out to be a good decision as I took a nice picture, from base camp, of the "viente blanco" on & around the summit the next day. Likely we would have turned around even if we had tried for the summit on the 10th.

As a matter of amusement, the by far freakiest incident I've ever experienced on a big peak occurred during our wind-enforced extended stay in base camp. One afternoon, a big gust picked up a piece of plywood from the camp next to ours; a piece about a meter square and an inch thick. The piece was driven into the side of Stan's tent, a Mountain Hardware major 4-season job (we were tent mates); tore a big gash in the side and slammed into the side of my head as I was sitting & working on some trip paperwork. Tom & Stan patched it up while I went down to the base camp M.D. to get checked out and clean up the blood. Fortunately no concussion, and I was careful not to drip any blood in the tent.

As Uwe noted, we will have CMC climbs in 2015 of Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, and Koz in Australia as part of our 2015: Year of the Mountaineer program. Also climbs to Denali and Everest. As one of the 3 main coordinators for all this, with Uwe & Greg Long, 2014 will be busy. We also have the next edition of our Adventure Travel leader training class on February 1. My next climbing target will be the first ever CMC trip in August to Mount Ararat in Turkey (16,854') and Mount Musala in Bulgaria (9,600').

Cheers and happy holidays. And now to the 719 patiently waiting new e-mails.......... Steve

[jsdratm]

Wow, thanks for the update Steve! (You can ignore my email now at least) Glad to see everyone made it out OK, although it is unfortunate the weather didn't cooperate.

[kman]

Hey Steve,

Welcome back and thanks for sharing your experiences on the mountain. Yes, sometimes the mountain gods don't cooperate. I'm reminded of this quote by Hervey Voge: "The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too." Glad you weren't more seriously hurt by the flying plywood. The viento blanco is no joke! Enjoy your rest and recuperation.

[MountainHiker]

Steve,

One of the realities of spending the big bucks to go to these mountains is sometimes conditions don't cooperate. But there are generally lots of memories to take home. Glad you all made it back safe.

[JimR]

Steve,
Thanks for the summary. Sorry to hear about the weather, but glad that everyone got back safely--despite the plywood incident.

[uwe]

Very glad you all are home in time for Christmas.
Sounds like you all had an adventure.
Next time!!