Jan 14th, back down

The moon still visible over the mountains

I waited for the sun to come up to dry my tent before I packed it. As it is going to be packed for at least 2.5 weeks now, it is very important that it not be damp.

It took about an hour. I felt great; this second night was perfect, and I felt happy and confident that these few days of acclimatization had gone well.

I made it back to the lodge a bit before lunch. I was hoping to get a ride back to Mendoza tonight, but it depended on how many people needed to go as well. In the meantime, I had lunch, and sat down with Andreas and Dominic.

With Andreas and Dominic

Dominic was doing just fine by now. Still, in order to avoid another altitude sickness episode, they decided to go sleep at the campground where I had been, and then, if everything was alright, to go to El Salto the next day.

Andreas, the doctor, had fun testing our saturated oxygen levels. These are the amount of oxygen your body can carry. The higher up, the lower the percentage. The doctors on Aconcagua won't let you keep going if you don't have a certain percentage. It can be dangerous. Not that most people would feel well enough to do much anyway. My percentage was 86%, which is apparently very good as these things go at this level. The normal at sea level is nearly 100%. Dominic had been at 65%. This can definitely be dangerous, so I am not surprised that Andreas rushed him down when he saw this!

Four more people needing a ride came down, and so now it was official, we'd all be able to make it. But while waiting for our ride, Jamie (the Kiwi who runs the place with his wife Katie) decided to take us bouldering a few minutes away.


Did we look hilarious! We actually brought out real mattresses in case anyone fell, and one of the Tcheks (who owns a climbing school in his country) managed to do in 2 tries a problem that Jamie's been working on for 3 weeks!

Sophie, comme tu m'as manquée ici! Je ne me suis pas lancée, j'étais intimidée par le fait que tous ces gens sont super bons en bloc. Je suis certaine que tu n'aurais pas hésite, toi!


Dans le bus de retour, je me suis liée d'amitié avec les 2 jeunes brésiliens qui revenaient, heureux et rayonnants, du sommet de El Plata, 6300m, le point culminant de cette région, qu'ils avaient réussi le jour avant. Nous sommes restés à la même auberge, et avons mangé de la pizza. Eux avec du vin. Moi, ça sera au retour...