Aconcagua with Hypoxico
Mar 11th 2008BrianAconcagua, 2007 & High Altitude Training & Hypoxico Systems & Misc. Adventures & Mt. Everest, 2007
On December 11th, I left the Hypoxic Tent for the last time and was not expecting to get started on my climb until the 14th. Although I was not concerned about the loss of acclimatization due to the traveling, I was of course hoping to start the climb as soon as possible.
Fortunately, the logistics went very smoothly and by using private transportation we were able to check in with the rangers at the Horcones Trailhead (8,900 ft) before they closed at 6:00 pm on the 13th. So, the first day Chris, Kevin, and I walked to the Confluencia Camp at 11,500 ft. and arrived just before dark.
Early on the 14th I left the two of them and hiked solo to Plaza de Mulas at 14,000 ft., which I managed to do in just under 5 hours. In my planning I had considered continuing onto the next camp, but instead decided to conserve my energy for the summit day.
On December 15th, I moved comfortably to Nido de Condores at 17,500 ft., which I considered to be the true test on whether I would be able to go for the summit so quickly. I only stayed at that camp for about 10 hours, but throughout my time resting I had no signs or symptoms of altitude sickness. In fact, I found myself to have initially been more comfortable at that altitude than on other expeditions where I had trouble sleeping and loss of appetite when first arriving.
I chose to make a very early start for the summit on December 16th at 1:00 a.m., which enabled me to move past the upper camp on my summit bid and still stay ahead of the other teams. In the past, I’ve found myself prone to headaches from sun exposure at high altitudes, and so I chose to avoid this extra variable in order to get a more accurate idea of the effectiveness of the Hypoxico system.
The maximum elevation I had slept at in Hypoxico tent was about 17,000 ft. and so I was not entirely confident I would be able to perform above 20,000 ft. Personally, I expected acute mountain sickness (AMS) symptoms to begin shortly above that, and so imagined I would turn around before the summit.
The summit day was straightforward other than some small route finding issues due to a lack of snow on the upper mountain, which would have made a much more obvious route. Due to the lack of snow, I found the Canoleta section at the upper part of the mountain to be particularly nightmarish. The last 1,500 ft. to the summit basically involves a giant rubble field that constantly erodes down the mountain making for terrible footing, rock-fall danger, and of course very slow going.
I reached the summit in just under 8 hours, which I considered to be a very comfortable personal speed. I found this moderate speed critical to maintain due to the nature of my climb and my goal to maintain a very large safety margin. However, I did choose to descend very quickly and reached the Nido de Condores camp in under 2 hours and then the Plaza de Mulas camp in another 45 minutes.
In the end, I ascended from 8,900 ft. 22,984 ft. in under 65 hours without experiencing any form of AMS.
While spending another week guiding friends up the mountain, I found the very fastest climbers to have no less then a 7-day itinerary but almost all of them experienced AMS problems. Most climbers chose to go for the summit between the 10th and 14th day of their itinerary with much higher success rates with the longer itinerary. It is not uncommon for the most reputable guiding companies to have 16-18 day itineraries.
In the end I was baffled at the effectiveness of the Hypoxico system for pre-acclimatization, and am excited to see how this approach changes mountaineering in the future.
