Ac – 2010 summary and round up

So chuffed to be back home to a good bath, a porcelain loo and my gals Katherine, Gonda and Kibo. I can only feel very loved as right now my face is as attractive as the underside of my feet! As a result of the freeze burn!

I flew back with Jim Wardlaw yesterday, an epic 29 hour flight. And it was great to have his company. It was rough to leave the rest of the team in Mendoza, who are staying for the week to go river rafting, wine tasting and travelling to Santiago, Chile…tickets became available at the last minute, so Jim and I grabbed them!

 I feel rough for Jim as he’s fit and was super motivated to reach the summit of AC!  He battled to acclimatise from early on, as low as 3500m he changed colour and continiously struggled at altitude. He turned around a week later on the summit bid after reaching a height of 5400m, immobilised by the thin air! This is the nature of climbing to altitude unfortunately!  At Northern basecamp – ‘Plaza da Mules’, of the seventeen South Africans there, in three different teams, only six summitted (five from our team) and this is testimony to the attrition on ‘Ac’ because of the weather, altitude and dryness. Earlier the season 10 others attempted it from the South eastern side and failed. Four others are attempting it right now, Barry, Sean, Ian and Dave all from Cape Town. If you guys get this message, good luck from back home boys.  

Our crew was amazing and really became a team, supporting and drawing from each others different strengths and weaknesses. Richard Marais and Stewart Southey were definitely the cheerleaders and their sense of humour and skills at keeping a smile on everyones face will be long remembered. Stewart is a ‘gasman’ anaesthatist and therefore had to be the sensible doctor of the expedition. When dry thin air and a hacking chest infection took him under on the summit bid,  he was called to apply his wisdom and retire before the situation got complicated higher up. Stewart’s brother Grant had hoped they’d summit together, but three days and 2100 vertical meters later, it was younger brother Grant who emotionally stepped onto the top of South America and posed over the cross with his arm stretched out as if he was holding his boets shoulder! Rose Gardner was also up there. She was in tears…an incredible effort as our summit day was just under 9 hours from the high camp Berlin.  In that thin air and early afternoon snowfall at 6900m, the last fifty vertical meters took us an hour and half. Richard had an onset of diahorrea just before the summit and he’ll never forget the icicle he had to use because his loo roll had been left in his pack lower down. Similo and Grant were the Kings and led the Madiba plod through a short weather window that allowed us onto the summit at 2.15pm on the 14th. I was with Richard and Rose behind, counting ten big breaths and then fifteen steps, stop for two minutes, ten breaths then fifteen steps. Repeat repeat repeat. Rose and I were singing Ole… Ole… Ole…Rosey! Ole, Rosey! repeat, repeat, repeat…Simmy reckoned he had never heard such a dodgy version, all through his own gasping. Richard lit a Camel on the top, together we posed for the team shot and then bolted back down to Berlin in high winds and heavy snow to complete a 14.5 hr round trip.

During the climb we had temperatures of fifteen degrees below zero and heavy winds. We lost two tents, a sleeping bag and a new stove. We endured frosty discomfort and arduous hours of plodding, shared our gear, food, laughs and skills. We stuck to our plan and flexed it when the weather prevented us climbing. We experienced amazing views of the Andes, hundreds of amazing kilometres of the range. We got back to Mendoza stoked. The quality steaks, cold beers and beautiful gals were a treat. In the end it was an amazing trip with great memories and great friendships forged. And we got to the top!   (Pics to follow when the guys get back at the end of the week). Top notch guys, cheers Sean.