Day 6 - Base Camp (4,200M)

Final Rest Day at Base Camp

The luxury of a rest day is spending as much time as you like right here. Fortunately, I slept almost perfectly last night, with the exception of the hydration and altitude induced pee breaks. Fortunately, the occupants of our tent had no nocturnal "pee bottle events" to report and there was no corresponding need to hang sleeping bags outside.

Jazzed for the day, after breakfast and before the cold downhill winds started to blow I decided it was time for a glacial bath. Armed with a 1 liter cup, castile soap, and a towel the glacial runoff was all mine. The first liter of water over my head produced a "brain freeze" of epic Seven-Eleven Slurpie proportions. After that and after the backs of my eyeballs thawed, there was no reason to slow down. Bathing was a truly painful experience. I've taken university level football (soccer) shots to the groin that hurt less than cleaning up that business. It must have been the bodily adrenaline rush of survival to create core body temperature, because post bath I felt like a million bucks.

I had hoped that this would carry through to the next requisite doctor's examination, but things were mixed. Oxygen levels were good at 91% and the correlating pulse was down to 82 beats a minute. The problem was that the blood pressure was a screaming 152 over 95. To add to the confidence decline the guides told the doctor that my face looked symptomatically puffy. We agreed to increase my blood pressure meds by 50% and head uphill.

After the appointment, it was time to take care of the mundane, which included doing laundry in the river. Something about the altitude or maybe wind conditions had changed the "drying time" to multiple hours instead of minutes, when compared to the Casa de Piedra Camp.

The first day in double plastic boots was not overly comforting. They are a little more flexible than ski boots, but not much. These particular boots were rented in Mendoza and needed multiple douses of disinfectant prior to wearing and every opportunity for "air time". Each boot, with liners, weighs several pounds.

The weather systems were changing around us. In the distance, vigorous thunderstorms threatened to climb up the slope but never made the transition.

Looking uphill the clouds were beginning to "blow out"...

... and in the course of an hour the omen of a rainbow around the sun appeared. We were all, of course interested, but didn't want weather to hold us back from the summit. The locals describe a "viento blanco" or "white wind" that can blind anyone from progress on summit day. As interesting as the phenomenon may be, no one really wanted the experience. At this point, all that really mattered was that tomorrow marked the beginning of our true summit bid.