Aconcagua 2006 - Pfluegl Brothers

Video

2007-02-20T00:23:00.001+01:00

Photos

2007-02-01T19:42:00.000+01:00

Photos of our Aconcagua expedition can be found on http://www.fotostudiowien.com/aconcagua. All copyrights are with http://www.pfluegl.at.

Full Description

2007-02-01T19:40:00.000+01:00

A full description of our expedition in form of a web page you can find on http://travel.pfluegl.at. Copyright of the travel web site is http://manfred.pfluegl.at.

We Did It!

2006-12-27T17:00:00.000+01:00

Yes, we reached the summit. After 10 days of high winds that made it impossible for anyone to summit we reached the highest camp "Berlin". A window of good weather opened just in time as we got ready to make a summit attempt. On the first attempt we reached the north peak with its 6962 meters on Dec 27, 2006. We had great visibility on this sunny day and spent more than an hour on the highest point outside Asia to enjoy our well earned reward for all the mental, physical and financial investment.

D Day

2006-12-10T17:45:00.000+01:00

Day zero. Franz is already sitting on a plane or at least he is at the airport in Vienna. My plane leaves in 3 hours. I want to take my last shower and eat some cake to celebrate my wife's birthday.

I have 3 pieces of luggage - 30kg in total - ready. One duffel bag and one box with the 4 sleeping pads and a sleeping bag to be checked in and one small backpack to be carried on board.

Expectations

2006-11-29T17:13:00.000+01:00

Going into this expedition I have little real-world experience in this kind of mountain life-style. Having no matching past experiences does not prevent me from having plenty of expectations.

Here are some of my expectations:

Lots of pain and lots of suffering. Headaches, bad sore throats with spitting blood, inflammations, coughing, ...
Trouble sleeping, nightmares, restlessness, ...
Cold
Simple tasks like cooking or putting on crampons will be difficult and awkward with gloves and exhaustion.
Simple tasks like putting up a tent or stuffing the sleeping bag into the compression bag will be major labor in the high camps. It will be strenuous work and time consuming.
I expect that every day we will be spending 2-3 hours with unpacking, searching and packing as we move from camp to camp and prepare deposits and loads.
I expect that every day we will be spending 2-3 hours with preparing water, hot tea and cooking soup and a few brief minutes in hastily eating before it gets cold again.
I expect that every day we will be spending 4-5 hours walking (on average) and carrying loads.
If I add up these numbers, we'll spend the vast majority of time on mundane tasks like packing and cooking.
And I expect several surprises. Nothing ever works out as planned. I expect that we will have to improvise a lot and be flexible to adapt to anything that weather or environment throws at us.

I also have some positive expectations:

Some human gestures and acts of friendship that let one re-believe the goodness of mankind, camaraderie
Experiencing some awe inspiring and beautiful nature in all its power and glory
The humble feeling of being small and tiny in comparison to nature
The monotone walking leading to meditation and just pausing to think and giving the brain and alter-ego a good rest
Intensifying the relationship to the climbing partner - my brother
An indescribable mental and emotional high should we reach the summit
A memory that will last a life time
Lots of stories to tell when we come back

Final Testing

2006-11-29T17:07:00.000+01:00

All has been purchased now. All equipment is ready and most of it is packed already. I tested the stove several times, I programmed 40 waypoints into the GPS, I slept in the sleeping bag on our terrace making sure there is enough room for my boots as well, I used the sleeping pads and made new extra-long straps t o make sure that both sleeping bag and the 2 pads can be strapped to the outside on the top of the backpack.

Today I even shaved my head. That should save another 10g in weight. I am just joking. I did not shave it for Aconcagua, more for fun, but having short hair will be an advantage in an environment where I won't shower or wash my hair for a month.

The final workouts are as usual: 3 hours of stairs with 20-23kg in the backpack.

Like a Feather

2006-11-26T14:00:00.000+01:00

Due to fever and back pain I lowered the weight to 17kg and then I did a workout with 20kg. After the forced break the 20kg feel like a feather in comparison to the 27kg I carried before. Like a feather is an exaggeration, but certainly it feels manageable.

Countdown: Only 2 more weeks!

2006-11-26T13:56:00.000+01:00

Only a few days left for preparations ...

1000m Stiege Steigen

2006-11-25T01:47:00.000+01:00

Grosses schlechtes Gewissen. Habe seit letzten Donnerstag nichts trainiert. Am Wochenende gab's Computerprobleme und dann war großer Messejob angesagt. Also heute habe ich mich wieder aufgerafft. Nach so langer pause kostet es gleich die doppelte Überwindung. Also habe ich erst um 22h55 am Freitag 24. begonnen. Training wie zuletzt, 20kg Rucksack umgeschnallt, Bergschuhe an, und hinauf bis zum Dachboden. Einmal bis zum Dachboden sind 20m. Also muss ich 50x bis zum Dachboden gehen, damit ich 1000 Höhenmeter schaffe. Diesmal bin ich es in einem durchmarschiert, kleine Pausen waren natürlich immer die Fahrt nach unten mit dem Lift. Es ist mir halbwegs gut gegangen dabei, trotz der langen Pause. Nach ca einem Drittel Distanz kamen wieder die Schmerzen an den Schultern. Nach ca 2/3 der Distanz habe ich hin- und wieder getorkelt, der feste sichere Schritt lässt nach. Dann kam der große Durst. Und die Arme fühlten sich schon abgeschnürt und blutleer an. Vielleicht sollte ich doch Unterlagen unter die Träger geben. Die letzten Anstiege bin ich schon etwas in Trance gegangen, habe nur mehr an den frischen Schluck von kühlem gespritzten Apfelsaft gedacht. Um 1h40 hatte ich es geschafft. Also habe ich diesmal nur 2h45 Minuten für 1000 Höhenmeter gebraucht. Nächstes Mal darf es keine so lange Pause mehr geben und es muss noch etwas Gewicht zulegt werden.

Home Made Solutions

2006-11-24T22:45:00.000+01:00

My main worry regarding the cold temperatures are my feet. The are many "normal" solutions.

Carrying a second pair of expedition double plastic boots just for the summit day.
Overboots
Supergaiters

Carrying more weight and the hassle of supergaiters I do not like and overboots are not suitable for Aconcagua as there are good chances that a significant stretch has to be climbed without crampons. So, how to keep my feet warm? I spent hours on this subject and came up with this home-made solution. I hope it will work:

Inner liner socks
Bread bags (to act as Vapor Barrier Liners)
Special thermo outer socks
Chemical toe warmers
Home-made insoles made from 6mm closed cell foam with a thin aluminum foil on one side (I cut up a similar sleeping pad).
Regular boots with a layer of duratherm.
Home-made inlay from 14mm closed cell foam (I cut up another sleeping pad) that goes between boot sole and crampons.
Crampons
Home-made partial supergaiters. Well, this is an insulation that covers the front part of the boot on the outside. This are parts cut into shape and come from the same 14mm closed cell foam pad. I added some velcro to it for a better fit at the toes and the whole home-made outer toe insulation will be taped to the boot and or crampons. It can be worn with or without crampons.

Let's just hope it also works and the whole set-up keeps my toes from getting frost bites.

Hallelujah

2006-11-24T22:28:00.000+01:00

Alleluia! The backpack containing my stuff has arrived safely in Vienna. I sent it via airline transport and yet it took 15 days to arrive. I was more than worried that it might have been lost. I guess I am paranoid, always expecting the worst and worrying about everything. I literally had several sleepless nights. I had taken me a long time to collect all the items -- 15kg in total -- in the backpack. Its loss would have been a major setback for me.

Some other nightmare stories I have read in Aconcagua travelogues:

Lost all the equipment as the mule was swept away in the stream on its way from Plaza de Mulas to Puente del Inca. The mule drowned, one of the 2 bags was found (all soaked) and the 2nd bag was never recovered. This happened Jan 2006 to the same mule operator I have chosen.
Equipment stolen on-route by airport employees.
Stove stolen in base camp.
Tent torn to shreds by the wind in one of the high camps. This seems to be the destiny of 1 or 2 tents per season.
Mugged between the bank and the permit office. Some bands have specialized on those $330.
Food confiscated at the Chile/Argentinian border by the customs officials.

As you see, I will continue to worry. There are still so many things that can go sour.

The Good News

2006-11-17T19:59:00.000+01:00

All the equipment from the mail order in the US has arrived today. Nothing was misplaced, nothing was broken, nothing was stolen, all sizes were correct, etc. And it arrived pretty quickly. It took only 7 calendar days to arrive in Spain and only 2 days to get it through customers.

I ordered from Great Lakes Outfitters (www.greatlakesoutfitter.com). They ship to Europe for a fixed price. Once the packages arrived in Europe, customs sent me by post paper slips requesting the invoice and to collect the packages. In the customs office they informed me that 2.7% are due for import rights and that an additional 16% must be paid for VAT. So, in total I paid 18.7% of the invoice total and then they handed the boxes over without opening or inspecting them.

After spending 2-3 hours getting the boxes, today I checked everything carefully and put name tags on the items. I have all my equipment ready, only a couple of items like batteries are missing.

6 boxes worth $4,000.

The sleeping bag is quite big, I was surprised. How will we carry all this stuff up the mountain to 6,000m I wonder.

The Bad News

2006-11-17T19:52:00.000+01:00

First my daughter was sick with fever, then my son, and now I have fever too. 38C. It could be worse, but I feel bad and because of that today for the first time I missed a training.

Stairs - Over and over again

2006-11-11T13:23:00.000+01:00

Another workout with 27kg on the back. At the beginning of the workout it is killing me, but once the workout is over I feel elated - like on endorphines. I do the workout slow, nearly 1 second per step. The pulse is at 120 for most of the time. The last 36 floors I performed an end-sprint that brought the pulse to 160.

Different Stairs

2006-11-11T13:14:00.000+01:00

I changed the venue. Instead of using the 6 floors of stairs in our building today I exercised in the building where my car is parked. This building has 9 floors. One cycle takes me exactly 5 minutes, 4:10 to climb 9 sets of stairs and 50 sec to take the elevator down. I did 3 hours and a total of 36 cycles, i.e. 36*9 = 324 floors in 3 hours. That is somewhat more than 1,000 meters in altitude gain.

And to spice it up I added again 3kg to my backpack. I carry now 27kg on my back. If I include my 2.6kg boots and my 0.4kg clothing, I carry a grand total of 30kg. Still even 27kg is little in comparison to my calculation that we two have to carry 90kg in total, that is 45kg each.

To make things worse we will have to carry this weight (27kg or a bit more) at half the oxygen.

Countdown

2006-11-10T10:06:00.000+01:00

The final count down started. Exactly and only 1 more month to go. The final time to train and prepare.

Equipment and the Ordering Process

2006-11-09T22:25:00.000+01:00

Today finally the mail order company where we purchased all of our equipment has sent the vast majority of the order. Everything except the sleeping bags where handed over to the USPS (US Postal Service) today for delivery to Spain. I am anxious to receive the 5 boxes. They are supposed to take 7-10 days to arrive. Since it has to go through customs and thereafter I still need to forward half of the items to my brother in Austria it is getting close to our deadline. I am nervous and will remain nervous until we both have our stuff in-time and without any loss.

The sleeping bags will (so they say) be shipped on Nov 20. More reasons to be worried.

I am sorry to have started the ordering process so late. I placed the order on Oct 17 thinking that this would be enough for our Dec 10th departure date. But with all sorts of unexpected delays it is clear I should have done the ordering at least 3 months before departure date and not just 2 months before.

But with luck it will still all work out, but by ordering earlier I would have saved myself a lot of worries and stress.

Step by step

2006-11-09T21:14:00.000+01:00

I continue with my one-day-off-one-day-on routine with each training session being 3 hours. Today I incremented the weight by 3 kg, putting a total of 24kg on my back. The stairs in our building are such a good workout that already of the first set of 6 floors I am sweating. The heart rate at the end was high (it was so high I couldn't quite catch up measuring it). Somewhere close to 180, but that was due to the final end sprint doing the last 12 floors faster than normal. The heart rate dropped to 120 within a minute.

More Stairs

2006-11-06T01:24:00.000+01:00

Today I did my third 3-hour session in the staircase of our building, climbing 6 floors up, taking the elevator down; again with the usual 21kg on the back. This time it was a bit less painful and unpleasant. Looks like I am making a tiny bit of progress.

Sweat and blood

2006-11-05T23:58:00.001+01:00

Today I have trained hard. 1 hour in the gym. 1 hour running in cold weather. 1h45min on the cross trainer at home. Total 3h45min.

I got panic

2006-11-05T14:14:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I got panic that I would not be able to do the mountain. In my desperate feeling I bought a cross training machine. I hope I can train during work time in my studio.

420 sets of stairs

2006-11-01T19:28:00.001+01:00

The best workout is often the simplest. Today I "worked" the staircase of our building for 3 hours. We live on the sixth floor. I took the elevator down and climbed the stairs of six floors. Then I repeated the exercise over and over again. In 3 hours with 21kg in the backpack and the heavy boots I was able to climb a total of a bit more than 420 floors, roughly 1,000 meters in altitude. It was painful because of the load and my back was aching a tiny bit. I will try to perform this exercise now every other day. It will be painful, but hopefully a great preparation for Aconcagua.

Time flies

2006-10-30T20:12:00.000+01:00

I just looked at my records and it was back in September 2002 when I first started collecting information about Aconcagua. That was more than 4 years ago. How time flies.

Workout

2006-10-29T12:19:00.000+01:00

As part of the preparation for the climb I am working out on a elliptical exercise machine. The tough part is that the workout is with a backpack full of water bottles weighing 20kg (44lbs).

Life is too short

2006-10-26T17:11:00.000+02:00

The decision was right, I did it together with Manfred one year ago, and want to take this challenge. But it is very hard for me to adapt it in my daily life. There are many needs especially in physical condition, and I have to change my life style and my daily routines. But this is very hard for me. I am driven by my business. But I am also driven by this challenge. So I have to do both. And I will have to reduce my part in business. The most challenging thing, is to use my available time in the best way. My mind and my head is always thinking of this and the already very near future expedition. This is a good school for all my life.
Franz

Who?

2006-10-26T09:18:00.000+02:00

The blog title says "Aconcagua 2006 - Pfluegl Brothers". The blog is about our experiences. So, who are the Pfluegl brothers? That's 2 of us. Franz and myself Manfred. We are just two average people with average capabilities trying our best to reach the summit more than 2 months from now in January 2007.

Realizing a Dream

2006-10-26T05:36:00.000+02:00

Climbing Aconcagua is a 2-year old dream. This blog should capture the last months of turning this dream into reality. This journey will break many records and be part of many "firsts".

It will be the most time intensive preparation of any vacation ever. First planning started 2 years ago. A bit more than 2 months of full-time preparation and logistical planning are going into this expedition.
It will be my most expensive vacation ever (so far). Some $4,000-$5,000 will go into this trip.
It will be the single event with most physical preparation. A year of exercise and 3 months of dedicated physical training plan.
We will carry the most luggage and equipment ever. Current estimates lead me to believe that we will travel with some 30kg. The items to be carried during the actual expedition will be even more as fuel, food and water will need to be added. Add some 8kg and the total comes to 38kg. I am not looking forward to that part.

So far I already experienced a lot of emotions ranging from plain fear and nightmares to confidence and feeling good about myself. On certain days I am afraid something bad might happen, like loosing toes or worse. It caused me several sleepless nights so far. But the more I train the more optimistic I become.