Training Archive: stoneIn the 7 days ending 2007-01-21:
| [csv] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||
| M | T | W | H | F | S | S | |||||||
Saturday Jan 20 | ||
| Running 1:00:00 [1]+400m | |
| Day 11
Walking back to where the bus will pick us up. Bus is 4hrs late, because our guide couldnt organize it correctly. Oh man, Im looking forward to a shower and something to eat with lots of fat! And Im glad to be back in the heat of Santiago. Vlad can walk now by himself, but more like hes drunk. The past 11 days have been a really interesting experience for me! It was something totally new, but this way I wont do it again, the group was too big and heterogeneous. And I will do it with Europeans next time, or at least people where I know that they will act responsibly in these mountains. Its not a Sunday afternoon picknick, youre some days away from civilization, and if something happens, youre on your own. Some lessons learned: 1. The high altitude is a place not made for mankind. Or at least Im not made for this place. Even though I had less problems that last time, I would need more time to acclimate to climb a 6500m high mountain. Every day, we could measure our blood saturation. It was always rather low, compared to other people. This fits with the results from the altitude training camp in the Engadin 4 years ago, where my blood did not respond much. Also on this expedition, there were guys with beer bellies or taking cigarette breaks every hour, walking at least twice as slow as me, but if not for the bad weather, they would have made it to the top, whereas I would not have, at least in the given time. 2. Mountaineering is about patience and not power or speed. For a high mountain, you spend sooo much time just hanging or walking around to acclimate. You have different camps, one day you just walk up to carry some material, then the next day you do the same thing again. And maybe a third time the day after. To me, this is boring. I want to run up the mountain and then go back home. 3. Expeditions to higher mountains are long. 10 days is the minimum for smth 6500+. This means sleeping in the tent for 10 days, being cold often, not having a shower, etc. I can think of more pleasant things. 4. You need a lot of food in 10 days!! If you have mulas, take as much as you can, and especially stuff that you like, not just stuff with good nutritional value. Your mind will thank you. I heard of Erhard Loretan, a swiss climber, that he once took 12kg of cheese and 12kg of meat with him on a 1-month expedition in the Himalaya. I understand why now. 5. Dont try to save money when it comes to equipment. Always be prepared for the worst. It can get pretty cold and windy up there& 6. In those 10 days and also in the weeks before, Ive had a lot of time to think. Ive experienced so many new things now, and I wouldnt want to miss a single one of them. But still I havent found anything that comes even close to the thrill of orienteering at a high level. I have been checking out this seasons schedule a bit more closely in search for possible goals. Im hot for mileage, maps and controls like hardly ever before. The last word has not been spoken yet. | ||
Friday Jan 19 | ||
| Running 2:30:00 [2]+500m | |
| Day 10
Descending to camp at 2300m. Glad Im getting closer to civilization again. Ran with the lighter backpack most of the way. Great training for the Radys and OMM! Vlad seems to be getting a bit better. He can pee by himself now. | ||
Thursday Jan 18 | ||
| Running Intervall 15:00 [5]+300m | |
| During the run, I suddenly feel the urge to run fast, so I did intervals in Emil Zatopek style, all in hiking boots. 30-3, longer ones in the rocks, shorter ones on the few flat parts with good ground. Pushed real hard, felt like my lungs would explode after the first rep, but then I felt quite ok. Felt real good to feel the legs moving fast and the heart pumping hard! | ||
| Running 55:00 [3] | |
| Day 9
What a pleasure to get some good sleep!! The weather is awesome today, quite warm, and blue skies. At some point, I get bored a bit and decide to go for a run, Rocky style with the hiking boots, and across rocks, rivers and pastures. Felt quite good, what a pleasure to move the legs a bit faster and without carrying a heavy backpack! In the evening, some of the others come back. They tell me that they could not go to the summit due to very strong winds, even in the sunny weather. So I hadnt missed anything in the past days, and Im glad I used my head and was reasonable enough to descend. I dont even want to think about being trapped at 5800m with altitude sickness. They also tell me that Vladimir is in really bad condition, they wouldnt be surprised if hed die, and that theyre trying to get him down somehow. I hear that the guides could have had the chance to order a helicopter in the morning, when the weather was fine, but due to (bad) publicity and probably financial reasons, decided to get him down on a mula. Hearing all this, I lose the last bit of respect and trust for the so-called experts here. Vladimir finally reaches the camp 3300m on a mula. A scary sight, like a bag of potatoes, he cannot move a single muscle, has no strength or whatsoever left. At least hes conscious. Some people of the expedition decided that they will stay for some more days at 4500 or 5200 to give it another try when the weather gets better. Dont ask me about food or of the condition some people were in when I last saw them. I dont want to know. And as of now, I dont know if they reached the summit or not. In the meantime, another expedition has reached the camp. It consists of a mountain guide from Zermatt with two guys from Zurich, about 60, both of them doctors with pretty big bank accounts who have decided to find a new challenge in their life. They have employed 5 people for cooking, putting up tents, etc.!! They have the same amount of material and mulas for 8 people as we have for 30! But then again, we only paid a fraction of the money that they paid& this is a different kind of mountaineering, kind of decadent, but on the other hand, I think its kind of cool, there are more stupid things you can do with your money. They invite us to their big tent and serve some of the finest Lindt&Spruengli pralines, Emmentaler cheese and some really good wine :-) Thats the way to carry a good (and sort of stereotypical ;-)) image of Switzerland into the world :-) One of the doctors takes a closer look at Vladimir and says that hes got a light pulmonary and cerebral edema, something that can kill you if you dont go down to lower altitudes below 4000m fast enough. Luckily, hes out of critical condition now, but nonetheless, the doc strongly recommends ordering a helicopter in the morning to get him to a hospital. The guides will decide not to do that. I dont know about long-term damage to the brain all this can cause, but once again I find it absolutely irresponsible to act like this. Later I hear that it was not the first time that Vlad had serious problems with the altitude, so it seems that some people just never learn, and my pity towards him decreases somewhat as well. At night, we see a huge comet in the sky! Never seen anything like it, crystal clear, with its tail and everything. I didnt even know it would be around now and in the coming days. Its a pity my camera is too cheap to take good pictures at night. view from the tent in the morning: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Wednesday Jan 17 | ||
| Running 2:00:00 [1] | |
| Day 8
After 5 nights with very little sleep and being cold often, I decide to descend to the camp at 3300m, where my own tent is waiting. I just hope that it survived the storm, as it is not really mountain approved. The skies have cleared up in the morning, so I assume that the others will ascend to the summit now after an additional night at 5800m. In the evening, the next storm follows. This kind of weather is very unusual at this time of year, usually its always nice even in the mountains. | ||
Tuesday Jan 16 | ||
| Note | |
| Day 7
I was able to sleep in the Austrian's tent at 4500m (they have two tents and are still at 5200), and when I wake up in the morning there is a snowstorm raging outside my tent. This is the first time Im real glad not to be at 5800m now! Its twice as cold, and three times as windy up there, and if youve got problems with the altitude, youre in real deep shit, because you cannot descend now. Im a bit worried about some people up there now that already seemed weak before. Another expedition from Italy has come up to the camp at 4500m in the meantime. They are much better equipped, they even have a big, warm and stable tent where everybody can eat and hang out. And besides that, a Chilean girl that cooks for them. In the evening, they invite me and the two Brazilians for dinner. And we did not expect too much: for the Italians, food, especially pasta, is the most important thing even up in a real cold mountain, in the middle of nowhere. So we were served some very fine pasta con formaggio e pesto! I was also glad to be in that tent, because outside thunderstorms had been raging for half the day, which in my opinion is not so comfortable to be in a tent then. Its actually the first time Ive experienced thunder and lightning in a snowstorm. The Brazilian girls tent seems to be very cold and leaking snow, so they ask me if they can spend the night with me in my tent& I guess a man cannot say no to that kind of request ;-) Well, at least it was warm, but I wouldnt say that I slept much and that it was very comfortable, but Im sure not many men can say that they spent a night with two brazilian girls in a 2-person tent :-) snow: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... italianos: http://www.denissteinemann.ch/archive/pictures/SA0... | ||
Monday Jan 15 | ||
| Running 2:00:00 [2]+700m | |
| Day 6
Whoah, this was not a good night. F&ing cold, and at most 2h of sleep (of 12h lying in the tent). If you can sleep, after some minutes you wake up, gasping for breath. Or you turn around once, or try to adjust your sleeping bag, and you will need some minutes to recover from this effort. Real scary. In the morning, besides not having slept, I feel fine, the pressure in the head is gone, but I still feel quite exhausted. It takes me more than an hour to pack my backpack. But the interesting thing is, Im not even last, everybody in the camp seems to go in slow-motion. Vladimir supposedly is feeling better now, probably he just threw in another aspirin or two (or some stronger stuff, I dont know). Somehow, I dont feel comfortable about this, especially when we pass him on the way up, he (and some other people as well) are walking at max. 1km/h (I didnt think its possible to walk so slow, but it is). But then again, its not the gringos job to look for people, there are guides and everybody should be somewhat reasonable themselves. Ascending to 5800m, we walk on the border between Chile and Argentina. You can even see the argentinian pampa, some 5000m below, in the distance. I decide to take it real slow today, not to force at all. HR is around 100, and breathing seems real easy. But still, the headache becomes stronger and stronger, and at 5600m I decide that I will not spend a night at 5800m. I ascend to the camp, because my partner and I have to split up and I have to find a tent to sleep at one of the lower camps. Some other people, among them two brazilian girls, have descended as well. The summit seems sooo close, which makes it hard to go down again, but the headache is real strong now, and I have to descend as soon as possible. The two Austrians went up to 6000 today just for practice. On the way, they picked up some argentinian who was on the summit, but lost his two partners in the fog. The guy could hardly walk, and seemed to be lacking some oxygen in his brain. The Austrians bring him down to his camp at 5400m, where eventually the other two argentinians also came back to. Without the Austrians, the guy would probably be dead now. These people just have no idea about mountaineering and the dangers in these mountains. So far, the weather has been good, but in bad weather people such as these will be crushed by nature like an elephant will crush an chickens egg. More scaringly, our guides didnt seem to give a shit when the Austrians brought the other guy. It was like, oh, yeah the guy got lost, but now everythings fine, the Austrians will take care of everything. Vladimir eventually makes it up the the camp, but I can only sense his condition there. I have descended down to 4500m. For me, making the summit on this expedition has gotten out of reach, as I would need two more days of acclimatation at lower altitudes. So I expect to spend some easy days at 4500m, enjoying the sun and great view, and waiting for the others to come back. | ||
