Two more choppers lifted sick Climbers out of base camp this morning. I don´t know their stories and at this point would rather not know. Hanging around base camp has become a little like being a dog lover and living next to the freeway.
That German Climber was sent down on a mule. He apparently did not have the money for a chopper. I spoke with some Climbers who arrived to base today, passing the sick German on their way in. They said he looked very pale and schlumped over in the saddle. I`m sure he will be alright. Descent is THE cure for Altitude maladies. Faster is better, but even a few thousand feet can make a substantial difference.
In the end I suspect many of the helicopter lifts are economic choices as opposed to medical necessities. Climbers make the long trek into base camp and start to feel some form of altitude sickness. Realizing they won´t be going up, and not feeling good enough to trek out, they open the wallet and call for a bird. Today saw a total of five heli-lifts from Plaza de Argentina.
The real climbing started today. We carried our first load to camp 1, 2,500 feet above base camp. Ty and I made good time for the first 1,400 feet, but then I started to feel the thinning air and found myself stopping to breath quite often. Ty was breathing hard too, but in general seemed stronger than myself. I had started a coarse of Cipro the day before and suspect the lingering effects of an intestinal bug was robbing me of strength.
Our pace first started to slow as we navigated through a large field of Penitentes. These are snow-ice formations that reach upward in a spire. They are formed by the unique sun and wind combination of this climate. We saw penitentes ranging from 1-9 feet. They are typically clustered closely, sparkling in the sun like a white bed of nails.
We finished the carry and cached our gear in a nice camp site looking out over the Vacas Valley. On our way down we passed the AAI team we share a dinner tent with. They were making fine progress and seemed to be in good shape with the loads they were carrying. I called out encouragement to Brian and he smiled back.
It took two hours to descend to Plaza de Argentina. Ty and I quickly drank two quarts of juice and discussed the work ahead while elevating our then shoeless feet. The move to camp 1 will follow a rest day, rest we both feel is greatly needed. It will be a hard move, though we should feel better than we did the first time we visited camp 1 for our carry, with credit given to acclimation.
I set out map out on the table for further study. More than anything I was hoping to find our carry to camp 1 was the most difficult part of the entire climb. Vince Lombardi once said "Fatigue doth make cowards of us all."
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