I suffered broken sleep the night before with constant bouts of Chain Stokes breathing. This a common phenomenon among people who ascend into high altitude. Basically it amounts to your body breathing at the same sleep cadence it has always. But with less air in high altitude you accumulate an oxygen deficit. When the carbon dioxide in your blood builds to a critical level you go into a gasping mode which is often complicated by a sense of claustrophobia. It is not a health risk in and of itself, but a tight sleeping bag inside a tiny tent is the last place you want to be. Your tent partner is also awakened by this episode and, as a consequence, Ty had less than ideal sleep as well. I thought about starting myself on a course of Diamox, which is a drug that aids in acclimatization and also diminishes the occurrence of Chain Stokes breathing. But there are downsides to Diamox. Frequent urination makes the all too critical hydration a challenge. In addition, some people suffer severe upset stomach. Lastly, a tingling of the extremities is a common side effect, which can be more distracting than the Chain Stokes. I decided to give it another day and see how things go. I have never taken Diamox.
We considered canceling the planned carry to camp 2, but tired as I was, I was sick of camp 1 and needed to feel we were laying the groundwork for a better place, a place that hopefully would offer some kind of drop toilet in lieu of the "go where you like and put a rock on it when you are done" strategy that has turned camp 1 into the kind of place where each loose stone is viewed with suspicion. So much so that many Guided groups hand out rubber gloves before making camp here. I should mention that the park service does offer one official option; a large thin gauge plastic bag not unlike what you might carry goods home from Macys in (with no disrespect to Macys). We are advised to accumulate our waste in this bag and pack it along with us over the mountain. Climbers have voted clearly their disapproval.
Camp 2 will be less crowded, as other routes will have dispersed the crowd of dung landscapers far and wide. It will also offer a higher vista and a sense we are making progress.
As we got underway I felt better. The rugged surface of the moon landscape was interesting and provided dramatic contrast to the snow capped peaks around us. The trail was steep and steady in a way that was familiar to my Cedar Lakes training trail back home. We made excellent time and pulled into camp 2 still feeling strong.
Camp 2 is labeled Guanicos Camp on the maps (named for a alpaca-like creature that lives in these mountains) though most of the Guides call it Helicopter Camp for the remaining chunks of metal that caution against the notion of trying to land a chopper at 18,000 feet. Though camp 2 also has no drop toilet, the fewer numbers of climbers alone make it cleaner. As well, they have conscientiously isolated their leavings in an area on the other side of the glacial moraine.
In the course of climbing to Guanicos camp we traversed to the sunny side of Aconcagua. By late in the day that heat would turn the icy tail of the glacier we camped next to into a myriad of cool clean streams from which we could pump filter a plentiful supply of water.
Ty and I threw down our loads in a nice campsite and stretched out on the rocky soil for a short nap. Soon a large Guided group arrived and set up camp next to us. It was the International Mountain Guides (IMG) Group.
We had first met the IMG Group while checking in at the Penitentes Hotel before the day before starting the trek in. There is always a lot excitement among climbers before things get underway, and a bit of measuring up too. They asked what company we were with. We said we were self-guided. They asked what else we had climbed. I told them "Denali, Kili, Elbrus, and some other stuff." "Sounds like you are Seven Summiters," someone shot back. I knew Ty wouldn't care for that characterization so I said "Well Ty here isn't, but I might be. Not sure. But I guess that's the list I'm working off of." "Well don't save Everest for last," someone else counseled. They were a group of about 7 Climbers, with 2 IMG Guides and one local Guide. Typical of Guided Groups, their ages and backgrounds surveyed a broad landscape of life paths which had all led to this moment of union. The IMG members were friendly and engaged with one another in the fashion of the best climbing teams.
But, aside from short greetings, I didn't speak much with the IMG group as they set up camp that day. This was my initial visit to the 18,000 feet elevation and I was experiencing the "out of body" feeling that typifies my own acclimation process. Part of this feeling is an inability to differentiate between a thought and something I have actually said. If I think it was only a thought and I go ahead and say the sentence I run the risk that it wasn't a thought, that I in fact already said the sentence, and people become concerned by my verbal loop. As a consequence I choose to say very little when first acclimating, even to Ty.
We cached our load in duffels and headed back down to camp 1. A helicopter dashed in for a late-day extraction from base as the first flakes of the evening snow storm began to fall. We waved greetings to the AAI group, hanging out for a scheduled rest day at camp 1.
I felt good as we boiled water for our freeze dried dinner entrees. We had taken a load to camp 2. It was possible to summit from camp 2, though we had no intention of doing so ...but was possible, and that made this thing real. I kept thinking "Now we are dangerous. Now we are definitely in the hunt." My spirits were so high that I burst into my Up With People character when Ty said something about his Terriyaki Turkey entree. "Talkin' 'bout (clap clap)Teriyaki Turkey! It chews like old beef jerky! You got to really work-y! People like it still. The Chinese never will. Ty can't get his fill. I'd rather take a pill. Talkin' 'bout (clap clap) Teriyaki Turkey!"
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