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Marty Schmidt - 8th dispatch from Aconcagua, Argentina 2011 | |||||||
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Another summary of Marty's last call to me: All is going well. Rob, Brianna and Marty have brought their last pieces of gear down to Base Camp and will take a few days to walk out and get back to Mendoza. They all came down the mountain safely after the successful summit bid of Bri and Marty. Rob was in good spirits when they joined up again and had a good night's sleep. They packed up and headed down. The team clearly had a great adventure together and is looking forward to seeing each other again in the future. Bye bye from Aconcagua Earlier Today's dispatch was quite hard to understand due to static on the line, but here's a summary of Marty's words: Marty and Bri calling from just under the summit. They started early this morning together with Rob. At 6,300 m (21,000 ft) Rob's feet were really cold. It was -20ºC (-4ºF) and with the wind the windchill was even worse! He couldn't keep his feet dry (?) and Marty tried to warm them on his chest for a while but to no avail. So they turned around and went back to camp to leave Rob there and save his feet from frost bite. Marty and Bri then went up again for their summit push. They first took a detour to a 'sub-peak' which went well and took them about 2 hours. They then continued and reached the 'normal' peak of Aconcagua at 6,962 m (22,841 ft). What an awesome effort by 22 year old Brianna. Now on their way down back to camp. Playing it safe and simple. They'll make a plan what to do next when they get to camp. Marty is keen to give Rob another go at the summit. Earlier: Hello everybody, This is Bri and Rob and Marty, It's 1.30 and brewed up... I believe it's the 11th of January... 11.1.11 that's what Rob says in my other ear... and it's take-off time for the summit! There's no wind, temperatures are ok and all systems are go. So it's feeling really good, everyone is fine and happy. We had a little bit of sleep last night and it feels good to be preparing for hopefully a 10 hour ascent and with a 5 hour descent... 15 hours round trip. So that's in our minds and that makes us motivated to just put one foot in front of the other and going to the summit. So this is their objective for this trip and hopefully we attack the summit today and we'll call from the top. Ok, letting everyone know that we're doing well and off to the summit today. Bye bye from Aconcagua Earlier: Fourth dispatch from Aconcagua: Hello everybody, Just letting you know everything is good. Rob and Brianna are doing great, the father-daughter team. They're experiencing every day, setting a new height record for themselves - they've never been above 14,000 ft and we're sleeping right now at 16,600 ft which is roughly around 5,100 meters and we're getting there... We're at Camp I... did really well up here. Yesterday we pushed a great carry up to Camp II, which is 5,800 meters, so a big jump and everybody did really well. Rob's knee is coming around* and a little bit of sinus drip in the back of his throat and persistent coughing (...) sleeping with a scarf on his face as well as climbing with a scarf around his face to get a bit of warmth going into him instead of the cold air. And Brianna is just cruising along at altitude, what more can I say... she's doing great and her attitude is positive and she's enjoying the adventure and just the excitement of being on a big mountain. And it's great to see a father-daughter team working together, great lively conversations in the tent. We're all sleeping in the Macpac Hemisphere tent and loving it... a lot of room since Rob is 6'6"... he's a big tall basketball player and he's fitting nicely in the tent. So today was a good rest day, it makes us stronger and prepared... * Daan says: I now realize that I made a mistake in the last dispatch. Some parts were very hard to understand because of a dodgy connection and I wrote '... Rob and me were a little bit hurting...' At the time I was surprised because, as you know, Marty is a machine. After hearing this message I realize he said '...Rob's knee was a little bit hurting...' Apologies! --- Fifth dispatch from Aconcagua: Hello everyone following us, This is a dispatch from our high camp at 5,900 meters, roughly 19,300 ft ... about 300 ft below Kilimanjaro and about 700 ft above Mount Elbrus in Russia, so just to give you an idea. So Rob and Bri are doing fantastic, they're weathering it out at this altitude... never been up here before, so it's a record for them. They're doing great, no headaches and (...) having strength. We went out today, out into a storm and tried to get up as high as we could just to acclimate and the storm knocked us back. We're in the tent right now and it's storming away and I guess it's like pulling the top away from your dining table and putting a sheet over the top and sitting underneath it for 48 hours, 50 hours and preparing to then go for a 7,000 meter mountain. It gives you an idea and that's what we're doing right now and everyone is coping well. We're just waiting for the weather to break and hopefully try summit day tomorrow, which would be the 10th and if the 10th doesn't work, we'll try the 11th and if the 11th doesn't work we'll try the 12th. So that's our game plan. So if you don't hear from us for a couple of days, it's because we're sitting still waiting for the summit and when you do hear from us hopefully we're on the summit giving everyone a big hello from the top of Aconcagua.
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