What:    
VICE Attempts Volcan San Jose
When:     November 6-10, 2008
Where:     Volcan San Jose, Chile
Who:     VICE member Austin Siadak and climbing partner
Austin's Recap:    

Fellow Badasses,

As I told you all a little while back, I spent five days mountaineering in the Andes near Santiago the weekend before last. The idea was to climb 19,200+ ft. Volcan San Jose. Unfortunately I did not reach the summit, but in reflection I still consider the trip an absolute success. Here's a little summary of what happened, and I attached some pics as well.

Day 1 (THU): After finishing an exam at La Universidad de Chile I rushed home to pack up my stuff. Me and my climbing partner got a slightly late start despite our best effort, but we were on the road, er, the subway, by 3pm. We got a bus to this town called San Jose del Maipo and arrived there at around 5pm with the intention of hitch-hiking the remaining 60km down the valley to our starting point of the town of Banos Morales. Unfortunately cars were unexpectedly extremely hard to come by, and to make a long story short we caught a couple of rides and hiked a long ways, but ended up camping about 10km short of Banos Morales. This already started to hamper our plans because we had wanted to camp in a valley above Banos that night to start adjusting to altitude, but life decided to give us some lemons and we just had to make some lemonade (aka quinoa and lentil soup) short of our desired destination.

Day 2 (FRI): We officially started the hike at 1500m after catching a ride in the morning and hiked many miles up a very, very dusty mining road. Our packs were quite heavy at this time (though they likely weighed nothing relative to the legendary effort of sirs Ed and JLo on their hip-tearing hike out of Aconcagua) and we were not having the best of times as huge mining dump trucks would pass us and coat us in dust. Fortunately, once we were off the mining road we began to hike through an amazing valley surrounded on all sides by 14,000+ft peaks. We made it to the end of the valley, and strapped on our double boots, crampons, and gaiters as we began the ascent of the mountain. We had to make our way up a slightly steep chute, and even had to resort to some mixed scrambling, but we made it to the top of the chute and over a small ridge with no trouble. At this point however (about 6:30pm) we realized we were unsure where the refugio that we had planned on staying at was. We kept hiking up through what we thought was the correct route, but after another 1 1/2 hours we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd be pitching the tent in some semi-protected area. However, around 8pm, just as we we getting ready to make camp we came over a small ridge-line and saw the stone refugio sitting about 200 yards away. We were very happy to see it. As it turned out two other gringos were already there (they had taken 6 weeks off from work to come climb and ski volcanoes in Chile. Awesome!) and they had spotted us hiking and nicely had put some hot water on for us. After melting snow and cooking we went to bed around 10pm, but for some reason neither of us slept that well. Our altitude that night was 3130m, or around 10,300ft I think.

Day 3 (SAT): We woke up at 5:45 to start early, but we kinda lagged and didn't get going until 7:30 or so. We knew that it was going to be a tough day because we had to get up to around 4500m through a long and steep chute of snow smack dab in the center of the volcano. After a few short climbs and some horizontal stretches we made it to the base of the chute and marveled at its sight. It was about 2,500ft long and we had heard that it started at a grade of about 30 degrees but would get to around 60 degrees at the top. It took a long time, but we had reached the last third of the chute by around 2:30pm. Oh, I also spotted some awesome ice climbing routes on one of its sides that would make for a sick route variation. To our surprise, by the time we neared the end of the chute we realized that the grade started looking (and feeling) suspiciously higher than 60 degrees. The last 200 vertical feet or so had to have been 70-75 degrees, and we were a little unsure as to whether we should go for it, as we were without ropes, harnesses, or helmets, and a fall on that stretch could possible prove life threatening (shit was steeeeeeeep). However, we realized how far we had already come and weren't prepared to accept defeat, so we kicked our steps extra deep and plunged our axes extra hard, and after a short climb and a 150ft traverse that I almost shat myself on when I took a look down at what I would be falling on if I or the snow were to give, we made it out of the top of the chute. I was especially relieved because half-way through the traverse my left crampon came loose, and I had to carve out a ledge on the steep snow to put it back on which put some serious adrenaline running through my body as I stared down the chute, clutching my axe with my right hand and fumbling with the straps with my left. Lesson learned: tighten your shit right the first time so you don't have to do it in sketchy situations!! We took a look back at what we had just done and proudly proclaimed that it was one of the more badass things either of us had ever done. Hell yeah! A short kilometer later and we arrived at our high-camp (~4500m or around 14,500ft). We got into the camp area around 4:30, but after having to carve out a tent space, build a couple of rock walls, melt a bunch of snow, and change clothes it was quickly after 6:30 and I was starting to feel the altitude. Basically i just felt really lethargic, even though i knew we had a lot to do, and a short time later I started to get a headache. As we were cooking dinner I got really, really cold all of a sudden despite many warm layers, and jumped in my sleeping bag. We ate dinner in the tent because it was now pretty cold outside, and got to sleep around 9. The last time I checked the temp in the middle of the night it was down to below 20 degrees fahrenheit in the tent, but we were nice and snug in our bags.

Day 4 (SUN): We woke up at 3:45, which is when we would have had to start getting things ready for the summit, but we both had pretty good headaches, were still feeling slightly nauseous, and neither of us had slept that much. After having climbed 3000m over the previous two days we were feeling the altitude much more than we thought we would. We knew that if we tried to go for the summit (another 5,000 vertical feet higher) we'd just end up a lot sicker, and we weren't sure we would be able to hike all the way out the following day because we hadn't scouted the route yet and didn't want to head back down the steepest section of the chute if we were really sick. In the end we decided it was the safer decision to just head back from the high camp, and I am sure it was the right one. We slept for a little while longer and just spent some time enjoying the amazing views of the surrounding peaks before packing up and heading back down. It was breathtaking how many massive, snow capped mountains we could see from our camp and I am glad I had time to enjoy the view. To get down we had to go a slightly different way which had us coming down a slightly less steep section (though it still included a pretty steep traverse back into the chute) that connected with the chute about 2/3 of the way up, and which we then followed all the way to the bottom. It was ridiculous how much faster we were able to go down compared to the hike up. We slogged through some sun-baked snow fields (a LOT of postholing up to our thighs and hips = not fun) and went down a few more semi-steep stretches until we finally arrived back at the refugio. We were surprised to see a few tents outside, and we were worried it would be full (though not really worried since we had our own tent of course) but we found out there were still a few open bunks inside. The tents belonged to a group of about 7 people who were climbing San Jose to acclimatize for an even taller volcano further north. They consisted of a couple of norwegians, a frenchman, a dutchmen, and two chileans. One of the norwegians was actually a professional mountainguide who has been on the top of Aconcagua something like 7 times among his other exploits, and I felt less bad about come down early after we told him about what we had been trying to do in only fours days and he said, "Four days! You guys are crazy!" The whole group was actually really, really awesome and we just hung out with them in the refugio that night, swapping stories and enjoying the company. I never ceased to be amazed while I am travelling down here in South America by just how random a group of people from all over the world you can find yourself in at any moment. It always opens my eyes and my mind to listen to stories from lands I may never see and to share the company of strangers from half-way around the world, even if it is just for a brief time. I cherish those moments for the snapshots of humanity that they give us, and for the way that they pull us out of any sort of one-sided world views we may be stuck in.

Day 5 (MON): We got a late start on our last day, not waking up until 9, but it was ok because we knew that we didn't have that far to hike out (we hoped, as all of our plans were contingent on hitchhiking back towards Santiago, and our experience four days previous was not exactly promising). We said goodbye to the group from the night before and wished them luck on their summit attempt. After a nice breakfast of oatmeal and A LOT of brown sugar we climbed up one final ridge to get a look of the surrounding area. The day was perfectly clear and it was nice to get a last look at all the peaks and summits that surrounded us. We spent a few hours getting down off the mountain proper, and then took our time crossing a big, wide valley in which we bouldered for a little while. We finally made it back to the mining road and hiked out the last few miles to Banos Morales, where we arrived around 5:30. Luckily we didn't have to wait long before a pickup came by, and we tossed our gear and ourselves in the bed of the truck and headed back to Santiago, enjoying the views of the thousand foot high walls on either side of the valley all the way out.

Reflection: All in all it was an awesome trip for me. I had never done any mountaineering at semi-high altitudes like that before, so it was a new and learning experience that I took a lot from. Many of the sights I saw and experiences I had I will never forget. At first I was disappointed that I did not make it to the summit, but looking back I realize that the timetable my partner and I gave ourselves was a little unrealistic, and given that I still did some of the most badass climbing of my life I consider the trip a success. I also learned many lessons that I will surely take with me on all my future adventures, and thoughts I'd share a few of them with you guys. Some of you surely already know some of these things from your own experiences, but here goes:
  1. Have a REALLY good idea of exactly where your route goes so that there is no confusion when you're actually on the mountain. Make sure your itinerary is very detailed and that you know almost exactly where you plan on trekking and camping every night.
  2. Nothing tastes good at higher altitudes. Not even that delicious Milky Way you would devour in one bite down at sea-level.
  3. Drink lots of HOT liquids higher up. Cold liquids will make you feel a lot colder.
  4. No man is an island. Your partner(s) is just as important as you are and will be able to help you get through tough times. Don't forget to help him/her out as well.
  5. Never forget to stop every now and then and take in the beauty of your surroundings.
  6. ALWAYS bring more toilet paper than you think you are going to need.
  7. Turning back short of the summit is never the wrong choice.

Peace,

Austin




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