Chogoria Gate to Mintos
Hut
As I studied our itinerary in the weeks before
we left for Africa, I knew this day would be tough on me from the
acclimitization standpoint. Even though I have been over 20,000
feet on three occasions and have never had any serious altitude
problems, a day similar to this on Aconcagua hit me pretty hard.
On that day I went from Confluencia at 10,000 feet to Plaza de
Mulas at 13,800 feet under hot, dry conditions. On this day we
planned to go from the Chogoria Gate at 9,900 feet to the Mintos
Hut at 14,100 feet under similar conditions.
It was a long 9 miles. We followed an old road for a
couple miles at a pretty even grade, then started heading up a long
ridge along the north side of the Gorges Valley. Terry and Mitch
were well ahead of me as I was experiencing a self-fulfilling
prophesy. I was having serious doubts about making the summit.
I finally arrived at the Mintos Hut to find Terry
and Mitch waiting for me at a nice camping area near a stagnant
tarn. The only company we had at this camp was an Austrian couple
who had been there for a couple days acclimitizing.
The porters were also feeling the altitude. After waiting for
them for a couple hours, Mitch and the guide Daniel went back
down the trail and helped carry the gear up to our camp.
Mintos Hut to Austrian Hut
The next day I was feeling much better. By the time
I got to the Austrian Hut at 15,800 feet, my spirits were high
and I was ready to climb.
The Austrian Hut is perched next to the lateral morraine of
the Lewis Glacier. It has three rooms that sleep about eight in
each with room for gear and benches for cooking. There were three
other groups there. A couple of German guys came off the mountain
that afternoon. They were successful, but looked pretty beat up.
They crashed for an hour or so, packed up, and headed down to
Mackinders Camp. There was an English couple on the face with a
guide and were expected to descend the next day.
Then there was this English guy named Dan. He had been there
for a couple days, having arrived with a partner who developed
altitude problems and had to descend back to Mackinders Camp. Dan
was waiting for his friend to recover and come back up for a
summit assult, but he too was running on a tight schedule with a
Kilimanjaro climb following. Dan had been studying the face and
was a great source of information. He went down the next day, but
left us his email address at Hewlett Packard UK.
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