Chilling in Santiago

Hi All,

I think both Julia and I are feeling a bit of culture shock after leaving the little villiages of the Antiplano in Bolivia and then arriving 12 hours later in Santiago...its a bit overwhelming!

When you spend time somewhere very remote and foriegn and allow yourself to connect to the people there you never look at your home of lifestyle the same way....the familiar becomes unfamiliar and you find yourself questioning things which you always accepted as normal or perhaps you didn`t even notice them at all. After spending jus a little more time with the people of the antiplano it makes most of what folks stress about really appear very very silly and really highlight what is truly important (family, friends, leading a positive/constructive life etc)

I think trying to travelling with an open heart and mind is VERY difficult but VERY rewarding. You meet some tourists that had blinkers on - they were there for the photographs - not bad people by any means but they really seem to be missing out.

Anyway...I am being way to preachy for 9am! Julia and I need to have breakfast and do a bit more exploring around Santiago before Julia (and hopefully I) get to fly back to Atlanta tonight.

Allthe best and cheers,
Neal

PS I will be do a decent job of documnting the trip once I get back to the states...there is just too many pics and too much to write :)

Save and sound in Uyunoi after an amazing 3 days

Just a short note...Juia and I are both doing great and are about to begin our long journaey back to Santiago...we got to deliver the supplies to the villiage and I was happy to see the school teacher was still there....I had promised i would return and he obviously believed me as he had been asking about me regularly for the last 6 months at the closest town we stopped at for directions...it made me very happy I wasn{t going to dissapoint him!

Any heaps of GREAT photos of the Salar, FLamingos and Volcanos and great people and and and..... to follow.

Please see Julia,s blog for more details.

Cheers
Neal

PS Hunter I have your rug covered :)

2 Great days in San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) and off for 4 days via 4x4 to Salar de Uyuni(Bolivia) to visit old friends

Hi All,

Sorry to be brief but its 9:30pm and I am STARVING!

We arrived in Atacama 2 days ago and rented very nice bikes for the last 2 days for about $20 each...yesterday we rode to some inca and pre inca ruins and today explored the Valle de la Luna - both days were EXTROADINARY :) both times we got a bit of the beaten track and explored some cave using only our camera for lighting....sadly we would have failed an AR gear cheack ;)

I have no time to upload pics but our camera were getting hot!

Tomorrow we leave for a 4 day 3 night 4x4 tour into the remote regions surrounding the Salar de Uyuni. With a bit of extra cash for the tour company I have arranged to hopefully fulfil a promise i made to a very small and poor village that were very kind to me when I struggles into the village last september when I did a 6 week solo mountain bike tour of Bolivia - you can read about the village at http://nealinbolivia.blogspot.com/2007/11/day-21-salinas-to-tahua-40km735-hours.html The old blog was very handy as I did not know the name and the villiage is too small to show up on maps...I have been able to print out the hand drawn map and some pics i have for the kids :) The local venders in Atacama have assisted with substantial discounts and Julia and i will hopefully be able to deliver some school and madical supplies in a couple of days.

Julia is a bit under the weather but nothing serious (so no posting from her for a today) but I am sure she will be back to kicking my butt tomorrow :)

All the very best and cheers,
Neal

A bloody good day back in Arica

We have about 3 hours till we catch the overnight bus at 9:30pm to San Pedro de Atacama...about a 12 hour trip :( but we had a very nice and cruisy day in Arica...heres a few pics but check out Julia´s blog for some great commentary :)



Once we get to Atacama we plan on renting somebikes for a day to check out some more of the Antiplano and then renting a 4x4 or doing a jeep tour into the Salar de Uyuni region (the massive salt lake at 4000+ meters)

Cheers,
Neal

PS for more pics from today in Arica go to the photo album below (pics 1-17)

Arica-Altiplano-Arica Photo album

Photobucket Album

Up to Parinacota (4500m), Lago Chungara(4600) on the Chilian Altiplano

Hi All,

Well Julia has a great blog going www.juliaradmann.blogspot.com so please go to her blog for the great story. I will hopefully be able to post a link to my photobucket photo album. Í brought a DSLR camera for the trip and it got red hot from overuse the last few days :)

All the best and cheers,
Neal

Hunter Leaves :( but Julia Arrives :)

Hi All,

Hunter and I had a great last few days around La Serana and inland into the Andes at Pisco Elqui before an epic return to Santiago....hopefully Hunter will post some details on his long trip back to the US.

"Hola Chile" ...Julia arriving at Santiago... 1 hour after Hunter left :(

Only a hour after saying goodbye to Hunter at Santiago airport I got to meet Julia Radmann...a friend and fellow racer from Atlanta. We´ll be travelling together for about 13 days together....I think we´ll have a blast...things will likwly pick up for Julia as soon as I get a shower and some clean clothes.

After arriving we had 20min to make a flight to Arica....a very isolated desert town at the very north of Chile...the airport was only 6km from Peru. Its the driest part of the world - its not rained "ever" here.

Its definitely another planet here!

Checking out the beach in Arica....complete with surfers and huge Pelicans

Tomorrow morning we plan on catching an bus to the lower level of the antiplano (perhaps Putre or higher) and spend our 1st night at 11,500ft....we are planning on doing some serious hiking and staying in hunts as the nights are wickedly cold.... and perhaps climbing a volcano around 16,ooo-17000ft. It should be interesting :)

It took us forever to find the small family owned bus service run out of the family home

Hopefully Hunter is now safely having a cold cervesa in Bogata right now...cheers!

All the best,
Neal and Julia

PS For the real truth about our trip....check out Julia´s blog.... http://www.juliaradmann.blogspot.com/

Ghetto Rigs

Yeah, so Neal and I have been on the go for the past week without too much time to post photos or blog. I´ll probably be able to get a bit updated while I spend eternity (or about 24 hours) in transit from Santiago to Atlanta on Friday. Anyways, we´re spending our first day in La Serena after a few days in Valparaiso. After finding a very dreary atmosphere in northern Patagonia (read as the rivers were too friggin´ big for us to ford and swarms of volcano refugees were impeding travel), we flew back to Santiago and bussed to the beach. Cutting our losses down south was one of our better ideas so far. Today we´re renting some ancient Giant hard-tails to ride from Vicuna up the Valle Elqui and into the heart of Norte Chico and Pisco country. Hopefully we can find a place to crash and then ride back tomorrow. All is well, but we need some adventure after gorging on seafood and drinking copious amounts of wine and Pisco Sour. Maybe I´ll get my chance to practice hitch-hiking in Chile after all:)

Ciao,
Hunter
PS Dancing in Chile is an endurance sport on par with adventure racing.

Leaving for Chile....

Hi All

Just a quick post to let folks we are going to be out of touch for a day or two. We are taking a bus to Santiago and then hopefully catching a sleeper to some place with great climbing about a 10 hour bus ride south.

We got off to a VERY late start tday....Ok we have not really started yet -smile- but we blame it on the Dutch girl...

Cheers
Neal and Hunter

Day 6th, We go as high as we can and things get technical :) 5600m/18,500ft

After 4 freezing nights with minimal sleep (perhaps 1 hour most nights) and a had time acclimitizing it was "time to climb" and Neal was not too thrilled to be doing it, especilly getting out of the tent at 3:30am...but Hunter was keen and was out there melting snow to make coffee and hot water so I really had ni choice but to harden up and get out there ;)


This is want it looked like at 5am ... we had perfect weather but no moon. We had a fairly tough time finding our way up the valley following Fredrico's footprints and the occasional cairn...we got a bit freaked out when we tackled the first technical section in the dark without realizing we were very close to a vertical chute sans crampons. Needless to say we promptly put them on after that.



Seeing the sun rise around 7:30am was AWESOME...we knew we were climbing but had no idea what was surround us and particularly was "was" or "was not" below us...sometimes ignorance is bless ;)

Sadly we were a bit too sketched out and buggered to take any pics until we reached the col at 5200m/17000ft at about 10am...we were about 30min behind schedule.


Looking back from the col down the valley we´d climbed up in the dark...thats about 800m or 2800ft vertical drop but the pic makes it seem so close :(


We sat down to enjoy the amazing views and decide whether we´d attempt the shorter (5400m/17,700ft) Villicintes or the higher non-technical Plata at 6000-6300m/20,000ft-21000ft depending on which map you believed :) After seeing the route up Villecentes it was a pretty easy decision...I am sure in the summer it would be fun but in winter it was WAY too much adventure for us :)


A view down to the col and the ridge that continues on to Villecentes



A better shot of Villecentes but you don´t get to see how sketchy it gets near the top...


That is Aconcagua in the background. Those sheer rock faces on the Penitentites in the foreground are about 600m/2000ft high to give you some sense of scale.


A closer look at the South Wall of Aconcagua


Hunter was busy working out how he was going to climb up that the next time he comes down this way - and "yes" he is serious ;)

















More to come...I am getting hungry :)

May 10th & 11th: Day 3 & 4, We arrive at Salta de Agua and we get to rest :) 4200m/14,000ft

Fortunately it was a pretty short haul to Salta de Agua and Fredrico was there to greet us...he was kind enough to suggest the second most sheltered camp site (he had secured the best) and also concilled us on our tent set up...pretty much insisting we doudle the amount of tethers on the tent in case a bad storm came in...I guess he didn´t want us crashing at his place at 3am ;)

Meet Fredrico....he´s been coming hear for 10 years. He uses a bamboo trekking pole and makes some of his own outdoor clothing to save $. Hunter was very impressed with his dirtbagging skills :)

Neal and Hunter setting up camp at 14,000ft...we had to dig out the snow for the tent with out pot and manged to lose our pot lid in the process...i think Fredrico was a bit amused :)



It looks close but the peak behind is Pico Plata at around 20,000ft, 6000ft above camp.

Low on fuel, we used some of our emergency candles to melt snow....FYI, 4 candles = 2 liters of water :)

Hunter doing some stove maintenance...it didn´t really like the benzene blanca we purchased in Mendoza

Salta de Agua is an AWESOME place....surrounded by massive rock walls, glaciers and peaks that reach up to 6000m/20,000ft...you also get to look down on the foothills of the Andes and even down to the plains beyond them...its an amazing feeling to be sandwhiches in between.

May 8th: Day 2, the human mules continue on up to 3800m/12,500ft

We had a solid breakfast of oatmeal with strong coffee then began load one to Salta de Agua at 4200m/14,000ft but between a suspect map and altimeter reference we neded up setting up camp at about 3800m/12,500ft. This ended up being a blessing as we´d find Salta de Agua to be even a tougher place to sleep...

Hunter was kind enough to hang with me on the first trip and we set up camp together and Hunter quickly put together a solar still so hopefully we´d have a bit of water waiting for us upon our return.

While descending we met Fredrico who told us we were actually camped 400m below Salta de Agua and that he´d be there to met us tomorrow...he needed a day or two to rest/acclimatize before attempting another summit.


The view down the valley from camp 2


The view up the valley from camp 2.


Hunter setting up a Solar Still to melt snow at camp 2





A cosyand famous bivoac at about 3200m/10,700ft

Sadly, I was suffering pretty badly on the second trip - a combo of lack of fitness and taking my time adjusting to altitude. I was a bit fazed as my resting heart rate was consistedly in the 120's...at sea level it sits between 45-55 depending on my fitness :( - basically it feels like you are slow jogging when your lying down and sprinting when walking with a heavy pack up hill .

So I told Hunter to "just leave me" - I'd get up there eventually and he'd be able to start cooking before the temperature dropped too much. While I watched Hunter stride off I fought a losing battle to stay ahead of the shadows. I think Hunter made it back to camp about 40 minutes ahead of me to find the water in the still already frozen :( and started to melt snow for dinner. I was a tad messed up when I arrived - you know you are a bit screwed when you can't quite speak properly. In my rush to get to camp I didn't stop to add warm clothes and sometimes ou don't actually feel the cold...only its affects.

Anyway...I mumbled something to Hunter then climbed into my sleeping bag and shivered for about 15min before I started feeling better...I didn´t get out till the next morning...hence the lack of pics :). Hunter was awesome and cooked another good meal :)

We both slept very badly...Hunter´s 1.5 hour window of sleep before we´d have to rearrange ourselves to try and reinflate his pad and me with my racing heart rate and friggin stupid ass lightweight bag freezing my ass of :( I got to enjoy the thrill of using a pee bottle for the first time in 8 years and its a bit rough when you find it frozen solid in the morning...at least it can't leak! :)

Again we stayed in our tent until the temperature was bearable outside and we got into the routine of melting snow for drinks and food before hauling our gear another short 400m up the valley.

May 7th: Up we go... Day 1 at Superior Vega (3200m/10,500ft)

We spent the morning sorting and packing our food and gear...we left what gear we could in Hunters "Pig"...a huge duffel but with mountaineering gear, camping equipment and food/fuel for 7 days there was no way we could haul everything in one load to we would be doing 2 trips...hauling gear on the first and food on the second. FYI Hunter is bloody fit these days and Neal has been carboloading in NZ for the last 4 months and is far from fit so I didnt quite share Hunter´s excitement about finally getting a decent workout in ;)

The only issue thus far was a slow leak in Hunter´s sleeping pad...he´s been smart and brought a full length 75mm/2.5" pad but after about 1.5 hours it was flat as a pancake :( ... he spent about an hour trying to find the leak but to no avail...we had duct tape and figured we´d fix it later...

We were already at 2500m/8000ft and the last guaranteed water source was at 3200m/10,500ft at a place called Superior Vega...so we chose that as our first camp site. We took the first load up at 10:00am and returned at 1:30pm for the second...we had a 1 hour turn around as we had Rodrigo prepare a hearty lunch for us and shared another bottle of Vino Tinto with him...we were keen to enjoy the "good life" as long as we could.


Hunter finally getting enjoying a workout after a long 3 day break :)


Neal showing what 4 months in NZ drinking beer and eating meat pies can do to a man ;)


Neal trying not to show weakness :)




Our view from camp upon arriving...within a few minutes the mist would clear to reveal the mountains...it was kinda like slowly unwrapping a present.



Superior Vega: 3200m/10,500ft


Hunter points up towards our intended base camp at Salto de Agua


A wonderful sunset...

A thermos...one of the best lat minute decisions I have ever made! Hunter digs it :)

Hunter showed off his outdoor skill and cooked us a good hearty meal and retired early...I was a tad tired and tomorrow was going to a another long day. The night was cold but bearable and between the altitude, eachothers snoring and Hunter pad deflating like clockwork we got very little sleep...

May 6th: A pleasant night at Refugio de Montana

The day started kinda badly - we somehow missed the fact that there is a 1 hour time difference when travelling from Santiago(Chile) to Mendoza(Argentina) so we overslept and it was lucky we had asked a girl from New York to wake us if we slept late...she had spent the night playing spin the bottle with the Hostel staff...very entertaining :) We sadly kept the bus wanting for about 15 minutes as we rushed to get ourselves sorted...luckily we had packed the night before.





It took about two hours to get to Cordon de Plata and as we toured Mendoza picking up other peeps we really began to appreciate how well located our hostel was in comparison to our companions. We napped a bit and also enjoyed the views as we approached the Cordon de Plata...it felt great to get out of the city.




Refugio de Montana...looking up the mountain


Refugio de Montana...looking down the mountain - some great climbing for a race :)


Refugio de Montana (yes, it has a bar!)

We arrived at Refugio de Montana and were greeted by Rodrigo...a huge young Argentinian man with much Maschismo who would be our host and cook. He had told us within 5 minutes of meeting him that he was extremely strong in the mountains! Lunch was not included so we did a deal with Rodrigo and we´d share our food and wine with him if he was willing to cook the food - happily Rodrigo has skills and we ate and drank well :).




Hunter was keen for a workout after all of 2 days of just hanging out...

We took a short walk up the mountain after lunch and then napped that afternoon (Neal for about 4 hours!) and were joined in the dorm room by a fellow climber from Argentina called Fredrigo...we seemed to be a bit of a character...he had just walked down from our planned base camp at Salto de Agua at 4200m/14000ft and looked completely knackered (exhausted).





Dinner was great - we shared dinner with some very some other very interested guests that were there to do some guided day trekking...of course the guys there with their girl friends were jealous of our plans and we were jealous of them having their girl friends with them ;).

We both slept very well...it would be our last night of decent sleep for the 5 days... :( in the morning our adventure would finally begin :)


Cheers,
Neal & Hunter