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.
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