I have GOT to stop bragging

Remember when I said we climbed a mountain? I lied. Sunday we climbed a mountain. I could tell because it took a lot longer and was more painful. But to some extent the rewards were better.

I woke up at 5:50 that morning, giving me enough time to eat breakfast and finish cooking my lunch. By 7 we were out the door, and by 8 on our road to the Serro La Compana. I slept a little during the long ride. Somebody poked me awake and told me to look out the window.

A taste of things to come.

By ten we're on the slopes. Alex coordinated this time and picked the hardest route for us to do. It was only about five miles in length but had an average degree of 22%. We'd be over a mile when we were done. If we got done. A couple of people made jokes about getting stranded and sleeping on the slopes. Then again nobody really brought heavy sweaters or very much food, so if it came down to that we would probably die.

First bit was pretty exhausting. We kept up a hard pace and went up the slope a little faster than we would normally walk. This pace quickly tired us out. By the time we found our first stream we were glad to take a break.

About here I'd love to include another paragraph about my thoughts on climbing and stuff, but I'm sure you're all sick of it by now. Also I really can't think of anything more to say besides "We walked a lot. It was tiring."

Eventually we hit the cloud line, turning the world into blank slate. We can't see more than 20 feet in front of us. The three of us in UChicago East quickly got ahead from the rest. Eventually it was impossible to see the other guys. We briefly considered throwing rocks downhill in hopes of hitting one of them before moving on.

Seen here is the majestic mountain cow. I think somebody has a farm up there. By now the mist is thinning a little and we can see the sun again.

And then we reached the land above the clouds.

It's one thing to see it out of a tiny window of a giant aluminum tube you are powerless to influence. It's quite another to get their on your own power. The clouds aren't a set of islands. They're an ocean.

Note the double mountain in the background. I ended up using it as a crude altometer to judge how high we went.

We'd also passed the snow line. I'm regretting not throwing a celebratory snowball. Travel became a lot slower and more dangerous. At some point Brian and Alex got separated from the rest of the group. Neither of them hard their phones, which made coordination from here on out somewhat more difficult.

Next rest was just the remaining five. I found a long stone outcropping and took pictures from it. The mountains are much lower now and the mist much higher. It's peaceful here, from the vantage point high above the clouds. From here on out I was far ahead of some people and far behind another, things rapidly deteriorating. Half the time I had to walk carefully on the path or slip on the ice. The other half I had to climb alongside, the path too dangerous to cross. And there was always the ever present wind, not strong enough to throw me off balance but still chilled me to the bone. I continued, the twin peaks growing ever smaller.

I didn't reach the top. Nobody did. It was simply too dangerous around this time of year. But the pictures were excellent and I'm proud I got so far.

Way down was a lot worse. We eventually found our lost friends and left as a group. Night hit us partway down and we had to use our phone flashlights to navigate over four kilometers. I think that counts as our stupidity escalation for this week. By the time we got down the buses had stopped running and we were trapped in the area for the night. I'm gonna have to say I'm not a fan of hostels.

This post should have gone up earlier, but I came down with a bad sickness. Still got some residual, but hoping it goes away. In the meantime, something fun! I was inspired to start this blog by Andrew Alexander's letters, and I'm hoping on making it a useful resource for the next crop of interns. With that in mind, I've got a little challenge for the summer (winter?) of '12. Somewhere on the safe part of the mountain I marked down a little sign of our passage. It's relatively sheltered from the elements and has a good chance of staying there until next year. If you guys find it and send me proof of that I'll owe all you guys a free lunch. On your marks, get set, wait a year.