After Elbrus and Kilimanjaro, I knew I can’t take Aconcagua lightly. At almost 7000m it’s the highest mountain outside of Asia and thus the second highest of the Seven Summits. Working full time, the time I had available for training was very limited. This was before covid hit either, so I actually had to commute to the office too, which is about an hour one way. So what can the man do if he only has so many hours in the day and he needs some sleep too, but training has to be done for Aconcagua?
Down and out
After reaching the summit of Aconcagua at 6961m, we took two days to get back down. Naturally when we got back to camp 3 after the summit day, we were completely exhausted. However the next day wasn’t going to be any easier either: we had to descend all the way to the “normal” route base camp at Plaza de Mulas.
On the summit of Aconcagua
On Elbrus we’d enter the world of snow as soon as we “went up the mountain.” Aconcagua is very different. There is snow and ice: there are the penitentes and the route goes over glaciers on multiple occasions. But the snow and ice is mostly covered by rock and dust, so it’s much harder to be conscious of it. This year there was so little snow that we didn’t even need to take our crampons for the summit attack.
High camps
After Plaza Argentina base camp, we kept doing the same load carrying routine: carry up some team gear, go back down, maybe rest and then move to the higher camp. We had a total of three high camps: camp 1 at 4950m, camp 2 at 5570m and camp Colera at 5870m. While we were climbing Aconcagua the “Polish traverse” route, Colera is also the highest camp of the “normal” route.
The first few days
The route up to almost 7000m altitude on Aconcagua is a long one. I’ll write about the “world below” (Mendoza and the area) later. Our route, the “Polish traverse” goes up the Vacas valley to the base camp at Plaza Argentina. On the way we had lunch at some roadside restaurant where we met another team (of two + guide) who were going up the “normal route.”
新穂高
上高地はいっぱいお世話になっている人ではいるが、まわりの温泉は平湯ばっかり行っている（平湯の民族館の風呂大好き）。今回は山じゃなく観光と温泉を目的に新穂高温泉に行ってきた。
野沢温泉
今年の冬はクロスカントリー・スキーの練習をしようと思ったけど、天気が邪魔してきた。どうやら暖冬で雪がまず積もらず、積もっても雪質が悪く、予定していた場所（白馬、野沢）両方ともクロスカントリーのクラスは中止になった。問題はギリギリまでその旨わからず、宿とかの予約は済んでた！
武尊山其の壱
以前行った北アの穂高とは間違わないこと。上越の武尊山は群馬の奥利根にあって北アの穂高よりは高さ1000m程低いが、雪が豊富。今回の計画ではスキー場のシャトルバス使って、スキー場の麓からリフト使わずに山頂に登って、そして下りてからスキー場を満喫する予定だった。予定は予定で実行はまた別物…
川場スキー場に着くまでは予定通りだった。上毛高原まで新幹線で、そこからは直結のシャトルバスで（バスは要予約なので注意）。電車からも晴れ予報がそうじゃないように見えたけど、スキー場に着いたら普通に吹雪だった。それでも上行ってみようと思った。ただ途中で徒歩はご遠慮くださいみたいな標識があったか飽きたか記憶が曖昧が上まで結局リフトで行った。そして上に着いたら登山はしない判断した。
吹雪で視界がほとんどなく、雪の中で道どころか足あと一つすらなかった。さすがに地図でしか見たことない山の、腰ぐらいの深い新雪に、スノーシューがなく踏み入れるほど狂ってはいない。スキー場もあって雪山登山に人気な山かと思ったけど、天気が悪いせいか見かけた他の登山装備の人も皆諦めたと言ってた。
無念ではあったがスキー場で楽しく一日スノボしてた。
Tanigawa-dake
If you’ve watched Yama no Susume, then you’ve heard of Mt Tanigawa. It’s the goal of a major arc of the story and an important memory to the characters. I went there in a different season though (in the snow), but didn’t climb the main summit. For no particular reason other than I didn’t realize the summit I was at wasn’t the highest point. Whoops.
2019 in review
This year was quite thick in events so I decided to write a year retrospect for a change. I read somewhere that people tend to do wild things when they’re nearing a “round” age like 30, except I read about this after I planned most of the stuff listed below… It definitely did turn into a very eventful 30th.
