Preparing for my greatest adventure yet...
Posted on 04 February 2007 by Clive Gott
I am not a mountaineer. I did climb Kilimanjaro, the "Roof of Africa" in June of 2004. However 'Kili' does not require any technical ability to climb or indeed, apart from a good set of thermals, any specialist equipment. So when in January 2005 Scope offered me the opportunity to travel to Argentina to climb Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas, I could not resist the challenge. At 6962 metres this would be 1000 metres higher than Kili.
Although I did not suffer from any altitude sickness in Africa, I did witness others who did so I am under no illusion that altitude sickness does not take into consideration how fit, how old, how strong, how tall or, for that matter, how anything you are. If it gets you...it gets you. So the added 1000 metres would probably be the biggest part of this challenge.
I did know that I wasn't nearly fit enough to tackle the challenge. Before travelling to Argentina I would complete the Marathon Des Sables (MdS), reputedly the hardest foot race in the world which would give me a base to work from - or at least it would have done if I hadn't let all of my hard work preparing for it go to waste by sitting on my backside for months after getting home. So, when I finally decided to take the challenge seriously, I set about training for my greatest adventure yet.
As I have already said, after returning from MdS I let myself go somewhat. I did keep in touch with some of the friends I had made there and a weekend was organised in the peak district for 25th and 26th November where we would camp for the weekend and spend some time 'hitting some hills' and hit some hills we did! When reached the pub after an afternoon of climbing and descending, with a little peat bogging thrown in, I became aware of just how ready I 'wasn't' for my upcoming adventure. In fact, Chris actually said to me "If I was climbing a mountain in 3 months and I looked like you after an afternoon in the peak district, I would be very worried." I wasn't worried, but I had received the kick up the backside that I needed.
When I arrived home from the weekend and opened my post, I found a letter from Scope. The letter contained lots of details about our trip including a list of equipment that I would need for the adventure. I took one big gulp as the realisation of what I had accepted set in. This was going to be hard; it was going to be dangerous; it was going to be expensive. Oh, well. I was committed now - and there was no turning back...
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- Mt Aconcagua Training Journal
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