Our group tents, from left: Josias, Lucas, Emerson and Argentine Sergio. I had my back to my own tent for this picture.
Xuxa's tent with Rodrigo. They were behind mine.
My tent, with Monte Tronador visible.
It was relaxed getting ready this morning. The meeting place was our rocky outcrop, since most of us were camped there. Nativo and Maximo went over a few things that we still hadn't covered, we practiced knots again, and went over logistics for the following day. We'd be meeting at 3am for a quick breakfast in the refugio itself (with those whose habit it was to eat their own food exceptionally being allowed to eat it there directly) and then departure in the night. We all felt the anticipation.
A windy Monte Tronador
At the end of our morning of reviewing information, Maximo had us all sit down and talked to us about summit day. It was a really simple and also a really important speech, and I don't think I will forget it. He started by talking about his own days as a young climber, how he wanted to climb everything and as quickly as possible. With his usual amusing way of describing things and telling stories, he made us see the impatient youngster he'd been who'd nearly fallen over half dead from too much haste and too little acclimatization, and how a really old man (he said laughing, explaining that this really old man was about as old as he was now, somewhere in his early fifties) had helped him and thanks to him, brought him to the summit. Start as an old man, the saying goes, and you'll arrive as a young one. We listened. Don't let summit blindness get you, he said. It's not the point. Many of you may think the summit is the most important part of this course; it's not. For us, the most important part is over; it was making sure you guys learned what you did. The summit is only a bonus. Now that you've got the basic knowledge, go practice it and find your own summits.
This speech left me strangely calm. The anxiety for the next day left me. It was true. The purpose is the journey, not just where you are trying to arrive. This was a beginning, not at end. We'd been experiencing really fantastic things, and would keep doing so, if we wanted, but we had to be open to them, not just focused on a point.
We separated to eat lunch. As this is really quick for me as I only need hot water while most others actually cook, I took the opportunity to wash my hair. After a week, my scalp was disagreeably itchy. I'd left my 3 litre camelback full of water on a rock in the sun, and the water had turned lukewarm, allowing for a comfortable scrub. My hair dried very quickly in the sun and wind.
In the afternoon, Rodrigo and I took my rope to a place where Nativo had shown us we could hang it and practice the things we'd had a rough time with the day before, that of getting ourselves out alone. I, personally, completely lost in my translation errors, had absorbed a great deal less of it as I might have wished, so I was eager to practice. So, hanging down from some rocks and pretending to be in a crevasse, I went over the techniques.
It took some time, but I finally got it. Nativo came over to talk us through it, and soon, almost the entire group was there too. So much for our afternoon off, we still wanted more! But eventually I left to get my bag ready. It was getting cool too, the sky turning cloudier by the minute.
After dinner, instead of going to bed at 20h as I had planned, I went to the refugio to soak up the group atmosphere. The wind started to pick up, and it started to... rain!! Up here, the rain is really cold, a couple of degrees more and it might have snowed instead.
When I went to bed, I lay tossing and turning forever. The alarm was set for 2h30, and I slept very little in those few hours. I kept on listening to the raging wind and beating rain. In my feverish dreams, the person ahead of me fell in a crevasse and I successfully stopped the fall, and then my mind would go blank and I didn't know what to do anymore. I would turn around to ask the 3rd, and that person had fainted. The harness dug into my back, my butt froze from being on the snow and my legs shook from the effort of arresting the fall alone, but I still didn't know what to do. I'd wake up, it was only 20 minutes later, the wind was still raging like crazy and the rain pelting the tent. Another toss in the tent, it felt like the whole thing would pick up with me in it and fly me over the mountain. Sleep was impossible. Even Josias' snores were inaudible.
At 2h30, my alarm went off. I stuck my head out of my tent, let out a loud yell, loud enough to be heard over the screeching of the wind. Everyone answered me. We'd agreed on this, making sure no one was left alone in their tent to only an alarm, but that we'd have a group wake up call. I popped my head back in and started getting dressed. I didn't get very far. Maximo was doing the rounds of the tents, it was much too windy, still too rainy, although it was dying down. The summit was clouded over. Go back to sleep until 6h, he said, then we'll leave.
As soon as he said that, I knew that the summit was no longer an option, not with leaving that late. They would take us to do something else. That was fine. It would be another day of learning, a last opportunity to take what they shared with us. I lay back, and for those 3 hours, slept deeply.
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