Haven't seen you in a while.
No sooner did Mike come to visit me than did we hatch a new plan for adventure.
Simply: to stand at the summit of Aconcagua on New Year's Day, 2010.
The genesis of this plan had much in common with that of the Colorado Trail. Namely, we were in the book section of the Denver REI. It's dangerous when the two of us are together.
I'll make my planning public on this blog. I have a lot to learn before we attempt to summit the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere.
My first armaments are:
- Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills - Recommended to me by Chad as an incredible resource for all of the big mountain techniques I don't yet know.
- Medicine: For Mountaineering & Other Wilderness Activities - Another book published by The Mountaineers. Encyclopedic in scope, this medical manual goes beyond first aid to cover diagnosis and management of just about any malady that could strike while days away from medical care.
- Aconcagua - The Highest Trek In The World - This is the Cicerone guide for Aconcagua. Mike read the Cicerone guide on the John Muir Trail before we met and had great things to say about it. In addition to covering the basic logistics of an ascent, it also gives information on the surrounding area in case weather, acute mountain sickness, or syphilis forces you off the mountain.
More as soon as I know it.