Thomas Hall

I’ve been home for about a week now. The trip went relatively well, and I had an awesome time. I didn’t summit due to some concerns I had about a very high blood pressure and some weird heart rhythms. Here is how it went:

The hike to base camp was what I had thought was going to be the hardest part of the trip. I thought this because I knew I was going to have around 100lbs, or 46kg on my back for those three days. What I had expected was some relatively easy terrain for the first two days and then a sharp increase in grade for the third and final day into Base Camp. I was right, kind of. The terrain was relatively flat except for a sharp climb at the start of the third day, however it was not at all easy with the weight I was carrying. Much of the valley I was hiking through was covered in rock fall and mudslide and this meant walking on very uneven terrain. With a lighter pack it wouldn’t have been as much of a concern but I had to constantly be aware of my foot placement. The rocks were scattered enough that there was rarely a smooth path and I always had to keep my head down to avoid stubbing my toe too frequently, and of course, to avoid falling.

The paths along the valley varied from a trail through a flat flood plain or mudslide refuse, to a narrow (half a meter) wide path with a very steep drop of anywhere from 3 to 10 or 15 meters down to a river. This type of path, which I grew to loath, was especially hard on the third day into base camp. At times the path was almost nonexistent and I had to shimmy along gaps where a mistake was not an option. Obviously, I made it but I never thought I could have been as tired as I was on that final day into base camp. The constant vigilance about foot placement, the heavy pack and the sharp increase in altitude was more than I had bargained for.

Once in Base Camp I sat down for a few then set up my tent next to some friends I had made on the hike in and lay in it for about two hours not doing anything. Finally I cooked something (boiled water and added it to a bag of dehydrated something) and felt a little better. I then proceeded to find my water and toilet source, Fernando Grajales Expedition was my outfitter for these things, as well as some meals and Internet.

Everyone who wants to go past base camp has to pay a visit to the Doctor at base camp who checks their vitals to make sure they can go up. I went in soon after arriving in camp and he measured my O2 saturation (a measure of how much oxygen is in your blood, at sea level it theoretically should be 100%, and as you get higher it drops as there is less O2 in the atmosphere. From what I understand this is what causes altitude sickness, AMS, and thus the measure of O2 saturation at least gives some indication of how someone is tolerating altitude, however it is by no means a predictor of AMS.) My saturation was fine and quite high at around 88%, but my blood pressure was extremely high at around 160/100. Obviously this was some cause for concern. I added another rest day and went to visit the Doc again only to find no change in my BP. He said it is normal in some percentage of the population so I decided that the next day I would move to camp one.

But that night a little disaster hit base camp.

On Sunday the 5th of December I’m taking a few weeks off training to go take a hike. About a year ago I decided I wanted to climb a mountain; no, not that figurative mountain that all athletes climb, but an actual mountain. I’m not a “climber” but I can haul a heavy bag for a long time so I needed something non-technical, I also wanted something high and challenging. I settled on Aconcagua in Argentina, it’s the highest mountain outside of Asia and sits at around 23,000 feet or just fewer than 7,000 meters. It’s high enough to pose some very real dangers; the most significant of which is altitude sickness. People die every year on the mountain from succumbing to AMS and not getting off the mountain quickly enough. The weather is the other extreme factor as it gets very cold when you’re very high and there is a notorious wind the rips across the mountain occasionally that brings with it terrible weather and temperatures that even someone from Saskatchewan would find cold.

With these dangers in mind I approached climbing this mountain as an exercise in over preparation and calculated risk. I knew I didn’t want to be guided; as one of the seven summits, (the highest points on the seven continents) and a relatively accessible mountain it can be quite crowded. I like trying things alone and the prospect of sharing a tent with a stranger at 19,000 feet when peeing in a water bottle in the tent is generally the smart way to go to the bathroom, wasn’t exactly appealing. The guides mostly take care of logistics, and prepare tents and meals, which are all things I’m very comfortable with. As for leading people up the mountain this shouldn’t be too much of an issue as most people I’ve spoken with who’ve been there say that often you’ll be waiting in line on the mountain and that you’re never on your own. With all this in mind I choose to forsake the guide and go solo, again ensuring that my approach would be overly cautious.

My brief itinerary is as follows: A three-day hike into base camp from about 8,500 feet to 13,500 feet. A few days at BC to acclimatize and then up to do a cache at camp one (to adjust to altitude most people climb up to a higher camp and leave some gear and then sleep at the lower camp). After a night back at BC I’ll head up to camp one take a rest a day and than carry to camp two and sleep at camp one…etc. Finally I’ll be either at camp two or a higher third camp, depending on my route, waiting for the weather to give me an opportunity to try for the summit. After about 14 days on the mountain I’ll hopefully have had a chance to summit safely at which point I plan to rip down and off the mountain as fast as I can. Ideally, I’ll be off the mountain and in the city close to three days after summiting.

I guess I haven’t said why I’m doing this. I paddle a canoe for a living and spend most of the year in Florida. Why on earth would I live on dehydrated food and a headache for a two to three weeks? I’m not clichéd enough to say because it’s there, in fact not only would that be clichéd it would be a lie. The short answer is because I want to. I’ve always had a thing about climbing high mountains and this will be my first foray into that world. The way I look at it, if I’ve got an opportunity to do something that shouldn’t negatively impact other parts of my life, I’m going for it.

So with the drama behind me here are some links that may be of interest:

- Follow me here: Aconcagua Adventure this will give you my location on a map. The locations automatically disappear after seven days.

- Web cam/weather: here is a link to a site that should have a webcam going soon. It’s at the other base camp, Plaza Del Mulas but the weather at the BC’s is the same. My base camp is Plaza Argentina, and it is the jumping off point for the Polish Direct or Traverse routes. I’m doing the Traverse route, and may come down the mountain on the other side via, Plaza Del Mulas. The reason why I’d go up one side and down the other is because it’s interesting and it’s a shorter hike out from Mulas (one day) than Argentina (two days).

- Weather two: Here you can find a more detailed, in some respects, weather report. On the left below resort info, there are three altitude you can choose from. Choose one and get the report below, to switch to metric it is on the left next to the days of the week. The webcam link is the same image as the one I’ve linked to above.

- Guiding Company: here is a link to a guide company that is starting their trip around the same time as I am. You should be able to read their updates and get some idea of what I’m experiencing in terms of weather…etc. Mountain Trip

Alright that is it. I’ll probably manage to do an update at base camp via very pricey satellite internet. That should be around the 11th-12th of Dec. I hope to summit around the 19th-20th and should be able to do another update on my way out on the 21st or so. These dates are obviously subject to the whims of…a lot of things, so don’t worry if I don’t update. Same goes for the spot messenger that I’m using, they can and do break, or simply run out of batteries so if it isn’t updating don’t worry about it.

I’ve been bad again. I haven’t been updating very often because there isn’t a whole lot on which to report. I’ve been busy with school and training hard down here in Florida. There’s a good crew of paddlers down here and we’ve been pushing each other on the water and in the gym. The water has been excellent (=flat) and the weather has been hovering around 25c most days.

This is a short camp for us, at only three weeks, and then it’s back to the cold in Montreal for about a week and then I had to South America to climb a mountain. More on that later.

Big news in my association, Canoe Kayak Canada sprint side has found a new High Performance Director in Barney Wainwright. Graham Barton, the previous HPD, was snatched up by own the podium around the end of summer and officially stepped down on Oct. 1st. It was a big deal for me and, I think, most of us because Graham had been in the role our whole careers. I know I’ll miss Graham but it’s always exciting to see what fresh eyes can bring to a team.

Anyway that’s the update!

I’m here at the 2010 Forum in Gatineau, QC and it is awesome. More to come.

Follow coach Mike and I on our Algonquin adventure this long weekend by following this link . We’ll start it tomorrow and track our progress through the day until we set up camp, then ditto for Sunday and Monday.

Take it easy!
T

Morning! I’m working with a new piece of Tech called the SPOT GPS.It isn’t a traditional GPS and is used mostly for trips to the great unknown. You can send preset messages and, if need be, ask for help. I’ve got it for another cool feature that allows people to track my progress in essentially real time. It sends out my coordinates every ten minutes to a map located here . A pretty wicked feature for sharing training, or hikes…etc.

This AM in about 30 minutes Ian Mortimer and I are going to rip around on our bikes for about an hour and I’ll be using the SPOT. Hopefully by the end there should be about 6 data points on the map. Below is the link that you can copy and paste into your browser bar if my link above didn’t work.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0no3fkORbo47ZGnYTHvIGzHUej73sVBHB

Start you morning off right by checking how Your canoe-kayak team is doing: http://kayak2010.com/en/programme.html . I’m starting in the C4 1000m tomorrow AM and the semi final is in the afternoon.

We’re getting to race the World Champs starting this upcoming Thursday, but as a prelude to our races were being treated to a show by the World Masters Championships taking place as I write this here in Poznan. The best thing about these WMCs is that two of our staff members Bernie “Bernadette, I wish I had a G on the end of my name” Irvin and Greg “My accent is still strong despite 20 years of being in Canada” Redman are competing.  Two ex-members of the national team, they decided late this week that they would show us how it’s done, or was done, by tempting fate and lighting it up this weekend. Bernie has made a final in the C1-500m and Greg just missed out his K1-500m final, however they both have another opportunity tomorrow in the 2km event.

Enough about them, “attention on me” as my sister likes to say. I’ve been training hard with the boys in C1 C2 and C4 and things are coming together. We had a really hard first few days here in Poland but from here on out it’s recovery time. Essentially, recovery time for me equals lying in bed awake and getting antsy.

Tomorrow we get the full canoe team here together for the first time, when A-russ, Gab and Mark arrive from their training in jolie France. They’ve been there for about two weeks taking it to the French team, and vice versa, getting prepped for Worlds.

There isn’t a whole lot to report at this stage of the game. It’s pretty boring here most days and I spend the majority of my time in my hotel room reading or watching Mad Men. A group of us were talking last night about how different these trips have become since the advent of laptops. I remember my very first tour, nine years ago, there were no athletes with laptops, even in 2005/2006 only a few had them. Not only on tour, but even in Florida just a few years ago it was a rarity to have a laptop, and if you were one of the few who did everyone borrowed it to check email.  As we were talking it became apparent that none of us could really remember what we used to do before we could watch movies or tv, or waste time of facebook. We decided that we used to talk and read more. It’s obvious when you think about it, but nonetheless remarkable, that we can now be closer to those at home, 7000km away, than we are with people right down the hallway. Good or bad it’s not changing any time soon, I just can’t wait till there are transporters.