Aconcagua - Award Winning Documentary

[Music] why people wanted to lurk on karwa what drives them adventure it's pretty enough adventure a human spirit that's the most important thing even more beyond the seven Sam [Music] typical expedition starts in Mendoza great town and great food great steaks is a great Malbec Cafe is in the streets it's a very pleasant city where you can walk everywhere the guys work really hard the first three days four days preparing all the gear packing food and the clients arrive and here check and make sure everybody has a gear the correct gear to plan man time then the next morning we get the permits and it's a process the product and then we go give by noon and attempt this case how some feet spend a night there it was thought about accommodation process the next day we start we'll go to the trailhead and we do this 40 kilometer beautiful approach to base camp basically it's at 13,000 feet that approach is very very nice very colorful it gives everybody a chance to get into really shape and start high relaxing with a everybody's a little bit nervous with the big mountain they're gonna tackle and they realize the hike is very pleasant one of the most enjoyable part of the trip really the hike to base then you get something tough we'll start pretty simple on entering through Farkas Valley which is a little bit more of a non-traditional route compared to most of the traffic comes into a Kakaako so we had about a good three days hike in took us about until the third day until we were actually able to see where what exactly was we're getting ourselves into we're gonna be climbing a car go that way but allow us just kind of warm up eventually slowly fun-sized as we gain out to further up to base camp [Music] [Music] so base command some people feel the altitude for the first time and then we take a couple of rest day there [Music] so we did it first doctor's visit today found out I'm 120 over 85 pressures get good average and 86 on the oxygen levels two percentage oxygen the blood which is nice so it's good it all checks out and they're letting me go but higher [Music] one of the hardest days for me for sure was the first carry to camp one very large packs you've got all your food for the trip everything you need for the next coming few days the weekend in advance that's going to prepare yourself to get in a position where you climb and get to the top get to the summit so that's a big day we need a bit of a rest day afterwards on that m2 which is nice I just kind of shake things out first real experience for a lot of people with the double shell [Music] [Music] how is the highest peak in the world outside of Asia outside of the Himalayas you have to be mentally fit and physically fit mental part is huge mentally is the ability to go day after day in an environment that gets tougher and tougher so we've been told that we're gonna have to move our schedule up a bit more aggressive than we originally anticipated we were originally gonna be taking a bit of a rest day after today oh and we moved up to camp two on that end but seems like the only weather window will have make a temple to summit is on the 11th and just making our way out of the mountains from there so should be fine initially we had planned a specific four-day budgeted timeframe of which we wanted to position ready for a summit summit attempt and then we were just gonna be waiting for the weather but we got the weather reports back that effectively that was going to be too late it would have been possible at that time so we really had to almost quickly scramble in a sense and just kind of move move move for the next the next week straight so what we ended up doing was very quickly moving up to camp 1 getting settled there Karen can't to move began to then finally make our way to to camp free all within a very rapid succession of days the commitment we made it the group and everyone that we stuck behind so we're all very happy to at least get ourselves in position to have a real shot within a good weather window [Music] and then another important switch power is how well you clamp your body acclimatize how is your physiology for out you can be maybe even a little bit overweight a little bit hit and not in great shape and if your climatized well you can be doing better sometimes than the guy who is a marathon runner yes altitude signal so easily because go so fast with the technique very high sleep low which in every camp and then on day 12 we are hiking day 1213 tackling the summit [Music] by applying some and they came around we were all very excited I had to get up very early to do so I had breakfast around 3:00 in the morning at that time packs on by four very quickly as we we start to progress further up and as the day went further along things got more more interesting things got more challenging and and we started to get a real sense of how big of a challenge that day was actually going to come we've been told it's gonna be you know 12 14 16 hours a day and that's one thing to hear but an entirely another thing to experience [Music] Seve days is a good day no matter where you come from how fit you are it's a big challenge it's the tremendously rewarding experience there were points we reach firms kind of like your my hesitate okay and you might kind of feel you might not have enough to be doing so I just had to kind of really Richard Heath and focus on other things as you're removing in particular when we reached partly was called the cave that's where things really actually got a quite and you're staying in you going this entire time I think we're about four or five hours in to the actual climb and probably not the best on energy definites those people are going and then you look past the cave and everything's just going further up up up [Music] [Music] some days they have this day of the trip by far everybody for most clients they the answer after the extremities this has been the proudest day of my life thus even if they're multiple runner no matter where they come from often it happens to be the hardest day of their life I think that was a real real challenge for a lot of us that they were able to get to the top on that end it's just continue pushing past that point which we were very grateful that we did as mentioned did do man should get out there and and take a few nice shots but also had an opportunist and lie down on some black brown purple minutes before we made our way back down very rewarding part of the entire trip but what what was really interesting with it too and because of the strength of our guys and because of the strength of our team as well as everything up until that point it was very enjoyable so had I not have made the summit I would have been used to point but there are still things that could have been taken from the trip to thanks to remember that it would be great [Music] and allow your soul the freedom to sing dance the praise above is there for each and every one of us definitely worthwhile definitely I would say one of the hardest things I've ever had to do physically usually way up there on the list did not be most challenging and then from that point once you get to the top your thoughts I mean they start to turn back home so it was quite nice that we had a very quick pretty descent they would do a traverse of the mountain we get back to my camp sleep there and then we Traverse to the other side and we were super super navigated all Mountain and that that by itself is a tremendous accomplishment to do this Traverse of the mountain so we walk out in another valley news coming up taking the gear one base cam there the moon coming half the look it takes a little more complex but it's a very feels really nice to traverse the mountain I didn't after that back to content is those very happy stakes again and big celebration it's basically a trip [Music] sometime another thing they said oh I'm never gonna climb a mountain this stuff again then after two months they go home and they're riding you back again and they want to do another one they want to do it again it's a lifetime experience it's one of the highlights of their life this expedition is a scientific expedition [Music] I was nearby with my paisan and I know below true never [Music] ha we so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: James Smith

Views: 781,356

Keywords: Aconcagua, Mountaineering, Adventure, Award, Winning, Andes, Danger, Altitude, Argentina, Seven, Summits, Highest, Climbing, Climbers, Documentary, Short Film, Festival, South America, Mules, Camp, Summit, Beautiful, Scenery, Film

Id: dTrkx728dNg

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019