From The Field

December 11, 2003

9:14 AM

Nathalie Cabrol

A Night on the Summit--By Nathalie Cabrol

November 15, 2003
What a night! The wind started to pick up at night fall again but this time instead of calming down with daybreak it just increased in strength. It has been blowing all night long without stopping, most of the time in gusts that we assessed to be around 100 km/h. Greg's tent is pretty high and has taken the full hit.

It was flapping and going side to side most of the
time. Now, the wind is an issue. If it stays this strong, it will be impossible to get to the summit. We are having a "war" meeting in Greg's tent. The war is against the wind. We have three options: breaking camp and go back to the refuge if we feel that the weather is going to degenerate to a point that it could become dangerous for our safety; wait a little bit to assess the evolution for the next couple of hours: if it goes better, we proceed with our plan to finish the science and go back to the refuge in the afternoon; if it stays the same, take part of the team back to the refuge and leave a small squad here to wrap up the science later, maybe tomorrow. Macario has joined the conversation. With all his knowledge and experience of this mountain, I ask him again and again what he thinks about the weather. He tells me that the wind will be strong all day probably but he is positive that there is no risk of snow or thunderstorm. My worry is that we are getting closer to the "Altiplanic winter" time. Although this is summer, this is a time when clouds reach the Altiplano and snow and electric storms become an issue. Snow would not be fun but we could deal with it. Electrical storms are a totally different matter. I give ourselves a couple of hours to see what happens. I do not like at all the idea of leaving part of the team behind at the summit to finish the job and I discuss this some more. As time passes, the wind does not stop but calm down somewhat. We are proceeding as planned except that I am not taking the whole team to the summit. Part of the team will stay here to break up the camp. I will go with Rob, Andy, Aaron, Victor and Macario to finish the job back in the crater. We will return at 11:00 AM and everybody will go back together at the refuge, as planned. I ask Greg to take charge of breaking the camp and make things happen while we are in the crater. We have radios. Around 9:00 AM, our little squad is in route to the summit. We are not too many and it is going to take some time before we get things done. Rob needs a hand for the UV plates. We are looking on the shoreline to find the right place to position them. The morphology of the shore is not helping at all. The level has dropped about 50 cm since last year and an embankment was formed that goes almost directly in the water. We have just a little
platform to position the plates. After some hesitation about the site, we find one suitable for the experiment. We position the plates. The last thing to do is to anchor them with big blocks and ropes. Rob has now the waders on and is attaching the two plates that make the station. This job is done. I borrow Andy's camera and photograph the experiment now in place. Time is flying. We should already be back at camp. I try to contact Greg by radio but the crater creates a wall and we cannot go through. Macario tries
with his own radio which is a bit more powerful than mine but without success. I then ask Victor to go to the summit rim to try sending the message again from up there: we need one more hour to finish the job. Victor comes back after successfully contacting Greg. Andy still needs to do a profile with his temperature probe which will take a total of half an hour and then, we have the dosimeter to install. While Andy is working with his probe, Aaron is packing his equipment. I have been thinking for a moment to take the boat and try again to do some bathymetric profiling but half the lake is frozen this morning and the other one is wavy because of the wind. There is no way I can do that. Andy is done with his probe and we move to position the UV dosimeter. The place seems right, well-protected from the gusts of wind by smaller rocks that do not cast shadows on the solar panel. Macario is giving a hand to place the screws and bolts. It should be close to noon now. After 20 minutes of effort, the moment of truth. Andy is holding the cable that goes from the solar panel to the dosimeter. He plugs it in and we all hold our breath. Few seconds pass and suddenly, we see the little screen light up and the latitude and longitude, the altitude of the site show up. The dosimeter is talking!!! Few more seconds after, the first UV data start to be recorded. We can see them on the screen. This is a very special moment too. It gives us a sense of achievement after such rough morning fighting the cold and the wind in the slope and in the crater. Our last science task is completed. Mission accomplished. We take a few photos there too for the record. This is a very special moment, definitely, but he also signals that time has come. We must go. Andy wants to show me a last thing before we leave the crater and the lake for this year. He has positioned another temperature logger in the lake. The two of us are now standing there. As a tradition, Incas use to
leave pieces of metal in the lake for protection, some say gold or silver. Before leaving, I will not fail the tradition. I have my "lucky" hat with me, the one that makes all the ascents. On it, I have my two pins. They are neither gold nor silver but they mean a lot to me for what they represent: one is from the ascent team, the other one from the 2003 expedition. I detach this latter and hold it in my hand. I throw the pin as far as I can in the lake. It plunges in the water close to the center, close to this deep point. It is now time to go. We walk a last time around the shore to reach the north side from where we will ascend again to get out of the crater. Unlike last year, as we ascend I will turn several times and take the time to admire this lake and this crater before we leave.

Continued...

December 10, 2003

8:10 AM

Nathalie Cabrol

Reaching the Summit and Peparations for Diving--By Nathalie Cabrol

November 14, 2003
In the morning, there are clouds in the horizon. Hopefully, nothing too serious. Greg is awake early too and together we check the direction of the clouds. Good: they are running parallel to us and they are not coming at us. It is time to go. The porters have the diving gears; Greg has the CPODs. Some equipment is already in the crater, such as the boat, a tent for protection against exposure when we will get out of the water.

The UV station of Edmond is also there. We will see if we can mount it today or if it has to wait until tomorrow. We follow Macario. We have only a little ridge of blocks to climb before reaching an area of loose and bright material. The last 100 m of ascent are made of this kind of material and the slope is at 45 degrees! Nice workout to start the morning! We are proceeding steadily and making good progress. I believe it still takes us some 45 minutes to get to the summit rim. We are elated and rewarded: the lake is completely thawed and its vibrant emerald color is greeting us.

The summit rim is windy. I am checking the clouds from the corner of my eyes and I do not like too much what I see. This is more trouble than it sounded when we woke up. The weather is coming from Chile. This means bad weather and a possibility of snow if things turn nasty. The only encouraging thing is that the clouds are high, white and there are some large breaks of blue sky in between at the horizon. I believe we will be okay for today. There will be some need for decision for tomorrow but let's make the most out of the time we have here right now.

We "plunge" on the other side of the crater rim toward the lake. The descent is very fast in that direction. It takes us less than 10 minutes to reach the shore. There too, the shoreline has receded by about 50 cm compared to last year, which means that Edmond's plates are now on the dry. Before anything else, we take the official photos from the summit. Marcello is happy. I took a photo of him with my climbing helmet which has the NASA logo on it. Now he is already inflating the boat with two other porters. Did I mention that he is of course doing this by blowing in it? Rob has prepared the tent. My diving gears are at my feet. I just need to open the bag. I have never been so ready in my life for a dive. I remove my windbreaker. I have lined up all the equipment on the shore: the drysuit, the mask, the snorkel, the fins, the gloves, and the lead belt. The feeling of fatigue completely disappears now. I am totally focused on that dive. I see Andy and Rob and we hold hands. We have done that before together. Many trainings. The only difference is that this one is a bit higher.

Now I am thinking about the gear. I am slipping into the drysuit. My only concern is to be short of breath when I pull in the neck. It does not happen. I am very comfortable. I meticulously think every movement, everything I am doing. I am already in the water in my mind. I put the hood on. There again, no claustrophobic feeling. This is strange because I remember this being an issue last year at Laguna Verde at 4,300 m during our training. This feels so much more comfortable. Now the gloves but before, Greg comes with the CPOD and the cable. His fingers are cold because of the temperature. He has some difficulty adjusting the pad to my finger and has to try a second time. But that's it. I am wired. This is no training anymore.

Now the tricky part is to put the diving gloves on top of that. They are tight already in normal conditions and this is not helping. Greg is pulling on them very hard. Finally we get there. I just close my eyes for a moment. It is just total peace. Nothing else exists around me anymore, just the sound of water. It seems that time is suspended. I open my eyes again and just have this vision of the crater wall on the other side of the shore and the emerald water.

It's time. I am now ready to go and adjust my mask on my face. I am starting to walk backward into the lake, guided by Rob who is standing behind me. I feel great and so calm. I am not even anxious. Maybe this is what it is to be totally crazy. I am in the water up to my knees. The drysuit is fantastic. I do not feel one ounce of cold. At this point, I give the thumbs up to Greg and the go sign to Rob who moves away from me. I have no hesitation whatsoever. I just throw myself backward in the water. The water feels great, not even cold and the lake grabs me as if with gentle arms. I turn on my belly. The lakebed is all of a golden color. This is so surprising because the color of the water from the surface looks emerald. Gold and vibrant.

For a moment, I loose track of time and where I really am. The vision of the cable on a rock brings me back to the reality of what is still to accomplish. I try to dive a first time to get the cable untangled but obviously I do not have enough weights on my belt. I pop up back at the surface like a balloon. I free the cable and go back to the shore and stand up. I need the other belt, the one with 20 pounds of lead on it. The clothes I kept underneath the suit are adding buoyancy. Rob gives me the second belt and I go back. I try to find a good rock to anchor myself during the free dive to accumulate some time underwater so that Greg can get significant data. I finally find one and I go down! That's it. All these months of work are now paying off. I am peaceful at the bottom, holding this rock like I would a friend's hand.

Once again I loose track of time. It does not matter. I keep my eyes close for quite some time and reopen then shortly before resurfacing. Back at the surface, I am not even out of breath. I go down again several times. I would like to explore more. I then ask Greg to climb in the boat and follow me with the cable. I also ask him to give me the underwater video camera.
After 5 more minutes, he is on the boat and we are passing the camera to each other. He is taking some footage of me underwater and I am taking also some footage of the bottom of the lake. I reach the middle of the lake. There are algae of various colors, going from emerald green to red. I am just enjoying myself but at the surface Greg is having a hard time because the wind is blowing our inflatable boat all over the place and he cannot keep it from going back to shore. The end result is once again that the cable of the CPOD is entangled on rocks, this time a bit deeper which will give me the occasion to do some work between two and three meters depth up there.

I gladly go and get the cable free again. When I resurface, the boat is against the shore and Greg decides that since he has no control over it, he is better of on the shore. We have already some dives and unprecedented data under our belt. Greg also tells me something that stuns me: my O2 saturation was at 91% during the dives! That's something at this altitude! One amazing thing happens as soon as I step out of the water. My entire drysuit gets covered with ice crystals!! That's pretty. That tells also a lot about the temperature out here. Rob is in the water sampling for Aaron. Then, I decide to use the time while Rob and Andy are diving to take the boat and try to do some sonar reconnaissance of the depth of this lake. I have heard all sorts of numbers, from 4 m to 10 m. I push the boat in the water and try to paddle on my own with some measure of success. However, the wind is really strong and as soon as I stop, the boat is pushed back on the shore. Frustrating! Marcello comes to the rescue. He does what he can with the paddling but faces the same problem. While he is struggling, I am taking some sonar measurements here and there. It is impossible to keep a straight profile. As I am doing this, the maximum depth I record next to the middle of the lake is 5.2 m but we may not have passed over the deepest point. Marcello and I give up. This is impossible. Too much wind. We are going back to shore. Aaron is filtering hundreds of liters of water through his plankton nets. This crater is really buzzing with activity.

This is Andy's turn in the water. He is also wired by Greg and do some monitored free diving with the CPOD. What's happening now in this crater is phenomenal. Andy gets out of the water. The three of us have accumulated at least one hour of free diving in this lake this morning, collected physiological data and samples, underwater video and photos. The wind is a bit stronger and it maybe time to get out of here for today. We have spent close to 5 hours in the crater altogether. We collect some of the equipment but leave mostly everything in the crater since we will be back tomorrow.

Macario leads us back out of the crater. Our troop is heading back to the summit camp. We reach it nearly 45 minutes later. Later, Greg is wired and has a big smile. He has a CPOD connected to his finger. He tells me that he successfully sent his vitals live to Ames and Stanford. What a day. We have accomplished a lot, and I really mean a lot. All that has been achieved today is unprecedented. I am now thinking about the weather and what to do. If it holds, we should be able to achieve everything we set for.
We will see how the night goes.

Continued...

December 8, 2003

10:40 AM

Nathalie Cabrol

The Summit is in Sight!!--by Nathalie Cabrol

November 13, 2003
First night in the mountain, a good one! I am the first one out. It is about 5:30 AM and nobody is moving yet in the other tents. I get outside the protection of our little camp and sit for a moment on a rock. The temperature is fine, there is no wind. As I am sitting in the silence of the mountain, all of a sudden I hear some "clic!, clic!" in the distance.

I listen more carefully and come to the realization that what I hear are probably the footsteps of the porters which are coming to meet us this morning. They will accompany us to the summit. They must be some distance though, still an hour or so away from us. They are not supposed to meet us before 7:00 AM. This sound is fantastic.

As I listen more, the camp is slowly waking up and soon is buzzing with activity. Everybody is having breakfast. After breakfast we break up the camp and put the tents back in their bags as well as the sleeping bags. The porters will take care of them and take them to the summit. Of course, I have no doubt that they will be way before us at summit camp...No need to engage a race with a Bolivian between 5,400 m and 6,000 m...Around 7:30 AM we are on our way to the summit. The heavy packs are back on our shoulders and this part of the ascent is tough. We stop from time to time and rests are welcome. Juriques is always my way of measuring our progress on the mountain.

When I see the summit crater of Juriques, I know that we have passed 5,800 m. At some point, maybe 100 m below the false summit, Macario asks us to stop. He sees that we are tired. He is going ahead to arrange the way for us. Since it is already 1:00 PM or so, he wants to have us take a short cut but he needs to work on the path. He leaves us for about 20 minutes which we occupy resting, just sitting and talking. We resume our hike up when he shows up a bit later. That's a short cut, for sure, but as every time in the mountain, short cuts mean also more grade. That's a great way of ending our hiking day!

Finally we see the gap in the rim. The false summit! As far as I am concerned, this one is as good as the real one for today…We are going to sleep at the false summit. This is where our summit camp will be for the next two nights. It means we have made it! When Macario talked to us about the summit camp at the refuge, he said that we had two possibilities: one with a great view on Laguna Verde and another one protected from the wind. When we arrive at the summit camp, he just designates a large flat and nice area without other precision. This one has a great view, definitely.What a view. We have some columns of volcanic rocks but other than that it is a direct view over the turquoise lagunas in the basin. I guess that this one is the camp with the view… We will see about the wind as it is picking up seriously.

The porters have dumped our equipment a little bit farther. After a moment of relaxation, we collect our gears and start building the tents. What did I say about the wind? Andy has just mounted his tent but not yet fixed it when a fierce gust comes out of nowhere and picks up his tent before he can do anything. Great! The tent is flying over of the ridge. Andy is running after it. I try to follow behind. Fortunately, the tent gets caught up by blocks and does not go to low. That was a close call. We could have afforded to loose one tent because we have lots of room in the remaining ones. Still...That would not have been fun and if I had any doubt about which camp at the summit had the view and which one was protected from the wind...now I know.

Having learned my lesson, I help Edmond building our tent. I am bringing heavy rocks and build a small protective wall around it. I fix the ropes again solidly on the blocks. The wind wakes me up during the night. Some gusts are pretty strong and they are coming and going. Overall, I do not sleep bad at all and I am not cold.

Continued...