I would be easier to outline what we didn´t know about El Misti for the list is far shorter then that of which we did. We didn´t know what 5822 meters was in feet. We didn´t know that the guides carried much of the equipment required for this two day hike. We didn´t know the symptoms of elevation sickness. We didn´t know that 3 people without guides had gotten lost on this trek the previous year. And finally, we didn´t know that this cliff exceeds the elevation of Base Camp One on everest, any point in the continental U.S. and is only 200 feet shy of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Luckily, Ian and I both hold all this knowledge, but the method of education was hands on, head first and jump without looking. We also will never forget that at 19,101 feet, the air only holds half the amount of oxygen compared to that of sea-level.
In full disclosure, the success of our trip was contingent on our short sidedness. We would have had no chance at success if not for our fearless ignorance. We like our general ignorance of the expedition to the night hiking that took place on day two. If we were able to see the summit looming above us, we would have been discourage by our meager progression and suffered certain retreat. Similar to the success of the entire trip, we were motivated by our optimistic ignorance.
As assured by my selective reading of the Lonely Planet Guide book, he first day of hiking was easy. We of course struggled with the acclimation reduce oxygen levels. We forced ourselves to take one deep breath each time we took a step. It seemed to work well. We controlled to the headaches by aggressively gasping for air as we walked. This was successful until about 500 feet below our campsite for the first night. That is when no amount of desperate gasps could prevent tighten of the vice against our skulls.
On the first, day we stopped every ten minutes to fifteen minutes to hydrate. Hydration was merely the excuse we used, we both had ulterior motives. We both wanted to lighten the water weight that made up over 50% of backpack´s heft. We also wanted to ensure our heart´s were not going to spontaneously combust. Only seconds after resuming from long rest, our heart rate jumped to a lightning speed. There was no controlling it. There was just too little oxygen to let our hearts work at any less the maximum capacity. After only five and half hours of hiking, we arrived our camp. With uncontrollable headaches and sunburned faces, we pitched a tent and settled in. The effort of bending over was weighed carefully against the inevitable head-rush that would take control for at least 30 seconds.
The pot of rice and vegetables look most appealing immediately before we realized we brought no utensils. Our appetites quickly took precedent and we watched the sun set far below us as we feasted off our grit covered hands. If we had read the symptoms for altitude sickness, we would know that the speed of digestion drops off exponentially. We also would have know that a common symptom is sleeplessness. Again, comforted by our ignorance we settled in for restless night. The accent to the peak began at 1 AM
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