Shakedown trip and final preparations

Rob and I arrived in Coyhaique (Coy aye kay) 6 days ago and have spent 4 of those days camping in the vicinity of a road pass at Cerro Castille in the company of Ben from the Patagonia Mountaineering School. We had beautiful clear and cold weather with scarcely a whisper of wind to interrupt our revision of mountaineering skills and discussions about what to expect on our trip.

We went through avalanche beacon use and search strategy, self arrest, knots, glacier travel, crevasse rescue and igloo making. The igloo maker was great fun - an ingeneous gadget that allowed us to build an igloo out of soft unconsolidated snow. We also sampled some of the food we are taking with us and reminded ourselves of our snow camping systems. We discussed local weather patterns and what conditions to expect on the glacier. We are looking forward to a challenging and spectacular trip.

The Journey to the start begins

We had a frantic few days before heading off on the plane - finishing off work commitments, voluntary group commitments, thinking ahead to work when we come back and what needed to be done to leave the house behind.

The first step went very well though - a 4.30 am start but with no hitches. An upgrade to business class was an unexpected but highly valued start to the flight. We are travelling with 5 bags, each around 20kgs plus hand luggage - so had to pay excess luggage. The flight to San Francisco was smooth and progress through customs was quick and easy. We had the delight of travelling from the airport to my sister's place in her Buick Roadmaster - perfect for the amount of gear we had.

In the next few days we have a chance to adapt to the new timezone - 3 hours different to our next stop in Chile. We will also make the final changes to the communications system to get it fully set up. Without the distractions of home we can go through our lists and make sure we are fully organised for heading south.

Luck is flowing with us now - will it stay that way?

Permit granted

Hooray - the permit that allows us to go up onto the South Patagonian Icecap has come through. We had started to look seriously at alternatives in case it didn't come through but luckily it did.
Now we need to check how we go about authorising our crossing of the border between Chile and Argentina on the icecap - there will be no one to stamp our passports up there. The border runs essentially on the divide, which means it meanders backwards a forwards across mountain ridges, mainly on the eastern edge of the Andes.

Final Days before leaving home.

Today was my last day at work - and I left there feeling that I hadn't quite done what I wanted to but that it was all in good hands. I farewelled Pugsy as she headed off with one of my work colleagues for her holiday. She will love having a few weeks in a home with a fire on all the time and a doggy door that leads out to a backyard from which to sniff the kangaroos. It's empty at home without her but now the floor is filling with piles of gear so its probably good she's not here.



On my 'to do list' are the following:

• buy a pair of Goretex overgloves
• check the tent - repair a couple of rips
• check the repair kit - are there enough needles? How much thread is there?
• oad the software onto the PDA and check that the system works
• check with the electronics shop whether there is a way of linking my video camera to the battery pack for recharging
• make sure I've got all the contact numbers in my little travel contacts book
• heck the luggage allowance on the airline website
• pack and weigh my luggage
• make sure the mascot gets into the gear pile. The mascot was given to us by Strathfieldsaye PS students. It doesn't have a name yet - I think finding a South American name when we get over there will be appropriate.

There is a lot more - and I do want to fit in another couple of exercise sessions, catching up with friends and getting the house in order to leave for a while.

It's exciting thinking about what comes next.

Fitness Update

after about 5 days with no excercise I managed to do approximatley 44 kms either with my 20 kg pack or pulling a tyre. Using my mountaineering boots for the first time for a while gave me blisters. That was the first walk of the weekend and for the remaining two walks I hobbled in my runners. One of these walks was a delightful spin around the Macedon Ranges Walking Track. The slope at each end of this track is 'very good for training' being steep and long.

A couple of days of no activity followed that little burst of activity - not because rest was in order but because of work commitments taking up my time. I did manage 2 gym sessions and 2 more walks (20 kms in total, tyre or pack) by the end of the following weekend.

I have to keep up the momentum for 2 more weeks. That's two more 'tyre drags' and several pack walks. I am getting stronger!

Getting our gear together

We are lucky to have many of the items we need for our trip because of trips we have done in the past. We do however need to replace some items and get a couple more.

I have been very excited to find a company that sells overpants with a full fly zip - a zip that will let me go to the toilet without having to pull my pants down. I've learn't from experience that this helps enormously with keeping warm and maintaining dignity while toileting in -30degrees C. It also means that I can go to the toilet while wearing my climbing harness and don't have to worry about unclipping from a rope if we happen to be roped up for glacier travel (the harness is what the rope is clipped into so to take it off to go to the toilet means that I would no longer be roped in.)

There have been some companies that make clothing with this design in the past but currently they are not - so I was very happy to find Marmot had one.

I bought these overpants on line, making a guess about the size and crossing my fingers that they will fit. I've had them sent to my sister Erica, who lives in San Francisco. Erica and her kids tested out the size for me - bit hard to tell from the pictures but it looked like they had fun. I"m sure they'll be big enough!

I've also had a set of tent poles sent to Erica - we need extra poles to help the tent in the case of big snow falls. We will pick these up on our way as we visit Erica and her family before heading south.