Day 13  -  Back to base camp

Terrible last night with a heavy, windy storm from about 11pm onwards. Hard to sleep through the noise and very, very cold. Snow is everywhere so packing and setting off at anything likes reasonable hour is going to be tough - all the way back to base camp so quite a long way and therefore efficiency is going to be important...

Turned out my boots are full of snow so will have frozen feet for most of the am plus I can't find my liner gloves so will be packing with a variation of bare hands, slippery liner mitts and huge, undexterous outer mitts. Really not my best and it is my turn to require assistance and keep the others waiting - not very efficient and something to learn from for more demanding trips! Although everyone else struggles as well and a number of tents are damaged by a combination of the rocky ground and high winds.

We clear our previous camp sites as we descend. Somehow there are all sorts of extras on the way down - helpfully the last group had left a series of stashes for us but were not sure what they were - as such we could not take any less up but with us but had to bring all their unwanted items down, thanks!
I ended up with a pack of over 30kg for our five hour descent including a shopping basket of food as I had run out of places to strap the extra bags on.

But must take my hat off to Stu who was bringing down a pack of almost 40kg!

It turns out that our summit day was the end of the weather window (as we experienced with the storm earlier) with the next potential summit day on 14th. Some groups seem to be preparing to ride it out up high while others have come down the mountain in the hope of having an easier time until then. The poor weather seems to be following us down the mountain as the temperature has really dropped and it is now snowing - a far cry from the crippling sunshine of the earlier part of the trip.
This evening and tomorrow are well deserved recovery and organizing after two long days on the mountain and not much sleep.

Next, we head out to Mendoza over the next two days to enjoy the city (tipsy winery tours and paragliding seem popular and showers necessary) before going our separate ways at the end of the week.
Will probably also need to find a gym as the altitude has had the predicted and depressing impact of muscle loss, as the body burns muscle as well as the food consumed at altitude - I even, even more depressingly, seem to have gained some padding to combat the high altitude and cold!
Food today
Chicken and bacon pasta for breakfast. The meat freeze dried meals are nowhere near as food as the vegetation ones.
No lunch as we are descending at this point but there is a great spread awaiting us at base camp including spicy guacamole - just what burnt and cracked lips need but fresh vegetables as well as some fresh melon are just what the body wants.
Lasagne - mountain style: ie with all sorts of meat and veg in it. Very tasty after a week on mountain food.