There is a lot to say. More than will be said in this article. Many months of planning went into this trip with my friend Paul Goransson. We trained hard and took time away from home during the holiday season to go to Argentina. We both felt there was a lot at stake. Paul and I arrived in Mendoza, Argentina after a long day of travel. The only real snafu was that we needed to go to Chile first, obtain a visa there, and rebook Ray's flight. This change of plans resulted from a luggage issue---surprise.
Paul and I met our guide Andre Imboden in Mendoza the next day. We had climbed with Andre before in Switzerland and Russia. We also had a young Swiss guide name Tomas, who the year before had taken a horrible fall off the Matterhorn. Tomas walked with a dramatic limp. Another Swiss guide named Klaus was there with four young Swiss clients.
The problems began right away as all the Swiss had been staying at high altitude for five days prior to coming to Argentina. Neither Paul nor I had the opportunity to do this and we made that very clear to our guides. Nevertheless, they pushed our schedule much too quickly. To make a long story short, Ray suffered from tremendous headaches for the first six or seven days. Paul also had headaches but was feeling stronger than Ray. Unfortunately, the rushed pace resulted in Paul getting pulmonary edema. Paul was evacuated by mule in a blizzard ... for Paul this was the beginning of a very long couple of days. He arrived safely in Maine a few days later. It would be several days later before Ray heard this news. Paul went on to make a full recovery and is as strong as ever.
The day after Paul took ill, Tomas was evacuated with pulmonary edema. Clearly, the pace of the expedition had gone too quickly. Ray and Andre were up and down the mountain, and each time they went higher Ray had a splitting headache. Although we had three weeks planned for the trip, the Swiss seemed to want to get to the summit as soon as possible. Well, Ray pushed through some new barriers and made it to the summit roughly ten days after leaving Savannah, Georgia. It was very difficult. Reaching the summit was a big thrill but the process involved was not as smooth as it could have been. We learn from our mistakes and move on to the next challenge.