Diving Day One.
Every one
was up early. I tried the
freeze-dried Omelet de Jambon, but it was terrible,
so had more Ramen Noodles
and extra sugar in my tea. I strained out the
copepods, ostrocods, and
chubby shrimp that had gotten into my water bottle
by pouring
it through my balaclava as a sieve before boiling the water.
The lake is made of snow melt, and should be relatively safe, but I am
reminded that Laguna Verde down below is rich source of arsenic, and
also remember from Tibet that some
high altitude lakes have a parasitic worm that goes directly from drinking
water to your brain, where it causes seizures, coma, and death. I boil it
well done....
Every one
was up early. I tried the
freeze-dried Omelet de Jambon, but it was terrible,
so had more Ramen Noodles
and extra sugar in my tea. I strained out the
copepods, ostrocods, and
chubby shrimp that had gotten into my water bottle
by pouring
it through my balaclava as a sieve before boiling the water.
The lake is made of snow melt, and should be relatively safe, but I am
reminded that Laguna Verde down below is rich source of arsenic, and
also remember from Tibet that some
high altitude lakes have a parasitic worm that goes directly from drinking
water to your brain, where it causes seizures, coma, and death. I boil it
well done....
The diving goes well. Our Diving Safety Officer Randy
had suddenly
removed from the ascent team by the Safety Review Board, due to a
virus in his coronary bundle branch and its subsequent ventricular arrhythmia.
He feels fine, but really frustrated at being unable to climb, and to lead the dives he had planned for months. With one diver missing from the team, we had to
rewrite the dive roster, the roles and objectives. I have to take over
Randy’s responsibilities during the diving. That means I am off the dive
roster, too.
Nathalie, Rob and Clay are all well
trained for
the mission. I read out protocols and
write down times.They collect samples
and video the colonies of critters
surviving on the lake bottom. These
creatures have been isolated from the
rest of the world in a practically
Mars Like environment for who knows
how long. They are bombarded daily by
enough UV to mutate them all to
death, plus extremes of temperature and just
plain isolation makes
them unlikely to exist, but instead they are thriving,
the water is
thick with them despite its clarity, swimming and fluttering
tails and antennae, dining on another eco system not so easily seen
but also abundant.
The day is beautiful and there is temptation to
make a second dive.
The timing is critical. Although the day is warm in the
crater, the water is very cold and
it takes the divers more than an hour
to recover while sitting in a tent
warmed by the sun. If they
go again, they won’t be out of the water before
1600, and then still in
the tent, shaded and wind blown at 1700, with an
obligation to pack up
and climb over to the summit camp as the mountain
makes its daily
cycle from pleasant to formidably dangerous. I call the 2nd
dive is off, and radio to Randy our conditions. Now we have plenty of time to pack up
and return, and Nath sets up
the Satellite phone for a call to the French
press before we go.
As soon as the diving was done, Pablo and Martin
descended. They want to catch the other side of the
radio conversations
between Randy and me. Randy trained the team, wrote the
protocols, and interpolated the high altitude diving tables for this
expedition only to be shut out from diving and even climbing with the team.
He is stuck at the refuge, waiting for reports on the progress
and conditions on the summit,
pacing a trench in the
floor.
Dive day 2
is a huge success. Every aspect planned and trained for
inthe previous 6
months is achieved. The protocols are accurate, the
physics work, the equipment is flawless, nobody dies. I feel a relief
of pressure I didn’t even
know I was carrying.
That night I have my best
meal on the mountain,
“Lapin Chasseur con
puree de pomes du terre et
champignons”. An initial
look into the
foil pouch was not promising. Mostly
potato powder and
chips of dried
rabbit here and there, but three minutes
later boiling water has
turned it into a gourmet meal, which of course I get
on my mittens
and recycled strainer turned balaclava while trying to eat it
before it turns cold. I can’t get it all out of the pouch, so I make a
secondserving of beef broth and croutons in the same pouch. I had hacked
outa big chunk of ice from under the snow pack, hopefully extremophile free,
and melted it for tea. Earl Grey this time, we are out of mint and I’m
tired of it any way.
Christian says, ‘Stop your weeping. You can
come back again next year’
The rest of the camp packes in to the
tents. Clay and Rob
giggle while they
download data on the computer. The
frat boys unusually
quiet. I climb around
to the lee of the big rocks
that make the lower
boundary of the camp
and hide out from the wind, and
stay there through the
sunset into
the starry night. Orion and his dogs
rise upside down, in a
brilliance such that I can practically see the
change falling out of
his belt purse, his dogs tail,
wagging.
There is no
moon.
The meteors drill into
the
neighboring mountains
without slowing down.
I am alone in an
extreme
Mars-Like environment, and I
am starting to
thrive.
The End
had suddenly
removed from the ascent team by the Safety Review Board, due to a
virus in his coronary bundle branch and its subsequent ventricular arrhythmia.
He feels fine, but really frustrated at being unable to climb, and to lead the dives he had planned for months. With one diver missing from the team, we had to
rewrite the dive roster, the roles and objectives. I have to take over
Randy’s responsibilities during the diving. That means I am off the dive
roster, too.
Nathalie, Rob and Clay are all well
trained for
the mission. I read out protocols and
write down times.They collect samples
and video the colonies of critters
surviving on the lake bottom. These
creatures have been isolated from the
rest of the world in a practically
Mars Like environment for who knows
how long. They are bombarded daily by
enough UV to mutate them all to
death, plus extremes of temperature and just
plain isolation makes
them unlikely to exist, but instead they are thriving,
the water is
thick with them despite its clarity, swimming and fluttering
tails and antennae, dining on another eco system not so easily seen
but also abundant.
The day is beautiful and there is temptation to
make a second dive.
The timing is critical. Although the day is warm in the
crater, the water is very cold and
it takes the divers more than an hour
to recover while sitting in a tent
warmed by the sun. If they
go again, they won’t be out of the water before
1600, and then still in
the tent, shaded and wind blown at 1700, with an
obligation to pack up
and climb over to the summit camp as the mountain
makes its daily
cycle from pleasant to formidably dangerous. I call the 2nd
dive is off, and radio to Randy our conditions. Now we have plenty of time to pack up
and return, and Nath sets up
the Satellite phone for a call to the French
press before we go.
As soon as the diving was done, Pablo and Martin
descended. They want to catch the other side of the
radio conversations
between Randy and me. Randy trained the team, wrote the
protocols, and interpolated the high altitude diving tables for this
expedition only to be shut out from diving and even climbing with the team.
He is stuck at the refuge, waiting for reports on the progress
and conditions on the summit,
pacing a trench in the
floor.
Dive day 2
is a huge success. Every aspect planned and trained for
inthe previous 6
months is achieved. The protocols are accurate, the
physics work, the equipment is flawless, nobody dies. I feel a relief
of pressure I didn’t even
know I was carrying.
That night I have my best
meal on the mountain,
“Lapin Chasseur con
puree de pomes du terre et
champignons”. An initial
look into the
foil pouch was not promising. Mostly
potato powder and
chips of dried
rabbit here and there, but three minutes
later boiling water has
turned it into a gourmet meal, which of course I get
on my mittens
and recycled strainer turned balaclava while trying to eat it
before it turns cold. I can’t get it all out of the pouch, so I make a
secondserving of beef broth and croutons in the same pouch. I had hacked
outa big chunk of ice from under the snow pack, hopefully extremophile free,
and melted it for tea. Earl Grey this time, we are out of mint and I’m
tired of it any way.
Christian says, ‘Stop your weeping. You can
come back again next year’
The rest of the camp packes in to the
tents. Clay and Rob
giggle while they
download data on the computer. The
frat boys unusually
quiet. I climb around
to the lee of the big rocks
that make the lower
boundary of the camp
and hide out from the wind, and
stay there through the
sunset into
the starry night. Orion and his dogs
rise upside down, in a
brilliance such that I can practically see the
change falling out of
his belt purse, his dogs tail,
wagging.
There is no
moon.
The meteors drill into
the
neighboring mountains
without slowing down.
I am alone in an
extreme
Mars-Like environment, and I
am starting to
thrive.
The End
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