Friday
4/6/07

5:00 p m: We went directly to the mountains Pircas Negra. We were not allowed to to to Chile because the border is closed since February 28 but we decided to visit it. We found a refuge at 13000 feet built in 1873 like an igloo but in made of stones.
We were very quickly out of breath. We started immediatly a fire to cook our dinner (4 pieces of red meat). I made the fire at the entrance of the refuge where it was set before. With the strong wind, we could not go in the refuge anymore, the smoke was overwelming. I moved the fire to an other location, but the wind keep us away from the refuge. Inhaling a little of smoke was painfull, and it took a long time to get my breath back after that. Finally I cooked all the meet on my wench (15-16-17-18- and 19 mm), Dinner was delicious. At sunset the temp lowered very quickly to 25ºF and the wind kept blowing very srongly. We set our tarp in the refuge and lie down in our sleeping bags (Jean-Louis has the same kind of sleeping bag as me. Down rated -40ºF and goretex)
Immediatly, the pressure in my head was very, very incomfortable. I was warm but shivering. Breathing was not difficult, it was hard. I needed this breathe in my chest and was concentrating on getting it right. My ovula was swollen, it was hard to inhale, but when finally it happens, i felt so good and immediatly started to concentrate on my next breath. I felt that I was on the edge the all night. My body temperature was way to high and my heart bit was extremely fast. I tried to go to the sidecar where i have altitude pills. At the door of the refuge, I fainted. I decided t came back in my sleeping bag and not to hurt me more. The difference between Jean Louis and me is that I fainted more rapidly, but he had more hallucination and chest pain. The worst of all is the anxiety not to be able to get the next breath. I talked to Jessica a few days ago on skype, she told me of the danger of altitude and that the most important was to drink a lot. We were drinking a lot but it become difficult also because you run out of breath. I could only drink ahalf oa mouthful at a time and work hard to bet back to the breathing rythme.
I had an excit plan in my head, if one of us was going worst, we empty the sidecar and start riding down the montain, but the village was at 80 miles from here. I was thinking a lot to the people that I love the most, Eve, Lucie, Jessica all in Europe certainly at work at this time and Lorraine still sleeping in New York.
During the night, I ask Jean Louis to go to the sidecar and get the altitude pills. I felt better very rapidly, except the pressure of my head on the pillow, I had to move it every few minutes, but finally, I fell asleep. I don't know how long. I needed to pee, and stayed on the edge of the tarp on my knees and pee on the ground. Finally, at 9:30 am, we were both awake, and decided to pack and go down to the valley. Packing was hard, any effort was taking on our breathing, and just to put the sleeping bag in the bag took an awful long time. We drove down by the same way we came to avoid new complication. None of the dirt road are marked in the mountain. At the village, we took a cabana and slept very well last night. I am still recuperating. We drove 60 miles today, but I did not like it, I need to rest more, we have a nice room in an other village, and we will stay one or 2 days there. We learned our lesson, we can go on a pass of higher altitude, but not stay there!