Riding Volcanoes
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From Incahuassi's summit (6671 m), I spot Ojos del Salado (6887 m) in the background, the volcano that I rode down in 2004, all dressed in white. Eleven months later, I am back in this remote region of the northern Argentinean Andes to shoot a documentary while I ride down two new volcanoes.
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For this new challenge, I chose Incahuasi Volcano because of its massive cone shape and because I was attracted by the fact that the Incas first climbed it in the 15th century. The second one, called Pissis Volcano (6894 m), is not only the one that holds the biggest glacier in this extremely dry mountain area, but is also a huge volcano that is only slightly lower than the highest mountain in the Andes, named Aconcagua (6959 m).
At 10 am on 13th January, I am ready to ride down the mountain. While I get dressed for the downhill run, German (the cameraman) fixes a palm size on-board camera over the handlebars. Besides the uncomfortable task of wearing body protection over climbing clothes, the cold wind quickly freezes my toes while swapping my climbing boots for bike shoes. I start riding downhill through thick, grey clouds. There's so much fresh snow that if the slope is not steep enough, the bike gets stuck.
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About 600 m below the summit, I can't ride downhill any longer. To make things worse, the fog is so thick that sometimes the only thing I can see in front of me are the snowdrifts. The cameraman can't see me either.
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Below Camp 1 (5400 m), German asks me to traverse the slope 800 m in the opposite direction from where he is placed with the camera. When I lose sight of him, I can hear his voice on the radio "Can you see the slope going straight down from where you are? Ride down and stop after 500 m". I reply back "I can't see any slope". It is so steep, that 50 m below me the slope disappears like a cliff. I ask nervously "Could you please tell me what it looks like?". With an encouraging tone he replies "There are some snow patches down there, inside thick channels that divide the slope. I can get a breathtaking shoot from here, but you decide whether you are up to it or not".
I decide to ride towards the unknown, pulling my bike backwards while almost sitting on the back wheel and pressing the brake levers with full power. I am suddenly just flying downhill without being able to keep the bike stable if I brake. I can only concentrate on not crashing into big rocks. Finally, I feel the slope gets easier with proper ground to brake on. I come to a halt. All my adrenaline is burned and German shouts on the radio "Cool, it was so cool, but you went downhill so fast that I lost you from the camera eye for a while!". Only a few hundred meters are now between base camp and us. This is the first time Incahuasi has ever seen a bike.
Six days later, Pissis gives me the chance to make a direct descent from 6400 m to 4800 m. Five high pinnacles are considered 'summits' on that amazingly huge volcano. Our climbing direction will be towards its eastern summit at 6875 m.
Four hundred meters below the summit, I bring the crew to a halt. It is only 9.00am but the wind is blowing so strongly that carrying on to the summit could result in us not being able do a proper run straight down to base camp.
It takes us until 6.30pm to film the downhill. I have to repeat different shoots many times, meaning I have to climb back up slopes that I have already ridden down. Here I suffer my only fall. The front wheel gets trapped in a snow-covered hole and I find myself flying over the handlebars. Besides this fall, I find myself in complete harmony with the bike riding down this volcano.
Pissis is ridden down for the first time as well, but I am not seeking any record. Everything started due to my curiosity to know whether it was possible to think fast over two wheels and cope with a demanding downhill at an altitude where oxygen concentration is almost half of that of sea level, where the cold and the wind-chill factor is below temperatures used in the disc brakes test chambers.
Due to this interest and my passion both for high altitude climbing and MTB, we have been able to come back from the Andes with many hours of footage that show that this challenge is as possible and as appealing as it sounds to those who have two legs... and two wheels.
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Story written by Manuel Bustelo
Photographer Luciano Badino
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