About a year ago, Séamus asked Jim and Kev if they wanted to go to the Andes to try to break the altitude record on a motorbike. The record is held by 3 Chilean guys who rode one bike to 6471m on Mont Ojos de Salado in Chile. They decided that the best bike for the job was the KTM 350 Freeride because it’s fuel injected.
The plan was to buy the bikes, ship them to South America, hire a crew cab pick up and drive up the mountains with the bikes in the back.
Jim and Séamus did a lot of research, scouring the internet for information, and looking at the tops of the higher Andes for hours on end on Google earth, looking for the best track up the mountains.
Kev and I were thinking that we’d fly to Peru, and go to Macchu Picchu, then fly to Chile, where I’d relax in some nice hotel in the sunshine while the boys went up the mountain. When Kev went to one of the pre trip meetings and told them that I was coming to South America, they asked if I’d come up the mountain as they’d need someone to drive the jeep. They were thinking of hiring a local but sure if I was going to be there I may as well do it.
I was delighted as I wasn’t really looking forward to spending a few days(HAHA)alone in a nice hotel waiting for them to come back.
As Christmas approached, the 2/3 week trip that we had planned had turned into a 5 week trip.
Jim, Kev and I had decided to climb Carrauntoohil, the highest mountain in Ireland, to try out our camping gear.
We had a campfire that night with glorious sausages and a drop of whiskey
Carrauntoohil is only 1060m high.
I wasn’t really aware of what altitude could/would do? Or indeed how difficult the terrain would be up that high. We started looking into altitude sickness and how best we could prepare ourselves.
There’s so much information on the internet explaining to climb high and sleep low, only go up 500m per day, take time acclimatising etc. We found a place in Dublin that hired out hypoxic tents. These were tents that you put up around your bed that had machines attached that reduced the amount of oxygen that was being pumped into the tent. The idea being that if we slept for 9 hours a night in these tents for 4-6 weeks before we went that we would be acclimatised to 4000m – 6000m before we went. The reduction in the oxygen helped build up the red blood cells in our blood which would help when we were at altitude.
We booked our flights just before Christmas, Dublin – JFK - Atlanta – Santiago, and booked the hypoxic tents to use from mid Jan to end Feb. Séamus had found an agent to fly the bikes to Santiago and we decided that we’d worry about getting the bikes home once we got there. The quote to fly the bikes home was 3 times the quote to get the bikes out there.
Packing was a challenge as we needed shorts and t shirts because it was going to be hot, between 20 and 35 degrees C, but it was going to get really, really cold the higher up we went. You lose 6 degrees for every 1000m you climb. We knew there’d be snow up the mountains. So we needed merino base layers, down jackets, gloves, hats and all the rest of the cold weather gear. We needed 4 season sleeping bags, very decent sleep mats and a good tent. On top of all that we were bringing full motorbike gear, suits, helmets, boots etc.
Séamus put up a post on HUBB looking for a pick up in Chile as the prices for renting one were really high. He had an answer from a German guy living in Brazil who owned a Chilean registered jeep. He had to drive it to Chile for its annual MOT type check up. He was happy to rent it to us as he was flying to Canada for the same weeks that we needed to use it. This meant that we now needed to source a trailer as it wasn’t a pick up.
In the meantime, I had been looking for accommodation in Santiago, and everywhere I looked there was a hostel that kept popping up. Hostal Casa Matte, a biker’s hostel, right in the centre of Santiago. I sent a message telling him we were coming to Santiago, shipping bikes, and that we would need accommodation for a few nights when we arrived and some help buying/renting a trailer. Cristian, the owner, was really helpful. I booked us in there for 2 nights and we figured we’d take it from there.
Jim had a great knowledge of all the mountain names and he and Séamus had a plan for which mountain we would try first, and then which one we’d do next if need be. The guys had also suggested I bring my bike gear so I could ride while we there as we were going to be up the mountains for days at a time. Looking at the maps they had figured that the going would get really tough at about 6000m and the woman’s altitude record was 5903m, so there was a possibility that I could go for that record.
We went to Waterford in February for a pre trip meeting and to practice some bike winching.
Two weeks before we left we packed up the bikes, took the front wheels off, took the handlebars off, drained all the fluids out and took the batteries out and got the 3 bikes into a crate sized 180cm x 120cm x 100cm. The crate was being priced by weight so we put nothing in with them only spare rear tyres.
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The plan was to buy the bikes, ship them to South America, hire a crew cab pick up and drive up the mountains with the bikes in the back.
Jim and Séamus did a lot of research, scouring the internet for information, and looking at the tops of the higher Andes for hours on end on Google earth, looking for the best track up the mountains.
Kev and I were thinking that we’d fly to Peru, and go to Macchu Picchu, then fly to Chile, where I’d relax in some nice hotel in the sunshine while the boys went up the mountain. When Kev went to one of the pre trip meetings and told them that I was coming to South America, they asked if I’d come up the mountain as they’d need someone to drive the jeep. They were thinking of hiring a local but sure if I was going to be there I may as well do it.
I was delighted as I wasn’t really looking forward to spending a few days(HAHA)alone in a nice hotel waiting for them to come back.
As Christmas approached, the 2/3 week trip that we had planned had turned into a 5 week trip.
Jim, Kev and I had decided to climb Carrauntoohil, the highest mountain in Ireland, to try out our camping gear.
We had a campfire that night with glorious sausages and a drop of whiskey
Carrauntoohil is only 1060m high.
I wasn’t really aware of what altitude could/would do? Or indeed how difficult the terrain would be up that high. We started looking into altitude sickness and how best we could prepare ourselves.
There’s so much information on the internet explaining to climb high and sleep low, only go up 500m per day, take time acclimatising etc. We found a place in Dublin that hired out hypoxic tents. These were tents that you put up around your bed that had machines attached that reduced the amount of oxygen that was being pumped into the tent. The idea being that if we slept for 9 hours a night in these tents for 4-6 weeks before we went that we would be acclimatised to 4000m – 6000m before we went. The reduction in the oxygen helped build up the red blood cells in our blood which would help when we were at altitude.
We booked our flights just before Christmas, Dublin – JFK - Atlanta – Santiago, and booked the hypoxic tents to use from mid Jan to end Feb. Séamus had found an agent to fly the bikes to Santiago and we decided that we’d worry about getting the bikes home once we got there. The quote to fly the bikes home was 3 times the quote to get the bikes out there.
Packing was a challenge as we needed shorts and t shirts because it was going to be hot, between 20 and 35 degrees C, but it was going to get really, really cold the higher up we went. You lose 6 degrees for every 1000m you climb. We knew there’d be snow up the mountains. So we needed merino base layers, down jackets, gloves, hats and all the rest of the cold weather gear. We needed 4 season sleeping bags, very decent sleep mats and a good tent. On top of all that we were bringing full motorbike gear, suits, helmets, boots etc.
Séamus put up a post on HUBB looking for a pick up in Chile as the prices for renting one were really high. He had an answer from a German guy living in Brazil who owned a Chilean registered jeep. He had to drive it to Chile for its annual MOT type check up. He was happy to rent it to us as he was flying to Canada for the same weeks that we needed to use it. This meant that we now needed to source a trailer as it wasn’t a pick up.
In the meantime, I had been looking for accommodation in Santiago, and everywhere I looked there was a hostel that kept popping up. Hostal Casa Matte, a biker’s hostel, right in the centre of Santiago. I sent a message telling him we were coming to Santiago, shipping bikes, and that we would need accommodation for a few nights when we arrived and some help buying/renting a trailer. Cristian, the owner, was really helpful. I booked us in there for 2 nights and we figured we’d take it from there.
Jim had a great knowledge of all the mountain names and he and Séamus had a plan for which mountain we would try first, and then which one we’d do next if need be. The guys had also suggested I bring my bike gear so I could ride while we there as we were going to be up the mountains for days at a time. Looking at the maps they had figured that the going would get really tough at about 6000m and the woman’s altitude record was 5903m, so there was a possibility that I could go for that record.
We went to Waterford in February for a pre trip meeting and to practice some bike winching.
Two weeks before we left we packed up the bikes, took the front wheels off, took the handlebars off, drained all the fluids out and took the batteries out and got the 3 bikes into a crate sized 180cm x 120cm x 100cm. The crate was being priced by weight so we put nothing in with them only spare rear tyres.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk