World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2011-04-02 2011-04-06 Argentina

2011-04-03:

36
Distance today: 30.0 km (Accumulated: 24510.0 km)
Elapsed time: 02:43:44
Country: Argentina

Start 09:10am., 16c, no wind and clear. At black & white km-marker "Km 1109" on hwy. 7 to Chile. Finish 13:52pm. 18c, l. wind and same. At black & white km-marker "Km 1139" on hwy. 7 to Chile.

Getting a closer look at the Andes Mountains

After another very scenic run which got me yet a bit closer to the border to Chile - which should be little more than 100km ahead now - my supportdriver Jamie and I took time for a little hike to get a closer impression of these amazing mountains.

As you hopefully can see from the pictures its a puzzling amount of details and diversity: some pitch black rock segments mixed in with white, yellow, red, purple and even at times greenish' mountainsides. Due to the volcanic nature of large parts of this mountain chain its also easy to spot the remains of vocanic streams coming down from old cones amongst the steep mountainsides.

We made our small 1 1/2 hour hike up from the tentcamp set in tiny valley off the main highway 7. The camp itself just below 2000m. altitude and the hike and climb up a steep ravine in the mountains took us further 400m. up. Besides giving a much appreciated look & feel' of the mountains I daily run past - and over - at present, it also gave an oppotunity to further accelerate the acclimatisation. Important as there is much higher altitudes to run in the next couple of days.

Usually I might not have energy (but definately interest in :-) hikes and exploring the sourroundings further but since I have to be quite carefull not to get further injured while I wait for a shipment of runningshoes to reach me, then it leaves me with fresh and strong muscles as the stages at the moment 'only' is between 30 and 40km per day. So, the positive of this situation is that there suddenly are much better chances to go a little further than the view from the road itself - even though that is often exiting in itself as I hope the rest of todays pictures (and video's when they get uploaded !) gives an impression of :-)

By the way you might notice on the pictures from our little climb that the stream of rocks and boulders looks a little bit like a glacier. The Andes Mountains in the Mendoza region often has "rock glaciers" whereas high-altitude mountains normally has ice glaciers, ofcourse. The reason behind this phenomenon is that the sharp sun due to the lesser ozonlayer here on the Southern hemisphere melts the ice glaciers themselves at a much higher altitude. Sometimes while running, or when tenting up the mountains after the running, one can hear a sound as if large marbles 'clack' against each other up at the mountainsides...

NB: Ofcourse despite the fantastic scenery its all in all a little bit difficult situation. Not having the runningshoes due to Argentinian customs authorities and, again at the end of todays stage, experiencing problems w. the supportcar. However, not least the support from runningfriends home and abroad more than makes up for the moments of doubt and feeling of an 'uphill battle' (litterally at the moment ;-). And thus a big THANKS for the support !!!