Okotoks father, son bond climbing tallest peak in the Americas

Where many families head for the beach during the holidays, an Okotoks father and son opted for the tallest peak in the Americas.

Todd Heuver and his son Josh took on the 20-day journey scaling the 6,961-metre Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, the tallest peak in the Southern Hemisphere and outside of Asia.

“For us, it’s been a longtime coming,” Josh said. “We love the outdoors, always have, with the Canadian Rockies right here, and we always like to challenge ourselves.

“And we thought this is a pretty big challenge to overcome and a pretty great opportunity as a father and son duo to do this before I head off to university.”

Josh, a Grade 12 student at Foothills Composite, will be studying engineering in post-secondary in either Alberta or British Columbia in the fall with designs on competing in track or cross-country at the university level.

To lessen the impacts on missing school, the two descended upon the Andes over the holiday break.  

Both avid hikers at favourite local spots like Mount Yamnuska and the Mount Assiniboine Trail, Josh also completed a mountaineering course along with gym rock climbing.

“Although I don’t think those skills were necessary for this,” Josh said. “It was really about being in a good physical condition and it was really just a strenuous hike with not a lot of air to breathe.”

For Todd, a project manager and real estate agent, the altitude was the most difficult aspect and something that’s tough to train for, even living on the doorstep of the Rockies.

“Where we stayed at basecamp was taller than any of the mountains in the Alberta Rockies,” he said. “And we only went up from there.”

Having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Todd said Aconcagua was a different beast.

“That gave me a little experience and what to expect for something like this,” he said. “Although this was a level of intensity higher, or several levels.”

Once on site, the mountaineers took on a 20-day journey ascending and descending the 6,961 metres.

Along with all of the necessary equipment and supplies, they also had to pack their patience.

“A lot of that was spent sitting in a tent waiting for a weather window, that took four days just sitting in a tent with really heavy wind and snow,” said Josh, who helped pass the time reading with a Kindle, movies on the phone and getting sleep. “That was rough, those four days, but you just think about why you’re there and push through.”

On days where they could safely move up, wind was among the toughest elements to deal with along with extreme cold and wind chills into the -30s.

“We were well prepared equipment-wise and being from here in Alberta used to a bit of wind and some cold as well,” Todd said.

The group started with 12 and those numbers began to dwindle for a variety of factors.

Two had to be heli-vaced due to altitude sickness, four attempted to summit on an earlier day and were unsuccessful.

The remaining six waited out the weather and attempted the summit, four of whom, including Josh on Jan. 4, made it to the top.

“I made it to summit-attempt day,” Todd said. “It was a thousand metre elevation gain and I made it about halfway and just ran out of energy. You’re just exhausted and your feet feel like lead blocks, you’ve got heavy dual boots on, crampons on and you can barely breathe.

“I was a bit disappointed not to make the summit with Josh, but happy to make it that far and, had I made it I would have been the oldest.”

For Josh, finishing the climb was the most difficult thing he’s ever done and the descent was no walk in the park either.

“Every single step was absolutely exhausting,” he said. “Near the summit our rhythm was one step, five breaths and you still felt like you were going too fast like that.

“I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it was definitely worth what I did to make it to the summit was definitely an exciting opportunity. I ended up throwing up three times on that last 100-metre stretch.”

The opportunity to stop, sit and listen to the body screaming for a reprieve was the immediate feeling for Josh at the apex along with a great deal of gratitude.

“It was like, I‘m here, I’ve done it, I’ve done everything I can and how thankful I was to be there,” he said. 

“When I do something that really challenges myself and pushes me to those extremes and when I come down and do something that’s normally considered hard I can say, ‘Hey, I’ve done something harder than this’ and that keeps me going.

“With all of the running now  I can think I’ve made it to the top of that mountain, it’s not as bad as that so let’s keep going.”

Todd echoed the sentiment, adding the experience provides valuable perspective.

“It does make other things in life seem just a little bit easier,” he said. “Like geez, my flight was delayed two hours, well I didn’t just have to stay in a tent for four days and I can breathe.”

Expecting the odd squabble that comes from being in tight quarters for an extended period of time, the Heuvers got along famously during the entirety of the trip.

“Going into it I thought we would have a couple arguments on something small and have to apologize about it later,” Josh said. “That never really happened. I think he was the best partner to do this with. We supported each other the whole way through.

“It was just an awesome opportunity to hang out for three weeks straight and really enjoy the time we had together.”