January 11, 2007 - Early to Bed Makes for an Easier Alpine Start

Listen to Audio of Wally's Call (.wav) (no audio today)

The team will be dreaming of summits and hotsprings tonight

We are back at our high camp at 19,100 feet (5820m).  It’s 4:00pm, we are about to have our dinner and I hope that we are all in bed by 5:00pm.  Why are we going to bed so early?  We have a big mountain to climb tomorrow.  I hope to have this team moving by 3:00am and I always insist that people go to bed and get enough hours rest, if not even sound sleep at least rest before they get up for what we call an alpine start.  So we are going to be settling down here very soon.            

Claire with Juan Carlos at Laguna VerdeWe started out and moved slowly today.  Martin, Dafna, Opus, Jerri, Steve, Klaus and I went first and walked slowly and not far behind were Claire, Nikki, Jeff and Leila.  Before us all the Bolivian guide team had left and carried an additional load up so we would have enough supplies here to support the summit attempt.  Charlie our cook even came all the way up and then returned to camp alone where the tents are and of course where Guilherme and Erin are going to be waiting in support.

The team looks strong, they are definitely feeling the altitude and I’m seeing some headaches, some spacey looks but they are excited about tomorrow.

How does Jeff keep his shirt so white in the desert?After I did my dispatch yesterday I spoke with Shelley back in our office and she told me the good news that Danny and Carol have decided to stay in Santiago for a few nights and will meet up with us on January 14th.  This is a great team and more than a team great friends that love sharing their climbing adventures together.  We look forward to meeting up with them in Santiago.

Well as I mentioned it’s time to get some rest before our big day tomorrow so stay tuned and we will report to you tomorrow.

ACONCAGUA
Argentina
22,841 feet
6962 meters

OJOS DEL SALADO
Chile
22,637 feet
6900 meters