Joy to the world from BAI Ojos Team

Well it’s Christmas morning and I’m happy to report that our Christmas gift was absolute change in the weather.

I’m sitting now at 5000 m or about 16,400 feet. We moved here yesterday. There’s a small refugio where we of course have put our little Christmas tree and we have a couple of tents up here and our Christmas morning dawned absolutely still, clear sky, amazingly warm for this altitude.

I haven’t reported this perhaps in my previous dispatches but this particular range in Northern Chile has the warmest temperatures for these altitudes I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Water doesn’t even freeze.

That’s bound to change as we move higher today. We’re going to move 3,000 feet or 900 meters higher to our last camp before we attempt to summit on the 26 of December.

But for now we welcome the glorious morning and of course our thoughts are going out at Christmas time to our families and friends – with this group in particular – who are all over the world.

We send best wishes, Merry Christmas,Feliz Navidad to Nachrodt-Wiblingwerde, Germany, home of Karl. To California, home of the Berkeley Bullet, John. Toronto, the home of the famous Larry, without whose spirit this group would not be the same and wouldn’t be doing as well. Of course Dublin Ireland, which sent us the Dublin Flash, Deborah. And back in New York we have to laugh as we send best wishes to Donna’s parents who learned of Donna’s plans for this Christmas when the Berg Adventures’ newsletter arrived in their mailbox and they saw their daughter was planning to climb the two highest peaks in the Americas over the holidays.

Leila and I are sending our fondest wishes to our families in Brazil and in the United States and also to our friends on Bambi Lane in Seattle.

To all our friends and families around the world, please know that here in Chile we are at a high altitude. We are a strong team, a happy team. We have a happy little home in our refugio here. We are moving higher, in good spirits, with best thought to you all and with confidence as we move towards our goal of reaching the summit of Ojos del Salado the day after Christmas, December 26.

We’ll keep reporting to you.