Let’s hope the weather holds

Today is the 1st of January and this is Leila Caudwell reporting from Berg Adventures’ base camp at Plaza de Mulas on Aconcagua.

Today was a well-deserved rest day and also another beautiful blue sky day with not much wind.

We had a good talk with Gabriel, who works here as a park ranger. Bernardo, our guide and trip leader, asked him if he had any news about the weather. Gabriel said the next few days look to be good.

Bernardo’s concern is that usually with the moon change – which will happen over the next few days – the weather often changes. Well, let’s hope it stays the way it is, which is very, very good at this point.

Karl took the day to relax and sleep a little bit. Later on he went for a hike to the nearby hotel, which is located half an hour away from Plaza de Mulas.

David, our assistant guide and great cook, has headed up to Nido de Condores, the next camp, carrying some supplies. The trail heads to the side of the Horcones Glacier before heading up a series of steep switchbacks.

John is feeling extremely healthy and strong and decided to join David for maybe half the hike but ended up going all the way and took some of his climbing gear to drop off at that camp. He came down feeling really good to have done this and reported that the next camp has quite a lot of Japanese climbers.

I have just checked everyone’s oxygen saturation and they are all looking very healthy with really excellent results. The plan is to move up tomorrow. Let’s just hope the weather stays as is.