Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch
January 21, 2008 – Gearing Up for Aconcagua
It is the 21st of January, I'm calling you from Punta Del Inca base at 2600 meters above sea level near the entrance to the Aconcagua Provincial Park. I'm happy to report that the second Berg Adventures Aconcagua climb of the 2008 season is underway with the first 18 members all together. All gear has arrived, of course we're still looking forward to when Opus and Claire join us in a few more days and the entire team is together - but for now, things are looking great.
As usual, we have an international team, we came from all over the world, to join this expedition. David Cohn arrived from California, Line Jacques from Quebec, Dave Christie from Nova Scotia, Martin Glynn from Australia, Klaus Hoefer from Austria, Steve Slaughter from Thailand via his original home in the United States, Mike Theologos came from New York and Alex Fernandes joined us from Portugal. We have four Berg Adventures Bolivian staff with us on this trip as well. You'll get to know these guys well in coming days as we report our adventures.
After Mendoza, life was slow-paced and enjoyable with large lunches as well as big dinners every evening. The weather was quite hot. Today, we're back out in the mountain air, where the temperatures are slightly cooler, and blue skies above. We just arrived at the hotel, and several of the members just walked across the road to the area and hiked up to enjoy the views and acclimatize a little more. We are going to be here for the next two nights easing into the acclimatization and getting ourselves organized before we begin the long walk to Confluencia on Wednesday. We'll report to you as the acclimatization continues, but for now the sky is blue and this team is happy to be together.