Bolivia Expedition Dispatch

June 20, 2008 – Team Acclimatizes with “Soldier On!”

It is a beautiful morning on June 20th in the Andes, and I am going to take the opportunity to update you with what has been going on during our first couple of days working out of our Condoriri Base Camp at 15,300 feet. This is a beautiful base camp; turquoise green lakes and smooth grassy camp sites.

When I last called in, we were headed to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca across the Cordillera Real to this base camp. When we arrived here two days ago in the afternoon, we did the short hike up to 15,300 feet. After our hike, we arrived back to our base camp found our cook Simon and the rest of the staff with a wonderful BBQ prepared waiting for us. They BBQ chicken, pork, beef and sausages as well as a nice fresh salad for our walk into Condoriri Base Camp.

We have now spent two nights here at Condoriri Base Camp. This morning after our second night, the team looks a lot better. Each night we get better acclimatized. We spent a couple nights back in La Paz at about 12,000 feet and two nights at Lake Titicaca 12,500 feet. Some of the team members woke reporting headaches following their first night at 15,300 feet. We have been moving around a little bit and drinking a lot to hydrate to help the symptoms. Our climbing school had an activity which involved going out to the grassy meadow to practice knots and accenting techniques for the fixed lines we will be using on the harder peaks to come. In the afternoon we climbed up to 16,000 feet for the first time, and then came back to base camp. All of this improves our acclimatization, especially sleeping at this altitude.

Today we are going to attempt to climb our first big climb. It is not a glacier climb we are going to be walking on trail and rock, but we are going to try and climb up to 5,300 meters (about 17,500 feet) to the top of Cerro Austria.

This group is doing great. As you will see in the photos we send down tomorrow, it is a good life at base camp. Our acclimatization is presenting challenges and when we start walking we definitely feel the thin air. Stacey has presented us with a good phrase that expresses our determination to do well on this trip...”Soldier On”. This phrase is from another BAI climber, Gus Pope (Stacey’s boss). He said this to her years ago in a different situation and now ‘Soldier On’ has become a theme for this group. Whenever we are walking up the trail, talking about our altitude headaches or dealing with any difficulty, Gus we are thinking of you as we are ‘Soldiering On’ here in the Andes.