Aconcagua Expedition Dispatches
January 23, 2009 – Tonight Is Our Summit Attempt!
Our team is trekking towards Berlin High Camp. Berlin is our last stop before the summit of Aconcagua
It’s morning on Friday January 23rd. I’m calling you from Nido de Condores where the team is packing up their packs and about to start uphill for what is in fact our summit attempt.
Our high camp at Berlin is about 300 m/1,000 ft above us and we will move in there this afternoon, settle down very early and then begin climbing in the dark Saturday morning towards the summit of Aconcagua.
We continue to have our ups and downs but the body is an amazing machine and the acclimatization is coming around. David did not have a good night last night as he had some altitude symptoms. We upped his dosage of Diamox and gave him plenty of water and this morning he woke "feeling like a million bucks."
We continue to monitor one another, go slowly and now it’s looking good for this team as they move to high camp.
An update from Plaza de Mulas; Bill has decided to wait for the team there and will go out by mule on Monday. When Bill got to Plaza de Mulas yesterday after his descent, the doctors told him that he had the beginning stages of pulmonary edema, but since then his lungs have cleared and he has come around. He also had some swelling in his legs as a result of fluid (edema) or perhaps because of athletic injuries from his long career as a distance runner.
We called Bill last night and we put his buddy Tom on the phone. After Bill and Tom talked for a while, Bill said he had to get back to his meal; Cynthia had prepared him a steak. When Nelson returned to our camp this morning from Plaza de Mulas, he reported that Bill in fact had Cynthia prepare him two steaks last night!
This has been a great trip so far and we are about to face some big challenges. Climbing towards the summit of the Americas is a miraculous thing to experience. I’m confident that this team will perform well. Tomorrow will be a tough day with an early start, mountain gods willing; we will get all of the way to the summit. Stay tuned as we report our progress and climb to the top of Aconcagua.