Aconcagua Expedition Dispatches

January 23, 2009 – The Team Passes Niki’s Rock

It is the afternoon of the 23rd. I am calling you from our high camp. The team is getting settled in and resting for our summit attempt. The summit team will be: Armando, Vaughan, Tom, our two father son teams (Cliff, David and Mark, Ryan), as well as Dan and Steve.

Everyone looks great. These guys were impressed yesterday when a very fit, young, European climber came through our Nido camp with a report that he had been beaten back by high winds and altitude exhaustion somewhat short of the summit.

Our team is prepared and we are going to give it a good shot tomorrow. About an hour out of camp at Nido today we reached Niki’s rock. Leila and I and everyone with Berg Adventures will always remember Niki Skocyla’s rock because it was a high point for Niki on Aconcagua in January 2006. We didn’t know at the time that this young man from Banff, Alberta would go home a few weeks later and be diagnosed with lung cancer, which began a series of battles that lasted a few years.

Niki’s love of life and adventure was such that we have a hard time thinking of him having had such a short life. I saw that young man live with confidence, passion and love for the natural world in a way that even in his last years of his life were richer than most of us could imagine. He had his setbacks, but always bounced back. He fought it as long as he could. We sadly lost Niki in January 2008.

In memory of Niki, his friends and family set up a foundation: Niki Skocylas, Mountain to Mountain Memorial Scholarship. Part of the funds this year went to a digital Nikon SLR camera for Juancho, BAI’s guide from Bolivia, who remembers Niki well. Juancho’s eye for photography has been brilliant over the years and with this new equipment it will allow him to take it to a new level of professionalism.

Niki’s spirit is with us as we continue higher. This tight team watched Leila and I pause at Niki’s rock for a few moments, we told them his story and they were inspired as everyone is when they hear about this amazing young man from Alberta.

After we left Niki’s rock we put on our crampons and we continued up for about another hour and a half. Now we have settled into Berlin high camp. We will be served hot food at about 5:00 pm and we will try to rest and get as much sleep as we can between now and 2:00 am.

Aconcagua is a great mountain and a great mountaineering challenge for any lover of the big mountains of the world.

We will report to you tomorrow as we go up. The mountain is bigger than we are but we have big dreams and ambitions and we hope to stand at the highest point on South America sometime tomorrow morning. We will call you from the summit!