Aconcagua Expedition Dispatches
January 24, 2009 – Summit Success!
This is Leila reporting from Berlin high Camp on Aconcagua. We arrived yesterday afternoon in the snow storm and around midnight the weather cleared and we could see the stars.
Last night we had three surprise guests who walked into our Berlin Camp. Three Argentinean climbers had left for the summit the night before and got caught in the same snow storm on their way down from the summit. They were completely lost for almost 24hours in extreme conditions. Luckily, we had extra space in our tents where they spent the night. We helped them re-hydrate and tended to their frostbit while they rested and recover from their long scary journey.
The route to the summit of Aconcagua
Our team left for the summit at 3:35am today when the weather was still good. We were aware that the forecast stated the weather was suppose to start to deteriorate along with strong winds.
Right after the team left, the wind started to increase. Mark decided to turn around with Oapolo a few hours later. He arrived back at camp and is waiting for news from the team with me. A few hours after Mark arrived, David and Armando also decided turn around due to the high winds and blowing snow. They came down with Nelson and after a short wait they moved down to Plaza de Mulas to our base camp and where hot shower is waiting for them.
It is now 1:25 pm and I have just received a radio call from Wally communicating that Ryan, Vaughan, Cliff, Tom, Steve, Daniel, Osvaldo, Juancho and Wally are all standing on the summit of Aconcagua!
It is a special moment for our team. Bill is following the team’s progress from Plaza de Mulas/base camp on the radio. Armando and David, on their way down to Plaza de Mulas, also congratulated Wally and the team via radio. We still have a long way to go and the wind is really blowing. This is very common weather on Aconcagua.
Everyone is doing well, I will report to you later and tomorrow we are all going to be together again down at base camp.