Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 12, 2010 – Our First View of Aconcagua

It’s 11am on Tuesday the 12th of January and I’m calling you from the Chilean/Argentine border, literally at the crest of the Andes mountain range at elevation of 4000m/13,000ft. It’s a perfectly clear day and remarkably for this region of the Andes, we don’t even have much wind. Of course 4000m is a very significant elevation for our group to be at today. Now we didn’t walk or hike or climb this high. From our lodge in the town of Penitentes at 2600m/8,500ft, we came via van this morning, traveling through the entrance of Aconcagua Provincial Park where we had astounding views of our goal, Aconcagua. We looked up at the summit and we saw the view of the South face, one of the greatest mountain walls on earth which rises 3400m/11,200ft vertically from the base to the very top.

Here at the pass, the entire group is wandering around experiencing the thin air. We’re taking some photographs and working on our acclimatization as well as marvelling at how lucky we are to have come this far.

Yesterday after we left Mendoza, as part of a Berg Adventures tradition, we stopped in the mountain resort village of Uspallata for a wonderful Argentine barbeque at a local restaurant there. The meal consisted of chorizo, barbequed sausage, wonderful ribs, chicken, beautiful papa fritas (fried potatoes), and salad. It was a great lunch.

When we arrived at our lodge we moved into our comfortable rooms. We’re going to be doing quite a lot of organization because this afternoon, after we go back to our lodge, we’ll put our duffel bags together and Oswaldo and the staff will take them to the town of Punta del Inca where they will be given to the mule drivers. Our big loads will begin to move up the mountain already.

Tomorrow we begin our hike into Aconcagua Provincial Park and we will be ascending toward our base camp. For now, just know that our entire team is enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful Andean scenery and working on our acclimatization. Things are going great so far.