Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch
January 16, 2010 – Rest Day at Plaza de Mulas
The view overlooking the hustle and bustle of Plaza de Mulas
When we arrived at Plaza de Mulas base camp, 4300m/14,100ft above sea level last evening we were very tired from the long walk up the Horcones River Valley. Line, Alex and David are members of the team who have been here before on previous Berg Adventures expeditions, and they seem to be doing very well again this time.
The colourful tents, the signs for various services such as internet, restaurants, hamburgers, and showers, make Plaza de Mulas quite a commercial and international place. As we walked through the main camp up to our camp which is right near the very top, we heard many different languages, people from all over the world, resting and preparing to climb higher on Aconcagua.
Alain and Isabelle raising epilepsy awareness
with the CHUM banner
Our own team is doing just that today. In fact, while the climbing members acclimatize and take light activity around Plaza de Mulas, Simon, Apolo, Oswaldo, and Juancho are doing a carry all the way up to Nido de Condores, our second camp, and they’ll leave some things at Plaza Canada as well. They are moving food, fuel and the basic things we need for the expedition.
The rest of us are wandering around Plaza de Mulas and waiting outside the medical tent to have our baseline figures taken, just as we did at Confluencia Camp, to see how we’re all doing in our initial visit to this new altitude. It turned out that the whole team passed their medical exams with flying colors.
We’ll be packing some of our own loads under Juancho’s direction this afternoon. Tomorrow morning, if things go well, we will move higher.
One thing I want to mention is the excellent work that Alain’s been doing back in Montreal at the University of Montreal Medical center with the CHUM Epilepsy Group. He raised more than $60,000 before he left for Aconcagua with the attention he drew to the epilepsy cause. We hope that through their website and ours, people will be watching Alain’s progress as he takes his own body to performance and physiological limits, climbing high in the atmosphere, in support of learning research and treatment of epilepsy.