Jussi Westergren’s Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 27, 2011 – Off to Penitentes

Around 4:00 PM, yesterday afternoon Jussi arrived at Santiago's airport. Mariela and Osvaldo were waiting for him outside. He looked tired from travel but happy to be in Argentina and to know that our expedition was underway.

Back home Jussi's "girls", Sally, Ella and Sofia are missing him and he already misses them very much too. We know they will be watching our stories as the days go by and we attempt to climb higher on the Western Hemisphere' loftiest summit, Aconcagua.

It is hard not to be in a good mood in Mendoza, Argentina. Bright sunny days, shady tree lined streets, relaxing plazas with people strolling and enjoying the city at all times of the day and night, and of course, the prospect of visiting a few of Mendoza's hundreds of wineries and sampling some of their product.

But as tempting as it is to begin with the wineries right away, Jussi realized that he had a climbing team ready and a mountain waiting for him. We walked this morning to the Aconcagua Provincial Park service office where our climbing permits were issued. We are proud that our team is made up of members with passports from three countries, Finland, Bolivia and Canada.

Today we are off for Penitentes at an elevation of 8,530ft/2,600m. The mountain lies ahead of us, but we are thinking about the days ahead when Jussi's father, Ilkka, will arrive from Finland to join us. Mariela will be waiting for him in Mendoza.

As Jussi said to Osvi as we walked back to the Park Hyatt hotel from the park service office, "I bet we will not smell very good by the time we come off the mountain.” This is probably true, but with some luck and good weather, perhaps we will have climbed to the very top of Aconcagua by the time Ilkka arrives - we will keep you posted with our progress from this point on - stay tuned!