Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 27, 2012 – Gear Preparation and Acclimatization at Nido de Condor

It is afternoon tea time here at our camp II Nido de Condor 18,300ft/5,578m above sea level. If I had to have one word to describe how we feel today, it would be lethargic. We are all moving in a very lethargic manner because of the altitude. The altitude affects our bodies. We sit around and talk about it and here it is; it is a real thing. Lisa commented this morning that everything you do takes an effort – getting dressed, getting out of your tent – every move you make is something you have to do with determination at your first day at this altitude.

Despite this handicap, we had a very good morning. We checked out our equipment. We got our crampons out and put them on our boots to make sure they fit. We got our ice axes out and rigged the leashes that we will use to attach them to our harnesses. So we essentially just rigged ourselves up for climbing. Then Maria served lunch. After lunch we climbed, wearing our crampons right out of camp, to Niki’s Rock 18,900ft/5,760m above sea level. Niki’s Rock is roughly half way to Berlin Camp – our high camp – where we will stage our summit attempt, probably this weekend.

I think it made the team feel better to walk and gain confidence moving in their crampons. Step by step, even though we are slow, it felt good to climb higher and higher.

Guilherme Moraes is our weather forecaster and he sends us excellent weather reports daily from Brazil. We have been experiencing some wind today and we expect our winds to increase as we climb higher. If all goes as planned, we will attempt the summit on Sunday and hopefully it will be a good summit day for us. It is one step at a time from here on up.