Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 29, 2012 – A Windy Summit Attempt on the Highest Mountain in the Western Hemisphere

We’ve been watching Guilherme’s weather reports all along and we’ve known that the winds on the summit of Aconcagua and on the upper reaches of the mountain have been projected to be very high from the 28-31 – throughout the period that we have been here. We chose the 29th to be our summit day and I’m glad we did.

Yesterday, the 28th, a team for the UK that we befriended got through the area called Independencia around 21,000ft/6,400m. Their guide said that they just got slammed by the wind and had to come down. We decided that today was our day and I have to report that our experience wasn’t much different from the British team’s. We started climbing at 5:45am in a pretty strong wind. After we climbed through the steep, rocky section above Plaza Berlin where we stayed, the wind remained consistently severe. The entire group was very tough. Everyone had their down hoods up, goggles on, bracing against the wind. Paule was blown over and when she picked herself up, we all knew that any one of us might be next.

We climbed strong and steady until an elevation I’m going to call 20,800ft/6,339m because that’s what Howard’s altimeter said. We viewed the GPS altimeter that was loaned to Howard by the Search and Rescue association that he is a member of back in Alberta – we’ve used that device as for our altitude the entire trip. That means that we had about 2,000ft/609m to go when we were turned around by fierce winds.

Now we are back at Plaza Berlin. Our tents held up and the wind was considerably less menacing down here. Each member of the group is in their North Face tent resting. Maria is still taking care of us with lots of hot liquids and food. She will have lunch for us in a little bit – a late lunch. We are going to need to rest and recuperate before we descend. Everyone is fine after a rigorous summit attempt that showed us the true power of the mountain. I’m really glad today was our summit attempt. Guilherme’s forecasts showed that the next two days will be more of the same. I’m glad that we went while we had the strength to see what was up there. We watched a plume going off of Aconcagua, and were able to see Aconcagua’s shadow as the sun was coming up. It was foreboding, but it was also beautiful and you have to get in to the high mountains to see sights like that and to have experiences like this team had today.

We will report as we descend to Plaza de Mulas and continue back to Mendoza.