Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch
January 3, 2013 – The Slow Mountaineers Pace
Well, it’s Thursday 3rd of January. I am calling you from Plaza Canada once again. But this time our team has occupied this camp. We’ve moved here. Now, we’ll be on the mountain. If things go well, we will be able to continue climbing and if the weather cooperates, at least through the next six nights, beginning with two nights here, at what will be our Camp One, Plaza Canada.
We got up here in little bit faster time than we did yesterday, less than 3 hours. If you could see us walking, or if you could know the way we feel when we’re moving on the mountain, we move very slowly. We set a mountaineers pace, we don’t get winded. Neil and Dan are particularly good at this. We just move continuously. We take breaks about every hour to 1 ½ hours but they’re short breaks. We drink water, take care of our needs and keep moving. The slow mountaineers pace allows us to make good time. That’s how we got from Confluencia to Plaza de Mulas in 7 ½ hours and why it only takes us about 3 hours to come up here.
Don’t get me wrong though, the guys are really working to climb this mountain. Today, I took them on a steeper route to get to Plaza Canada so I can show them about what it would be like on summit day (they’ve been asking). They did really well, the balance was good, and we moved very steadily up some slightly steeper slopes to reach Plaza Canada. We’re settling down now, Neil’s been telling me he’s looking forward to taking a nap in his tent. You know, with Berg Adventures style, these guys were able to arrange for private tents the entire way up the mountain and they’re ready to settle down at Plaza Canada.
We’ll report to you tomorrow and let you know how it goes as we continue our acclimatization.