Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 6, 2013 – We Are Doing Well Here on Aconcagua

Part I

It is a beautiful Sunday here at Nido de Condor Camp on Aconcagua, absolutely clear skies and no wind. We are wearing our big down jackets as we walk around outside our tents here in the sunshine because we are at 18,300 ft. above sea level and our bodies need sufficient insulation. It is certainly not very warm but really pleasant conditions for this high on the mountain.

Last night after dinner Osvaldo and Sergio down-carried rubbish and waste all the way back to Plaza de Mulas and they showed up here at our camp at Nido again about 10 o’clock this morning. So they are as usual super human, did a great effort keeping up with moving our stuff off the mountain as we are preparing to climb higher. Today we are going to climb up to Berlin after lunch, Berlin as you know is our high camp, 19,600 ft. above sea level. We will see how it feels to climb that high and we will return here for the night.

The weather report Guilherme sent to us indicates that we are going to have very high winds tomorrow, probably 35 knots here at this camp, but more importantly it is much higher, 15 knots and above, up on the mountain. So if that’s true, we will take an extra day here before we move up and probably we will be making a summit attempt on the 9th. We are prepared to move if the weather forecast is wrong and if the wind is a bit lower, we will move up to high camp tomorrow. The good news is the guys are feeling well. It is tough living here at high altitude but they do not have any headaches, their appetite is good, they are taking good care of themselves and Maria is still fixing fabulous meals for us so life is good here in Aconcagua and we will keep you updated.

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Part II

Maria fixed wonderful pancakes for breakfast this morning and we had scrambled eggs with ham and onion as well. You should have seen the look on Dan’s face at lunch time when Osvaldo pulled out some Fanta, Coke cola and Sprite that he carried up this morning from Plaza de Mulas. It was a great lunch, soup and soft drinks. Here we go to Berlin Camp, we got our big boots on for the first time, our double mountaineering boots.

I should report to you that Aconcagua is dryer than I’ve seen in many years, perhaps drier than I‘ve ever seen it. Areas where we normally wear crampons, we will not be, we probably won’t put our crampons until we are very high on the route this year. Parts of the trail that we’ve already climbed through snow typically are dry, we will see if that is to our advantage or disadvantage. I will have to reserve judgement on that for now. As we start up for Berlin for the first time, we will be just walking on trail, no snow at all. The weather is good, it is hard to imagine these big winds in the forecast should be here in 24 hours from now. We will see if they actually arrive but we will be ready in either case. As I said earlier the guys are looking very good and we are doing well here in Aconcagua.

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