Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch
January 18, 2015 – Great Success on Summit Day
4:50 AM
Okay, it is 4:50 in the morning, Sunday morning. Here we go! We are beginning our climb. There is 9 of us taking off from High Camp on Aconcagua. Including our 4 Vancouver climbers; Chuck, Gord, Doug and Leah.
Fareen will remain here at High Camp and take care of things. Keep the tents up when the wind starts blowing. Many, many hours from now I am sure he will have some hot drinks for us, soup and some nourishment for us when we return.
This is really just a Grouse Grind in terms of elevation gain. The same training climb these guys do back home in British Columbia. In terms of the feet we are going to try and climb today. It is really close to the same. The difference is we are starting much higher in elevation. Of course weather can be more serious and we are high in the atmosphere.
The team is looking great. This will be a long, long climb. We are going to take it a step at a time. We will try to give you some updates as we go. But this is it. This is our big summit day.
Listen to Wally's call
Alpine start to Aconcagua summit day.
The sun rises as the team climbs higher.
1:30 PM
It's about 1:30 in the afternoon and I am calling you from an amazing place. This is La Cueva, the Cave. It's the base of the famous Candeletta which leads the last 900 feet to the summit ridge of Aconcagua, the highest summit of the Americas.
Wow, what a feeling. We are really, really high and it's a really good day. It took us about 8 hours of continuous climbing to get this high. We started out in the darkness following our headlamps of course. We reached into Pendencia at 21,000 feet after about 4 - 4.5 hours. Now we are at a really amazing place. It is hard for me to emphasize about how high this is. Where we are sitting is now is the base of the Canelletta 22,000 feet. We are already 1,700 feet then Denali, the highest point in North America. As a matter of fact, the places you can go this high in the world are very few. Of course the Himalayas and the Karakoram, the Premier mountains. But of course there’s only two places elsewhere in the world that have terrain over 6,700 m where we are right now. And that's Argentina and Chile. You can't go this height in Bolivia you can't go this high in Peru. This team has shattered their altitude record and they are doing great.
What we have decided to do, at this point is Gord, Leah and myself and Alex are going to head down, back to Berlin where Fareen is waiting.
Continuing ahead we are going to have three guides, Osvaldo, Maria and Sergio. With them, a couple of lifelong friends; Doug and Chuck.
Listen to Wally's call
The traverse
Pointing the way of the route
Climbing in the wind
4:30 PM
Good news. At 4:35 PM Osvaldo's voice burst over the radio and he informed me at Plaza Berlin where Gord, Leah and I are now that he and Chuck and Doug and the Berg Adventures Bolivia team Maria, Osvaldo and Sergio were on thr summit of Aconcagua. They made it!
We are really proud of these guys. They pushed for hours and hours. It was about a 12 hour one way trip. For us who came down it was about a 12 hour round trip. Chuck and Doug, besides savoring their summit are going to have to descend and join us down here at Berlin and we will inform you when they are down.
You know this team of 6, the Friends from Vancouver are sort of split all throughout Argentina. We've got a couple elsewhere in Argentina. We've got a couple on the summit of Aconcagua and we've got a couple here at Berlin, resting after a really great effort today.
I know that in the next two days the team is going to start moving back towards one another. So please stay tuned our adventure is not over. We are going to be reunited in Mendoza but in the meantime this mountain team will be moving off the mountain. I am really proud of them they did a remarkable effort climbing at extremely high altitude. Congratulations to everybody.
Listen to Wally's call
Almost there
Summit Success! Congratulations team.
9:35 PM
Well it’s about 9:25 PM. 16.5 hours after we started climbing. The summit team just walked into camp. Chuck and Doug did great! Believe me they look really exhausted right now but they are proud. Two lifelong friends climbed Aconcagua together today.
I know they are thinking about Elaine. It was Elaine’s special birthday year celebration that really inspired this whole Aconcagua adventure. It was a few months ago that we all met over a wonderful dinner in Vancouver and the plan was hatched.
We are kind of spread all over Argentina right now but this remarkable group of friends have executed an amazing adventure. They’ve all pushed themselves with unspeakable beauty, unspeakable effort, great laughter, warmth and friendships. It’s been a real privilege for me and the Berg Adventures Bolivian team to spend the time that we have so far with this team. The adventure is not over, as you know.
The mountain team is all back at high camp tonight. We are heading out tomorrow and like I said the full team I drawing closer.
So stay tuned in the next couple of days and we will keep you posted.