Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch

January 29, 2015 – Resting at Plaza de Mulas

Well it’s about 4 in the afternoon at Plaza de Mulas. It’s a beautiful day! It is our first full day here.

Believe me this team needed some rest. We had a late breakfast, which was fine with everyone. I can say that everybody slept quite well because everyone was tired from that 9-plus-hour walk yesterday.

We are 14,450 feet which is 4,400 metres above sea level. This is serious.

Now we have seen the doctors twice. We saw Simon down in Confluencia and we got checked out by him knowing we would need to be checked out by a doctor at Plaza de Mulas again. I had said we will see Veronica up at Plaza de Mulas, she’s another doctor here. But Simon said no I am going to replace Veronica, I will see you tomorrow. Now how did Simon do that? Well the helicopter has something to do with that. He had just hopped off the helicopter when he had given our exams this morning. He was laughing about his 8-minute ride. He may need to acclimatize a bit this afternoon but he was sharp when he checked us out. It is good to have that medical support as we get our bodies ready to go higher.

It is an afternoon of napping right now after a big lunch. This morning was for showers, washing and just marveling at where we have gotten so far on this trip.

Thanks to Josh for preparing, along with a soldering iron, our satellite phone. He was the hero of the day!

We’ve got a long ways to go but stick with us as we send reports from our time here on the mountain.