Aconcagua Expedition Dispatch
February 6, 2015 – Outstanding Success: 12 Members, All at High Camp, 8 to the Summit
It is 2:45pm and Alex radio just burst over the radio excitedly announcing that he and Trevor, Pedro and Josh are standing on the summit of Aconcagua, not far behind them are Johanna and Katie and Melody and Dena and Christina along with the other guides, Javier and Frein.
Now, Elisa turned back on the traverse between Independencia and Candeletta, she was moving slowly and feeling very tired. Osvaldo brought her down. And I reportedly earlier on the dispatches, I came back with Ed from his high point in Independencia which he feels really good about, He said that I could have gone on but this is the high as I need to go today. Congratulations Ed.
Now Leslie turned back right after we started climbing on an elevation of 6,150 metres, he was already higher than Denali, the highest point in North America. Congratulations Leslie on a new elevation record and a good trip.
Jim’s oxygen saturation was not very high this morning, he is looking good in his tent right now. He is feeling well, hanging out and resting. He knew that the summit was not a realistic goal for him today so he decided to take it easy here at high camp.
The team will still be hours before they get down, the second summit team will report when they reached the top I expect everybody back down here at 7 or 8 pm this evening. We are really proud of our team, this is a tough mountain.
Congratulations to the Dirty Dozen, looks like 8 of whom will be on the very top of Aconcagua. But all 12 who reached high camp and who stayed at high camp.
Listen to Wally's call
Great news, Javier just called from the summit and our second summit team. That’s Melody, Dena, Johanna, Katie and Christina along with Frein and Javier are on the summit of Aconcagua. Great success today, the 12 members, the entire team have been fantastic.
Listen to Wally's call
Everybody is back at high camp after an extremely successful summit day, all the 8 summit climbers and the 3 Bolivian guides, just walked into camp, 15 hours after they started it up. It is good weather today but I looked at the tears and joy and exhaustion on each person face and they know they climbed one of the great mountains in the world. It was bigger than they thought it would be, I can tell you that. It is probably bigger than people back home can even imagine.
But this entire “Dirty Dozen” team are going back to bed now for the second night at high camp, everyone has performed marvellously as a team and as an individual at high altitude, really outstanding success here. 12 members, all at high camp, 8 to the summit. We are thrilled with our success. The sun is still a little bit high in the sky here; it is going to be a beautiful sunset in the Andes. Maria has got a good meal for everyone to enjoy tonight and tomorrow we will be moving down, we are heading back to Mendoza in our way home enjoy Mendoza’s wine country. One day early, one day ahead of schedule.
Congratulations to the "Dirty Dozen", they’ve done a great job on Aconcagua today.