The team moved up to high camp today! They had a good day to pack up and hit the trail and made good time moving the 2,000′ up to the area known as “White Rocks.”
The trail climbs steeply out of Camp 2 and into a long, broad basin with an old, dead glacier covered almost entirely with scree at its upper reaches. They traversed up and roughly north into another, narrower basin lined with strangely shaped, purple hued rock towers. This is one of my favorite parts of the routs, and it always feels like I’m hiking through an old Star Trek set, with the bizarre globules of rocks strewn about the basin.
The trail turns a corner around one such rock formation and the climbers stepped out onto a good-sized flat expanse situated on the north ridge of Aconcagua- White Rocks. There is quite a bit of room at this camp, as it is several hundred meters across and has ample space for numerous teams. The far side of camp gives the climbers a view of the west side of the mountain, hidden from their view until today. This is the direction they will descend after their summit day, planned for tomorrow morning.
They will get up early and hit the trail for the summit before daylight. After roughly an hour of climbing, they will join the same trail taken by the climbers ascending the “Normal Route,” which climbs up from the veritable tent city known as Plaza de Mulas, at the head of the long Horcones Valley.
The weather forecast looks pretty good, so let’s all wish the team well and keep our fingers crossed for reports from the trail tomorrow morning.
Good luck everyone!
Here’s Zach:
