The Aconcagua team is taking a day to rest and continue acclimatizing at base camp after climbing up to Camp 1 (16,400 ft) yesterday.  The climb to Camp 1 served multiple purposes, they carried some of their personal gear up to camp to get stocked up and lighten the loads for the day they move up to Camp, but maybe more importantly it is a chance to begin the acclimatization to the higher altitude.  They will employ the time tested “climb high/sleep low” strategy by climbing up to a higher camp to stimulate the acclimatization responses, and then sleep at the lower camp for another night. Typically when the climbers then move up to the next camp, they’ve already begun to acclimate to the higher altitude. They’ll continue this strategy moving up from base camp to increasingly higher camps so that by the time they are heading to the summit, they are acclimatized enough to climb at over 22,000 ft.

They got on some snowfields on the way to Camp 1 yesterday and put on their crampons for the first time of the trip.

They’ll enjoy another day of the relative luxury of basecamp and then plan to move up to Camp 1 tomorrow!  Here’s the dispatch from basecamp on December 2

Expedition Dispatch Aconcagua Basecamp