A largely unintelligible satellite phone call from Alex Strauss does little to convey the sentiments of the team. A bug that was picked up at some point before the expedition has really hit Jenni hard in the past days and given the challenges placed upon the human body at altitude, she just wasn’t getting any…
The team has elected to spend another day at Plaza de Argentina, or what we also call Base Camp, in order to allow Jenny some additional rest. Base Camp is relatively luxurious, in that the team is at 14,000′ and they have access to large shelters to hang out, read, play games, eat, etc. It’s…
The December 22nd Aconcagua Expedition made their first climb up to Camp 1 today at over 16,000 ft, where they left a bunch of gear and food and then returned to base camp. The goal for today was primarily to get up to higher altitude and continue the acclimatization process, preparing them to move up…
Daunesh Alcott joined the team this morning, arriving via helicopter into the Plaza Argentina Base Camp. He has been acclimatizing in Ecuador and will climb the mountain with Alex, Jenny, Fermin and Aaron. It was a beautiful, clear morning for a flight! Today was a planned rest and acclimatization day, as the climbers who trekked…
The team arrived at the Plaza Argentina base camp today and are enjoying the little luxuries this evening. This camp will be their home for the next 3-4 nights, so they will settle into the heated dining tent, and enjoy some delicious meals cooked by our base camp cook. The Plaza Argentina base camp is…
Jenny and Alex called in after a warm, Christmas Day hike up the Vacas Valley. We’ve mentioned that the approach to Aconcagua is up an arid, desert valley, which means that it can be HOT at times. Today was such an occasion and upon arriving at their destination, the team did their best to find…
Alex and Jenny called in a very nice update from the site of their first camp on the trail, a spot known as “Pampa de Lenas” (field of firewood), located on the west side of the Rio Vacas (Vacas River). They hiked a bit over five hours today, gaining a little over a thousand feet…
Our second Aconcagua team of the season is in Mendoza, Argentina and ready to start hiking up the arid Vacas Valley en route to climb the Ameghino Valley route up the east side of the highest mountain in South America. This team is somewhat out of the proverbial box, in that two climbers are hiking…