Trip Reports
Rene, Nigel and Fermin are all in Mendoza, having hiked out the long Horcones Valley in fairly trying conditions. The wind that settled over the upper mountain made for a chilly 16 mile hike to the Horcones tralihead. Fermin sent the following photos from the hike and one of the upper mountain, as seen from…
Bill Cole called in warm salutations from a chilly and windy sounding Vinson Base Camp. The weather has been a bit tough, so the team has elected to sit tight and wait for conditions to improve before pushing up the glacier. The satellite connection is not great, but we echo his best wishes for the…
Rene, Nigel, and Fermin have just finished up a big breakfast at Plaza de Mulas base camp where they spent the night last night. They are preparing to hike out the Horcones Valley about 22 km to the highway where they’ll be met by a van and whisked to the hotel for the night. Yesterday…
Guide Jacob Schmitz called in a report this morning with the good news that the team is in Vinson Base Camp! The climbers arrived at Union Glacier at approximately 1 AM, slept for a few hours, then boarded another plane for the short flight to Vinson Base Camp. The team set up camp, enjoyed a…
The team is back in high camp, a bit tired, but doing well after a very windy summit attempt. They climbed up to over 6500 meters, less than 500 meters from the top, when they decided the wind and weather were just too extreme to continue to the top. They gave it a great shot…
The word we just heard from Punta Arenas is that the Ilushyn aircraft will probably not fly tomorrow morning as planned. Two things are affecting the plane’s ability to transport our December 26 team to the Ice and return with our December 15th team. First, the winds at Union Glacier are forecasted to be just…
The team climbed up to high camp, located on the north shoulder of Aconcagua. They are camped at roughly 6100m and are looking forward to making an attempt on the summit tomorrow morning! The climb up from Chopper Camp climbs starts with a steep climb out of camp and then follows a rocky, gradual incline…
The team just finished weighing all their bags for the flight to Antarctica, scheduled to depart early tomorrow morning. The staff from the flight service weigh each pack, box and duffel and then take all the kit away to load the aircraft. Seeing the duffels disappear can leave climbers with a very tangible feeling of…
Rene called in from 18,000′ on Aconcagua. The team is weighing their options as their planned schedule puts them heading for the top on a day that is forecasted to be very, very windy. Therefore, they adapted their schedule and rather than carry up to high camp today, as they had planned, they rested in…
Rene called in yet another very nice post, this one from “Chopper Camp,” located at about 18,000′ on the east side of Aconcagua. They made good time and moved up to camp in about three hours. The weather was absolutely perfect, with warm temperatures and not a breath of wind. Here’s Rene! recording