Our climbers are trekking towards base camp and plan to hike the final stretch on the 3rd.   They’ve had a beautiful trek so far up the Vacas Valley from the highway up to the camp called Casa de Peidra.   The first day was quite leisurely, hiking about 4 hours in beautiful weather up to their first approach camp Pampa de Lenas.   Today, however, was quite windy as they continued up the valley towards Casa de Piedra.  Chris estimated that the winds were blowing 35+ mph for most of the day.  This is pretty common, and it was otherwise a clear and sunny day.  The biggest inconvenience is that they weren’t able to build a fire to cook their steaks on for dinner.  It is a tradition to share a barbeque, or Asado, with the mule drivers at Casa de Piedra, but it wasn’t to be tonight.

They’ll get up early tomorrow (Dec.3rd), cross the river, and head up the side valley that leads them to base camp at over 14,000 ft.   Everyone sounds like they are enjoying each others company and having a great time!