We are up around 15,500 ft at High Camp and will be making a push for the summit of Vallecitos in the early morning. We will be turning on the tracker so everyone can watch our progress. We expect it to take approximately 7 hours to get to the top. Dave was feeling a bit poorly yesterday with a stomach bug but is thankfully feeling well today. I (Adam) am feeling good despite being back in a small tent with two other grown men. Life is pretty tight (and occasionally smelly) in here and if we weren't before, we are now each other's best friends. Thankfully, this tent is more than 3 feet tall (unlike the one I lived in for days on Denali) and so we are able to sit upright. Hey everyone -- we haven't had any messages on the sat phone -- send some through -- we would love to hear from you.
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The guys report that they are in good spirits, having arrived at the Salto Base Camp for Vallecitos (around 14,000 ft). The views looking down to 10,500 ft. are beautiful. Adam is thankful to be recovering well from his illness, now only reporting slight problems with his head (no smart remarks here!! ah, oh, go ahead...). David is healthy, strong, and fit (according to Adam) and has only a slight headache after a 5000 ft acclimatization climb today. All is well - stay posted for the next report.
Basecamp Steinbach: David and Adam have reached 12,000 ft on Cerro Vallecitos. They report that all is going well and that Adam is mostly over his cold/flu bug. Message cut-off at this point.
We arrived safely in Mendoza Argentina after hopping through Toronto and Santiago. What a fantastic place - it's warm, feels like a European city, is surrounded by vineyards (the airport entry road is lined with acres of vines) and people are friendly. We managed to catchup with two of our team mates enroute and we are happily settled in to (appropriately) Hotel Aconcagua. It was amazing that all our luggage made it - it's very hard and expensive to replace personal climbing gear. More amazing is that we made it to the hotel in one piece - we had the fastest driver in town, who shall forever be known as Mario.
That's it for now. Heading to Vallecitos Thursday in the afternoon. Of course the biggest issue before you leave is not packing, but trying to keep healthy. At altitude, coughs get worse, cuts and scratches don't heal, and generally sleep is quite difficult due to lack of oxygen - so being in the best shape prior to departure is somewhat important. As anyone with school age children will know, if the kids go to school, they come home with all and everything. Thankfully enough, David and Adam were lucky enough to get this year’s flu (David x 2) and have been laid out in bed for the last 48 hours. Adam had an extreme fever yesterday that left him hallucinating (about climbing/current deals/family cat) and with several phone calls that he has no recollection of. David took the more sensible approach –weight loss is key – every gram counts on summit day, and he shed his fair share. Alas we are recovering, but would have been happy to avoid the forced weight loss program. Cross the fingers, all will be OK when we start out.
Getting ready to go - gear is evenly distributed over most of the house. Its amazing how much we actually 'need' and how it all goes on our back at some point. Airports loooove climbers.
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