Well, we have finally made it to Penitentes and finished packing up all of our junk that we'll need on the mountain for the next few weeks. The loads are readied for the mules to shuttle into basecamp for us and we are all very excited about hitting the trail tomorrow! After a quick breakfast this morning at our hotel we headed out in Mendoza to pay for and secure the paperwork for our climbing permits. What sounds like an easy task is actually not so simple when you have to run all over town to complete each stage of the permitting process in a different building across town. Luckily for us everything went off without a hitch and after running a few more errands the team was checked out of the hotel and headed out to Penitentes where we have been staging for the rest of this afternoon/evening. Tomorrow we´ll leave the loads for the herrieros (muleteers) and catch a shuttle out to Punta de Vacas which is our trail head at the mouth of the Vacas Valley. The weather thus far has been quite comfortable so we´re hoping that it can hold for a few more days affording us a nice walk in to Aconcagua Basecamp. That´s all for now, we´ll check in via satellite phone tomorrow evening from our first camp along the approach. RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Leon Davis, and the rest of the crew.