After many days of walking uphill, we finally turned ourselves downward towards basecamp. The mountain however, did not seemed pleased about our decision. We woke up this morning to raging winds that made taking down the tents and packing for the descent more of a chore than necessary. It seems the storm we were avoiding by advancing our itinerary had arrived. The winds howled at our backs the entire way back to basecamp. Despite the trouble from the weather, we made the trip back to the comforts of Plaza Argentina. A trip that took eight days to go up, we completed in just seven hours on the way down. Everyone was happy to be back in solid structures where the wind couldn’t bother us and to have ample oxygen to fill our lungs with. Just two more days and we will be back in Mendoza. We are so close to civilization we can taste it!

RMI Guide Nick Scott

On The Map