Entries from Aconcagua

January 25, 2025 – Carry to Camp 1 and Scree Sliding Fun

Today was a big day for our team as we carried a lot of our gear—about 50 pounds each—up the route from basecamp to Camp 1. It was a true test of endurance and teamwork. The route itself kept us on our toes (literally), with plenty of loose scree underfoot to make things tricky. Every step demanded focus, and the weight of our packs reminded us just how serious this climb is.

Despite the challenge, we pushed through as a team, reaching Camp 1 and caching our gear for the days ahead. After all that effort, we headed back down to basecamp, tired but proud of what we accomplished. Sliding down the scree on the descent was a surprising highlight of the day—it’s hard not to feel like a kid again when you’re essentially skiing on loose rocks! Laughter echoed across the slopes as we let gravity do most of the work.

Now back at basecamp, everyone is feeling the weight of the day’s effort (and the packs!). We’re well-tired but in great spirits, ready to take a much-needed rest day tomorrow. Rest is key in a climb like this, and giving our bodies time to recover will help set us up for success as we move higher up the mountain.

The team is doing fantastic—strong, motivated, and full of camaraderie. With every step, we’re getting closer to our goal, and today was a big step forward. Stay tuned for more updates as the adventure continues!

RMi Climber Elburz Sorkhabi

 

Today, we acclimatized at base camp. We woke up and indulged in a delicious breakfast of yogurt, fruit, pancakes, and cheese bread. 

Afterwards, our amazing guides Jack and Jess took over our Grajales dome to organize our group gear into piles for each of us to carry to Camp One tomorrow. Comprised of bottles of white gas, ingredients for our mountain meals, and miscellaneous other items, us climbers packed our backpacks with our group gear and as much of our personal gear as we could muster.

In the early afternoon, all seven of us met with the base camp doctor. She assured us we were acclimatizing beautifully and ready to push on up in altitude! Many of us watched downloaded movies while lounging and napping in our tents throughout the afternoon before pre-dinner bananagrams. 

Dinner was delightful, as always. Our Grajales staff Carla brought us soup, lentil and beef stew, and a s’mores-like parfait for dessert. 

Packed, fed, and rested, the team is headed to bed, prepared to take on another spectacular mountain day tomorrow! 

RMI Climber Anne Bradford 

Today was a bitter sweet day for all of us.  Post decent day after celebrating a successful summit push, descending 4500’ from Camp 3 to thicker air with post celebrations at base camp, and waking up in the dome tent with the team sprawled out on the floor catching up on some much need rest as well as a reset for the journey back down through the Relinchos Valley and Vacas Valley and into the comforts at Pampas de Leñas at 9582’ in total a 19 mile hike.  Along the way, we saw a heard of Guanacos, a quick glimpse of the infamous poisonous tailed mouse, stopped by this mysterious spring coming out from the side of the mountain, and was able to cool down at the Fountain of Youth.  A much needed reset and  everyone, seems to have knocked off a couple years as the youth came out in everyone with lots of laughter and a nice reset!  After the 7.5 hour trek, we as a team celebrated with cervesas, fresh fruit, juices, and a delicious BBQ to replenish the calories we consumed during the grind through group suffering.  The group ended the night discussing how to properly eat hotdogs, the origins of a sandwich, and many other important topics that makes the world turn. 

Time for more Andes Origen Rubia cervesas and celebrating the successful trip as well as reminiscing on what this journey meant to each one of use. It sure has been memorable and one for the books! One more four hour leg back to Los Penitentes and our expedition will come to and end when we arrive back to Mendoza, Argentina.

Back to a mad game of Farkle and hopefully a first win for me.

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli & Team

Friday, January 24, 2025 - 2:48 am

Hola!

We awoke early in the morning with the beautiful southern hemisphere stars shining above us. I attempted to point out constellations like the southern cross. Odds are I have lied to everyone because my memory for constellations is as bad as my Spanish. The day starts out with the team stylishly dressed in various water shoes for the crossing of the braided streams of the glacially cold Vacas river. This ice bath for our feet and calves is stronger than any cup of coffee. Everyone is now very much wide awake. Then we begin our slow but steady ascent up the Ralenchos valley. I will not bore you with all the fine details of the stunning geology, the panoramic views of Aconcagua and various sightings of adorable guanacos. All you need to know dear reader is that the trek was hard but we suffered well surrounded by incredible beauty.

Do you remember when you came home from college for the first time and your mom kept hugging you and then made all your favorite foods but like way too much? Our arrival at Plaza Argentina was just like that. We spent the rest of the afternoon waddling around camp getting settled in while taking many deep breaths as our bodies adjusted to our new altitude of nearly 14,000 feet. Finally after another incredible dinner provided by the always stellar Grajales staff, everyone was ready for sleep. It was a long day. 

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Sassy Six (Anne, Bill, Chris, Elburz, Jess and Tom)

P.S. they don’t know I call them that

After a beautiful day on the mountain  yesterday bookended with exhaustion and adrenaline, we awoke to the reality that Aconcagua can be an incredibly uninviting environment.  The 25 feet of snow that feel the previous night was being drifted by intense winds into every corner of our tents, packs, boots and any other unfortunate item we had left out. Any hint of moisture inside our tents had turned to ice and snow making the inside of our tents look like a winter wonderland.  

After staying in our sleeping bags as long as possible, we all eventually summoned the courage to peel ourselves out, put on our cold boots, break camp and get out of Cholera as quickly as possible.  As soon as we descended over the ridge,conditions improved.  The winds calmed some and the fresh snow made for a relatively quick decent to Camp 2.  

When we reached Camp 2 we were welcomed by a group of climbers headed up the mountain.  After some R & R and good conversation we grabbed our bags and proceeded down to the mountain.  We took in the last, beautiful views and bid farewell to the mountains before we cruised down the scree to Camp 1.  There the oxygen was more plentiful and our spirits were high. We enjoyed a few laughs in the shade of the Grajales dome, shed some unnecessary layers, ditched our boots and welcomed our sneakers as we readied for the final push to base camp. 

Boy was Basecamp a welcome site! We were greeted with the same enthusiasm we had parted with, hugs and congrats all around!  We quickly shed our packs and were treated with what may be one of the best meals in recent memory.  As we sat in our warm dome, indulging in empanadas, meats and cheeses, cerveza, and a variety of other goodies we reminisced about the adventure we had just experienced.  We talked about how a challenge such as Aconcagua is as much mental as it is physical.  

This conversation made me think about what brings five people from varying backgrounds together,  thousands of miles from home for this common, incredibly challenging goal.  We all have our individual reasons, but it’s undeniable we are all individuals that enjoy type 2 fun.  

Type 2 fun climbing Aconcagua means embracing an experience that is challenging, uncomfortable, and even miserable in the moment, but immensely rewarding in hindsight. It’s about pushing through biting winds, freezing temperatures, and altitudes none of us are accustomed to that left us feeling breathless and our legs aching. Each step up the mountain tested our  physical limits and mental resilience, forcing us to dig deeper than we thought possible. The grueling ascent, from the trek all the way to the summit, with its long days and unpredictable conditions, made us each question why we chose this journey. Yet, it’s the camaraderie with each other, our fellow climbers, the breathtaking views of the Andes, and the profound sense of accomplishment upon reaching the summit (or close to) that make it all worthwhile. Type 2 fun transforms suffering into triumph, and while some of us may swear off such adventures mid-climb (as I do everytime), we’ll likely find ourselves  craving the next challenge as soon as it’s over. 

So to all of you like minded, type 2 loving, crazy souls who have shared this adventure: thank you for an unforgettable experience.  

Now let’s play some Farkle!  

RMI Climber Erica Kim 

Today was just all-around lovely!

We woke up with the sun, packed our tents and headed to breakfast. We have discovered this wonderful thing called Dulce de leche and now we smother all of our toast in it.

We hit the trail on our way to our next camp, Casa de Piedra. We weaved up through the valley for 10 miles today - always keeping our eyes out from Guanacos. Just when we were convinced we might not get a glimpse, we looked up and saw three majestic Guanacos staring right back at us. Yay!

Soon after, we popped up over a little hill and saw the yellow and white dome tents of our next camp. Just before we walked into camp, we were greeted with our first views of "The Stone Sentinel", Aconcagua.

Tomorrow we’ll head to Base camp where we can’t wait to greet our fellow RMI climbers who stood on the summit today.

RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Magnificent 7.

January 22, 2025 - 7:24 am PT

Good news!  RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli along with climbers Eric, Brian, and Ethan reached the top of Aconcagua at 12:15 local time. Reporting light winds and sunny. Beautiful day.

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke

At our first break, I walked over to Tom and said “how are you doing?” and he looked up at me from the only bit of shade we had seen in the last hour and said “good, this feels like home.” And that’s the best way to describe this whole day.

We’re finally on the trail - after all this time planning, all the big travel days and this morning’s final packing shenanigans. Even though the first few hours were hot, hot, hot there was a sense of ease.

Sometimes we walked in silence and I’d look back and see everyone just taking it in, sometimes we chatted about life and our jobs as we strolled along surrounded by vivid cliffs of rosy rock.

I’ve laughed more in the last few days than in the last few months combined as we’ve gotten to know each other. A few days ago we were all strangers and now we are a unified team ready to climb, ready to face the excitement and unknowns of the mountain.

After five hours of hiking, we arrived at our first camp, Pampa de las Lenas, just as some (welcomed) clouds rolled in. At dinner, we peppered Bill with questions about teeth (he’s a dentist) and he gleefully educated us. We decided maybe every night we’d just deep dive into someone else’s profession. There’s so much curiosity and so much life!

Off to bed we go for our first night of many in our little tent homes.

RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Aconcagua climbing team

Hello darkness my only friend. 

Today I woke up feeling it the hardest. Tossed and turned all night, couldn’t breathe through my nose, and headaches was part of the nightly routine. Our modern motivation to obtain charging stations was first of the list. Battling all of the other climbers only to find out that there wasn’t any electricity. Soon after, Ben arrived with spam and bread.. the only way to start your day proper.

After breakfast, we decommissioned our camp with high hopes for Camp 3 at 19,600.’  It was a slow and steady pace to the top with breathing techniques that would only be found in a yoga class. We arrived to our new home around 2 pm and were greeted with stunning views all around. Our group quickly got to work to stake our claim and raise our tents.

After some nice R&R, we ate our mountain house meals to fuel ourselves for our biggest and main objective of the trip… an Aconcagua summit. So sleep tight everyone our job is not done yet. We hope to have dreams of celebrations back at base camp and home with family and friends. In the words of Lion King, “can you feel the love tonight.”

RMI Climber Ethan Pickett

Hello to all our friends and family at home!

I’m happy to report we ALL made it to Argentina and with our gear (some bags took a little longer than others to arrive but they’re all here now!)

We’ve spent the last two days in Mendoza getting to know each other, checking gear, packing, repacking, learning about what the next few weeks will look like and enjoying as much of the Mendoza-life as possible. We are headed to bed with duffels ready, full stomachs of delicious Argentinian cuisine, and a lot of excitement to finally hit the trail tomorrow.

It’s going to be an incredible adventure and after so much time planning and preparing, we can’t wait for it to begin.

RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Aconcagua climbing team