Entries from Aconcagua
Despite having a rogue mule disappear with one of our bags last night, the group enjoyed delicious grilled chicken and Steve's famous pasta salad. The bag eventually rejoined our group late last night, thanks to the amazing gauchos that we work with.
We are relaxing at Plaza Argentina, 13,800 feet after a beautiful day with more views of the highest peaks outside of the Himalaya. The group woke early and rode Mules across the Vacas River, always a highlight on an
Aconcagua expedition. We are looking forward to our first rest day of the climb tomorrow.
Stay tuned to see how the group, "out chills" the rest day.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Hi all. Billy here with the last installment from our riveting series of blog posts documenting one of this year's
RMI Aconcagua expeditions. We officially wrapped up our program last evening with an amazing dinner at Francesco Barbera complete with all of the pageantry you'd expect from a fine dining experience in Argentina: cocktails, wine, delicious handmade pastas, dessert, coffee. We deserved a little luxury after so much hard work in such a harsh environment and indeed there was much rejoicing. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the team for their patience, dedication, and hard work all along the way and to thank
Katrina and
Billy Haas for being exceptional guides and teammates the whole trip too.
I've had tons of fun and can't wait to come back next year...
Til then.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
We had a perfect move day to
Aconcagua Camp 2! The day dawned calm, bluebird, and warm, and looked like the ideal day to push up higher to our next camp at Guanacos Tres (a confusing name since it is our camp two). We packed the tents once again, shouldered packs that were once again heavy, and set out. It's not a far climb, as most of the elevation gain happens right out of Camp 1, and three hours later we were walking into our new abode. We are now happily settled in and are looking forward to another rest day tomorrow. So far everything is going very smoothly and according to plan, and we all have our fingers crossed that it stays that way.
Hasta mañana,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Alex Barber, Juampi, and team
On The Map
This is the RMI
Aconcagua team checking in from Casa de Piedra on day 2 of our trek to base camp.
We had a sweltering five-hour day trekking into camp. Fortunately, we got the winds within a half hour before reaching Casa de Piedra. We saw our first glimpse of
Aconcagua today with stellar views of the South Face and Polish Glacier! The team is learning valuable expedition skills such as, setting up tents in the wind and relaxing in a tent. We are looking forward to a big dinner and a good night's sleep before heading up to 13,800ft tomorrow.
Everyone is healthy and in good spirits.
RMI Guide Mike King
Yeah!
We made it off the trail today and after a quick lunch and a semi-successful sage sauce recipe aquisition in
Penitentes we loaded all of our duffels onto the van and hit the road for Mendoza. We got into town around 5:30 or 6, checked into the hotel, and finally got those showers we´ve been dreaming of for so many weeks. Our sunburned, dirty faces definitely make us stand out among the normal people of the city but what can you really do? We´re headed out for a brew pub and a casual dinner tonight before we have our official celebratory dinner tomorrow night at a fancier restaurant. I´ll check in one more time tomorrow evening to officially wrap the expedition up.
Ciao, headed for some cervezas...
RMI Guide
Billy Nugent & Team
We had a relatively uneventful rest day at
Aconcagua Camp 1. While base camp offered pizzas, cook tents, and showers, folks spent the day at Camp 1 napping, catching up on journals, listening to music, and chatting. There were clouds in the Vacas Valley this morning, which we watched push up towards us, with the upper reaches just brushing our camp, before they would push back down valley again. Watching the curling cloud forms provided some entertainment as well. Our leisurely day should have us prepared to pack camp tomorrow morning to head up to Camp 2 at 18,000 feet. Once there, we will start the process of acclimating over again, and we will be one step closer to our summit push. Though we haven't been here that long, everyone is excited for the next step and a new home for a few days.
Hasta mañana,
RMI Guide
Pete Van Deventer,
Alex Barber, Juampi, and team
Well, we made it back to Basecamp. Big loads and tired feet made for a tough day but we were greeted at Basecamp last night by a spread of snacks and cold drinks, but more importantly, hugs and congratulations from Anita and Grizzelda the Basecamp managers. We dined on steaks and real salad and vegetables which were absolutely delicious after over a week of mountain food. This morning we woke up had a quick breakfast before readying the mule loads and are now about to hit the dusty trail for
Pampa de Leñas. The herrieros will be preparing a traditional asado there for us tonight but I anticipate that we´ll be out of touch for the evening because it´s hard for the satellite phone to stay connected down there. The canyon walls are just too narrow. The long march home continues...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent & Team
This is RMI's last expedition of the
Aconcagua season. Our team enjoyed a scenic drive through the Andes and arrived in the rustic ski town of Los Penitentes. Our team rallied and got bags packed for the mules. Everyone is excited to hit the trail when we begin the trek to Base Camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike King
Another day, another step in the uphill direction. We continued on yesterday's momentum, woke with the sun, sorted loads, and pointed our boots uphill to Guanacos Tres, or our
Camp 2. It's not a huge day, only 1,600' of elevation gain, but it's great for our acclimatization process, and now we have the bulk of our food and fuel up high. This year is a bit bizarre in that this is traditionally high season and the mountain is very empty. We are the only team in Camp 1, and there is one other small team at Camp 2, which makes for a much more remote feeling to the expedition.
Some clouds blew over this afternoon, with a few flurries, but our weather remains spectacular overall. We're looking forward to a rest day tomorrow, and then hopefully on up to Camp 2.
Hasta luego,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Alex Barber, Juan, and team
On The Map
Today we moved to Camp 1 under perfect weather. The team made great time moving to Camp 1 and are handling the altitude well. Shortly after arriving we exchanged high-fives with
Billy Nugent's team. They made the summit of
Aconcagua the day prior. We're all settled into camp now and enjoying hot drinks. Having left the comforts of base camp, we've had some lively discussions about the toilet situation, etc. Tomorrow we will carry to Camp 2, as we continue to take advantage of this good weather and push higher.
RMI Guide Alex Barber
On The Map
That mule must work for the airlines!
Posted by: tina baker on 1/31/2015 at 7:00 pm
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