Saturday, December 18, 2010

FTA Aconcagua Dec 11 Falso - In BC and heading to C1!





From Stu in the USA office
Nov 19. 2010


Ben has dropped a nice note in from Plaza Argentina base camp ( approx 4200m/13800 ft) to let us know that all is well and that they have been enjoying themselves on the trek and at base camp. The have had a great view to the Polish Glacier from the base camp and soon enough will be walking right past its base.



They arrived to find a great deal of damage done to base camp by a serious wind storm a week ago. Ben said that nearly every outfitter sustained damage from 100 kph winds and that the winds remain strong still on the mountain. For this reason Ben and his crew plan to take the lower traverse to Colera Camp and avoid the traditional but exposed C2.

Dean and Saul were hit by a GI illness they picked up in Mendoza but it seems not to have slowed them down and they have showed great strength on the trek in and on the carry to C1 so this is good news!

They are now working their way up the hill and are in C1 at this time and will be heading towards the higher camps in the next few days. If Ben gets a chance to drop back to BC before the summit bid we'll post any updates but the next news may well not be for 4-5 days more. They are still on target for a summit bid on the 25th or 26th if the weather cooperates!

The winds speeds have been in excess of 100kph on and off at the highest levels in the last week and look to be subsiding at the week goes on and summit winds are predicted to be in the 20-30kph level by the 25th and even lower for the 26th and 27th so this is great news!

In 2003 I took the image below during one of the 3 days we spent pinned down by high winds which can be strong enough on Aconcagua to shred tents and toss people.


When the winds subside one can enjoy the views and the climb and we'll hope our team sees these gentle days for the summit bid!


More news as we have it!




1 comment:

Nicole said...

Any news on the summit attempt Stu?