Summit!
Congratulations to the team of climbers, who summited today under the snowfall! Eight climbers and two guides stood in the highest point of the Western Hemisphere, at 22,841 ft. They left early this morning from High camp, and went all the way to complete a 1,000m climb. I received a short phone call from Jacob. He says everyone is ok and safe, back in the camp and really tired. I will post more details tomorrow. It has been a great achievement i...
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New Year at 18,000ft
Happy New Year! Your relatives, friends, loved ones, etc, who are climbing with us, experienced a high New Year evening: they celebrated with a small but rather emotive party at almost 18.000ft (Camp II). Guide JAcob called from his sat phone yesterday. He said they were having a "snowy New Year", and that everyone was well and happy. Before that, they did a carry of gear and food to Camp III, which means they reached 6000m (19,685ft)! The group ...
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High regions
Guide Jacob and the team are ok at Camp I, and moving to camp II probably tomorrow. They had a rest day today. There are strong winds in the mountain but it seems it will improve by the time they get to the high regions -the 6000m zone-. The team is strong and the plan is to go to High Camp (also called White Rocks or Colera), at 19,680 ft, and from there to the summit via the Polish Glacier. Then they plan to come back to High Camp to spe...
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Meet the Polish Glacier
Yesterday the climbers had their very first contact with the goal of their climb, The Polish Glacier. It was from the trek to base camp, in Casa de Piedra. This part of the hike in offers an awesome sight of the long glaciar tongue known as Polish Glacier (picture), in the East face of Aconcagua. It was a Polish team who first climbed this wall in 1934, the first technical route to be opened in this mountain. Nowadays it is a world classic glacie...
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Hike in
The climbers began their aproximation trek this morning. All urban stress left behind (jet lag, climbing permits, gear checks, transfers), three days of awesome scenery ahead. The trailhead is Punta de Vacas, an old railroad station. From this point the arrieros (muleteers) used to take live cattle to Chile across the Andes, hence the name "Punta de Vacas", something like cow's point. It is at 9150 ft. Base camp Plaza Argentina is at 13950 ft. I ...
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Getting ready
Greetings from Mendoza! Everything is getting ready here for our first Polish Glacier trip of the Aconcagua season. There is a very strong team of guides in this expedition: Jacob Schmidt (picture) is the leading guide, with many Aconcagua summits in his pack, and some 8000m Himalayan peaks too. Augusto Ortega, from Perú, is the man with more concagua summits in History: 53 times he`s been to the top! He also climbed Everest. Alaskan guide...
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