Move to Damp One on Aconcagua
No big parties last night, all was quiet at Basecamp until the morning helicopter began what seems to be its morning workout at 7AM, just before the sun hit. We were all up and half-packed by our 8 AM breakfast. Everybody had lots of details to chase down and loads to figure out before our 9:30 AM departure. The production teams used their scouting of the previous day to figure out some nice shots as the guides and climbers chugged higher over now-familiar terrain. We took four hours to make it into our new camp, a bit higher than we'd cached yesterday... concensus seems to put us at around 16,500 ft. We found a place of our own up here, which is actually quite nice. This is a busy mountain in its prime climbing season, so there are almost always other teams around us, coming and going. At our Camp One, though, we've carved out a little privacy by virtue of walking a little farther than most choose to. We had clear skies today and strong sunshine, but we have all transitioned from the cotton clothes, shorts and t-shirts that we wore during the trek in. Now we are in mountain climbing clothing and gaurding against the cold. Even so, the afternoon was very warm and comfortable as we napped in the tents. We did dinner over by Melissa's tent, sitting on our sleeping pads in the pumice and gravel with puffy coats on. The light is just getting good now at 7:30 PM, we are in shadow, but we are high enough now that we can see out of the surrounding valleys and watch the sun set on South America.
Rest/Acclimatization day tomorrow... maybe a carry or two for the guides and some production work for the artistically inclined photographers and filmers, but basically tomorrow will be a day designed to allow our bodies to catch up with our rate of ascent.
More to Explore
Dave Conlan Checks in From High Camp on Ixta
January 13, 2009
