Entries By garrett stevens
February 12, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
Here for I am to be writing from resting day the third in
Camp 1. But seriously, we are resting comfortably here at
Camp 1 passing the time jamming Talking Heads, reading, and drinking maté. Most of us are actively working to keep the altitude and tent time from scrambling our brains. The team is understandably a bit restless hanging out with such good weather but managing nonetheless. Rumor has it that there may be a bit of wind tomorrow but nothing that should shut us down on our planned move to
Camp 2. As we head higher and higher the reality of a summit bid is getting closer and closer. More to report after we push camp uphill to
Camp 2 tomorrow!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
February 11, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
More sun today with light winds and nearly perfect temperatures made for a great carry up to
Camp 2. Our group is starting to work like that proverbial well-oiled machine with solid efforts the last couple days moving and pushing carries up the mountain. Our foray took us above 18,000' which was an altitude record for many and certainly the highest anybody in the group had carried a heavy load. We enjoyed a "picnic" with beautiful new views up at
Camp 2 while we built up our cache of food and fuel in a nook among the rocks. And after hanging for an hour or so we made short work of our descent back to
Camp 1. All in all we were on the go for only 3.5 hours and about 4.5 hours round trip. The team is feeling strong, motivated, and ready for the hard work ahead!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
February 10, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
We woke again today to completely clear and beautiful skies, and seemingly perfect weather for our move out of basecamp and up on the
mountain. The gang packed up quickly and were ready to march in short order. Anticipation has been building for a long time and everyone was ready to get the show on the road. We moved well and enjoyed a nice breeze that actually helped temper the heat of the sun. After about 4 1/2 hours of climbing we were setting up tents on the upper bench of
Camp 1 (16,700') and heading down for a super short back carry to retrieve our cache. As we were getting settled the wind was coming in and out and eventually it started snowing. The whole camp and surrounding cliffs got a beautiful dusting of 2 or 3 inches of snow. The squall eventually died down and I'm hoping for a calm rest of the evening...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
February 9, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
We're spending today resting and acclimatizing at
Plaza Argentina under a beautiful sunny sky. We slept in, ate some bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast burritos, drank maté, and are hanging out. This will be our last night here at basecamp before we head up on the mountain. The weather (as far as we've heard, anyway) is supposed to hold and should make for a nice move up to
Camp 1 tomorrow.
We'll check in tomorrow night and let you know how it went...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
February 8, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Today's weather report: not so good. We woke up this morning here at
Plaza Argentina in a cloud with it steadily dropping gloppy snow. The prospect of a successful carry up to
Camp 1 was looking dismal but we decided to get up and fire the stoves anyway. Over the course of breakfast and our morning coffee the weather began to improve and by 10 am we were looking at some continuing light precip but nothing that would hold us back. The team rallied, geared up, and hit the trail. With a six-hour round trip effort we were able to put in a sizable cache of food, fuel, and cold weather gear up at Camp 1 (16,200'). The team performed well despite unstable scree and our first real taste of carrying big loads at high altitude.
Ciao,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
February 7, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
A rest day! The gang has been hanging out most of the day today catching up on sleep, reading, and calories. Our first night in
Aconcagua Basecamp wasn't the smoothest... Despite sleeping quite well most of us were feeling a little lethargic this morning from spending the night at nearly 14,000'. Regardless, spirits are high after moving around a bit and getting prepared for tomorrow's carry/cache up at
Camp 1. The guides spent the morning packing group food and equipment and the team has been packing up their personal gear that they plan to cache. The weather has been a little funky but nothing terrible, hopefully tomorrow brings better or at least similar weather for our first foray onto the upper mountain...
Hasta mañana,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
February 6, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Greetings from Plaza Argentina! After a very early rise and a FRIGID river crossing our team wound our way up through the Relinchos Valley (a side valley of the Vacas) and arrived at
Basecamp. We moved well and made good time on our ascent, with everybody feeling strong on our first bit of sustained elevation gain. We arrived just ahead of a pretty decent squall that gave us a but of wind, hail, and rain but we made short work of setting up tents ahead of the worst of it. Later on we were served up some delicious steaks and a little bit of Cabernet for dinner by the Grajales Basecamp staff. We crashed out around 9 or so when the weather started to get a little squirrelly again and enjoyed a well deserved rest!
Adios from Plaza Argentina!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
February 5, 2013
Posted by: Mike King, Pete Van Deventer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
What a whirlwind! Yesterday we were standing at almost 23,000 feet, and this evening we're back at
Aconcagua Base Camp. It's a big day descending all the way, and our loads just get bigger as we pick up food and gear cached at each camp. It makes it easier knowing that we're headed to a delicious steak dinner ( better than the way in even!). Tomorrow we're back to light loads, light shoes, and getting miles under our feet. Hopefully we see Billy and team along the way. We'll be in touch!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
February 5, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 10,550'
Another passage from the annals of
RMI Aconcagua #5 history:
Today was decidedly less hot and subsequently much more enjoyable than yesterday. Our intrepid crew rose early and made short work of our journey from Pampa de Leñas to our second camp on the approach at
Casa de Piedras. Sunny skies and a nice breeze kept our spirits high as we cruised through the enormous Vacas Valley. Right as we were arriving in camp we spotted
Pete Van Deventer's crew headed down from their successful summit bid. They were looking tired and skinny but super-psyched on their accomplishment and the fact that they were headed for the barn. We gave them high-fives and settled in to build our camp. We too are in good spirits, moving well, and excited to make it to Basecamp tomorrow at Plaza Argentina.
Hasta pronto,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and the rest of the gang.
February 4, 2013
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
Greetings from Pampa de Leñas! Our team enjoyed one last night in a bed and awoke this morning to beautiful sunny skies. Seemingly, a great day to begin our long journey. The team thus far has been exceptionally well organized and we were able to enjoy a relatively stress free morning putting the finishing touches on our packing and stashing a bunch of city clothes in the Grajales packing facility. We caught a quick ride over to the trailhead at
Punta de Vacas and after checking in with the guardaparques began our journey. Relatively calm winds and scorching temperatures in the nineties caught us all a little off guard and forced us to stop frequently and soak our clothes in the river to cool off! Even after a complete soaking, our shirts were dried off completely in ten minutes! Well, despite the heat we persevered and even made good time into our first camp.
More info to come as our expedition develops,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Previous Page
Next Page
Go Gail Go! Aloha The Cori(ey)‘s
Posted by: Cori F on 2/12/2013 at 2:22 pm
View All Comments