Post 4: Posting from Plaza de Mules
Post for from plaza de mules.
Yesterday was our first Cary climb to camp 1 Canada at 16000 ft and then a descent back. We had a beautiful day with light wind. We made it up and left equipment for high camp by 3pm. Today we are doing glacier training since we will have snow and ice most of the way and will be using crampons and Ice axes. The biggest thing is to be able to self arrest if you fall on the glacier the area called the traverse is at 22k and very ice you have 3 seconds to arrest your slide or you take a long ride over the south face.
I feel ok woke to sore back from sleeping on the ground. Getting better with the clothes and managing my temp in the sleeping bag. The secret is to get everything organized and in your bag before temperatures drop and keep a hot thermos in the bag to warm it and keep my phone and camera from freezing. Temp below freezing for the rest of the trip and your in your tent from 9pm till 9am.
In sleeping my bag before sunset this was the day I hurt my knee last year and I am trying not to compare days. Edu and Max say I am stronger than last year but I was blowing pretty hard at 16k. We have 2 windows for the summit both very cold and the wind subsides on the 21st and 24th with bad storms before both windows. Worst thing would get stuck in high camp waiting out the storm that is expected between the Windows. We will be either walking up or down in the storms but not exposed on summit. I am going to have to carry most of my gear so will be slow with large back and high winds.
I may not be able to post until 5 or 6 days. We have pictures and updates on www.summitclimb.com and go too news and look at Aconcaugua. You may hear about summit success on that before this post. It has been a bad season yesterday was the first good window and several people made it. Camp is crowded due to people waiting for a window. My tent is close to the Communications tent so I hear people calling home with the news. Best one was a group from Nashville that just made it to camp 2 before giving up the summit for a week of dove hunting.
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