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Friday, February 18, 2000
 Berg | |
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Mountain Zone, it's Friday afternoon and I'm happy to report that the "One Mountain at a Time" team is now entirely moved into and securely entrenched at 19,000ft on Aconcagua. We accomplished this today by all four moving up together in the morning, and then Mike and I dropped back down to 17 and double-carried our last set of gear up this afternoon. So we're where we need to be, in a big way, right now.
It's all a matter of acclimatization at this point. We had a beautiful walk up here today. For the first time, we put our trekking sticks away and got our ice axes out, as we negotiated a slightly steep and icy slope as we came in here to 19,000. There will be much more of that, of course, higher on the mountain.
Tomorrow is a rest day. By that, I don't mean a nothing day; I mean allowing-our-bodies-to-acclimatize day. And we'll be active preparing ourselves mentally and physically and mechanically for a long, long ascent — possibly as soon as the day after tomorrow, if the weather holds.
The weather is still very good — surprisingly good, actually — about as warm for this elevation as I can imagine it being anywhere in the world.
And I am happy to report, too, that today, when we put our two tents up, we did not have that comedy of movement that I tried to describe in yesterday's scene. The wind isn't pleasant, but it's certainly not the annoying, gusty wind that we had to deal with at 17,000. So wish us luck with the weather. But know that regardless of what comes in now, we've got everything we need up here at 19,000.
And Willi Prittie is doing well down at Base Camp. I've got word through Ana that his team's taking an extra day of rest. I know Neil and Charles and their crew is down at Camp I. And, you know, I'll be honest, we're happy to be the high players in this game right now: the first up on the mountain, ready to go when we get our break.
Wish us luck with the weather, and we'll keep you posted as the days go by here.
—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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