Prittie

Hear Willi's Call from Aconcagua

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So today we are actually on the road about, close to halfway, up to our first night's campsite. And our expedition members for this trip are: Phillip Schroeder, from Munich, Germany; there's James Grosebeck, from Las Vegas, Nevada; there's Chuck Vaden, from Eagle River, Alaska; there's Robin Griffith, from Charlotte, North Carolina; there's Gert Munthe, from Ridgewood, New Jersey; there's Joe Salvatore, from Dripping Springs, Texas; and there is Frank Hutchinson, also from Dripping Springs, Texas; there's Mark Baummer, from Baltimore, Maryland; we have Jack O'Donnell, from Colorado Springs, Colorado; and we have Blake Coleman, from San Diego, California. So, we have many areas of the US represented here and the climb is finished out also by Charles Hseih, from Portland, Oregon and Willi Prittie from Olympia, Washington and from the Alpine Ascents' staff.

So a big hello to everybody on and at the Mountain Zone from everybody here in Argentina on the approach in to Aconcagua. We just finished our lunch of cheese, salami, tomato, fresh avocado and lettuce sandwiches and we're all sitting here enjoying and absolutely beautiful [Unintelligible], totally clear, cobalt-blue skies, with light breezes for Aconcagua, maybe gusty a little bit [Unintelligible] 20mph. And we're having a great time here, today. So, we'll be checking in, hopefully daily, as possible and let everybody know at home, family, friends, and interested people what's happening here in Argentina.

There is a little bit of a sad note here, this will probably hit the papers up in North America at some level, I expect. About five days ago, there was a pretty serious accident — I should say very serious accident — on the Polish Route. An Argentinean group of four actually fell down and went about 2,000 feet and unfortunately all members on the rope team died from their injuries. So that's always a sobering thing to hear about and to see in the mountains, especially if you know several of the individuals as I did that were involved. And it makes one want to really re-examine and make sure that we go about climbing in a very safe, cautious manner, which I certainly always intend to do and I know everybody in this group also intends to do the same thing. So, if misinformation gets out that there was an Argentinean group and really hasn't affected any of us here on the mountain.

So this is Willi Prittie signing off for now and there will be other updates, as necessary. See you all later.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Willi Prittie, MountainZone.com Correspondent

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES