Prittie

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Today's job's going to include travel over very varied terrain. We've got several ice fields to cross, probably with ice axe and crampons. There's a fair amount of scree to cross. There will also be a little bit of rock climbing to do. All of that, of course, with full expedition packs and we'll be setting our High Camp up at 20,600ft. And this walk will help position ourselves with a 22,300-foot summit day, which will make things a bit more reasonable and we're hoping to do that tomorrow. Also, it is a potentially exposed site where we'll be so we're all going to keep our fingers crossed that the good weather we've been enjoying pretty much remains. We've only had only moderate winds at this point and we'll hope that the famous predatory Aconcagua winds can stay away and come about six months from now when nobody's on the mountain.

Just a few things that occurred to me last night when I was thinking about it, that I hadn't actually said that might be of interest to some people. Our position here at Camp III, at 19,200ft, which is often traditionally considered Camp II, is rather interesting. We're actually camped on an active glacier, but it's covered by several inches to a couple of feet of sand and gravel and rock debris. It's really interesting at night because we lay here listening to the pops and the groans and the cracks. The glacier is moving and also due to thermal [Unintelligible] temperature plummets down [Unintelligible] it really makes you feel like you're on something alive and not just a dead hunk of rock or something up here. We're also, after we cybercasted yesterday, we enjoyed an absolutely awesome sunset and wonderful alpenglow here. Gazing out towards the north at several 22,000-foot peaks La Mesa and Mercedario, amongst other ones and I actually suited up in my down and pretty much stayed outside until dark; it was so beautiful, just kind of had to check it out there.

One of the things that is very, very important on a mountain like this, that everybody has been doing a very, very good job of is personal management and I just wanted to say a few words about that. That's kind of a little bit of everything like: staying properly hydrated, consuming the four-to-six liters of water per day that we need to up here, eating frequently and adequately, managing clothing for comfort, kind of before you get cold or before you get hot; oxygenating the blood better through something called positive pressure ventilating, when we're doing loads and moving. All these sorts of things, everybody's been doing a very, very good job of and that's why everybody's so strong here at altitude right now.

Also, however, there was a lot of — and I think everybody's going to agree with me — pre-trip training that went into this. All of that started months ahead of time and kind of that pre-trip strength and cardiovascular training. There are few people that show up unprepared to carry 40-to-55-plus pound loads day after day. Everybody in this group is doing exceptionally well in that regard. We've got a very, very, strong group and I don't see anybody really having problems at all in the carrying or summiting tomorrow, given that we get good weather and that sort of thing.

Also, the acclimation schedule; it's very important that we go slow. I think everybody will agree we've been taking a very, very, slow pace up the mountain. A lot of people push it too hard, they get excited; it is an exotic culture; it's a foreign land. They walk in real fast to the peak; they do their carries real fast; they get altitude sick; they don't enjoy the trip and they go home without the summit. Well, hopefully we're not going to be doing that. So these are just kind of a few of the things that I was thinking on touching on.

Also what might be of interest to some people, is our culinary enjoyment yesterday. We started the day out with scrambled eggs and ham with onions and garlic, although I believe there were a couple of people who did skip on the onions and garlic, and toast and jam. And then we had a nice, big lunch of spicy Ramen soup and we had a great dinner of red beans and rice and pasta in a Cajun tomato sauce. Unfortunately, hypoxia caused us to forget the dessert of chocolate silk pie, so we'll have to save that for when we come back down to 19.2.

And last but not least, after the red beans there is a certain gaseous aura around some of the tents. [Ahem] We won't mention any names to protect the guilty...[Unintelligible]...high-altitude flatulence emissions vs. high-altitude pulmonary edema and high-altitude cerebral edema, which is sometimes a bit intellectually deficient on expeditions and it can cause hours of discussion and ribald comment. I am sure that was going on in some tents last night. So that's all for...[Unintelligible]...our carry up to High Camp and we're all very, very, excited to be actually getting up high in the mountain and getting a shot at the summit.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Willi Prittie, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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