Aconcagua Update 2

Plaza de Mulas

1/2/09
Hello, everyone.

We spent New Year´s Eve at almost 12,000 feet and thought of everyone at home. Some of the Argentines and Germans on the mountain had packed up some quite large fireworks, so there was a lot of noise!

On New Year´s Day, we made a 16 mile trek up to 14,100 feet to basecamp, Plaza de Mulas. It was a long hike -- 8 hours long. We started at 9:30 AM and arrived at 5:30 PM. We were exhausted.

Today is a rest day, so were are sitting around hydrating and eating. We checked in with the doctor here at base camp and everyone is doing okay. They check your blood pressure, blood/oxygen saturation, and lungs. Troy H. was very worried because he developed pulmonary edema and pneumonia last year, but he check out fine. He came out of the doctor´ tent smiling. If you don´t check out, the doctor´s won´t let you keep climbing up the mountain.

Up until now, we had mules porting all our heavy gear, but as I mentioned in the last e-mail, we now are the mules. We will make various trips to predetermined stops to stash gear. Tomorrow morning, we are going to make a portage of equipment up to 16,000 feet and drop it there and come down to sleep. The next day we will go to 16,000 feet with more gear and then stay.

We miss everyone and hope everything is well at home.

Warm Regards,

Stan Bastian