Adventures: February 2009

The day after Christmas the four of us left for Aconcagua, after many of hours of flying we arrived in Mendoza. The following day we got our permits and took a bus to Penitents where we met our mules and started in. We were on the mountain for 11 days total and ended up turning around at camp 2 19,300ft. We decided to descend because two team members were sick. This was hard for me since I was feeling really strong. But once we got down I was to tired and mentally exhausted to try to regroup and head back up. There was also some bad and spastic weather on the mountain that got some people into trouble and killed some others so in the long run maybe its good we came down and didn't attempt going back up. I learned a lot on this trip and look forward to trying it again in the future.

Packing Gear

Trail Head (Brian, Matt, Me and Doug)

Last Trees

Lizard

Taking a Break

Pampa de Lanas

Rounding up the Mules

Crossing the Only Bridge on the Trail

Taking Lunch

Looking into the Guanacos Valley

First View of Aconcagua

Casa de Piedra

My Backpack is the Orange One

Getting Closer

Base Camp is at the bottom of the wall, camp 1 is at the base of the snow on the right and camp 2 is at the bottom of the Polish Glacier (Thats the big snow patch at the top)