Basecamp of Aconcagua

Hi there eveyone back in Australia.

well we have funally arrived at the basecamp for Aconcagua.

Eeverything has been relatively easy and painless since my litle issue in Santiago and I hae to say if you ver get the chanec to go to Mendoza I would highly recommend it.

So to bring you all up to speed on what has ben happening well after doing our final gear check and getting ouyr climbing permitts we headed up to a place called Pueta del Inca which you could pretty much say is the last established hostel place that you can stay at before you hit the trail.

So after a nice shower and dinner we headed up the the start of the trail the next morning to walk to our camp site called confluencia.  Luckily our tents were ste up so it was just a matter of choosing tent buddies and relaxing for the night, and no i didn't the spanish doctor as my tent mate!!!

The next day we did a training hike up to 4000m which was to help us get ready for the walk to basecamp.  I can quite confidently say that was one of the most pyscologically draining days I've had.  Walking ether through or alongside rocky creek beds followed by a monster of a hill which easily takes an hour to climb is demorolising.

Luckily we have a rest day today though to get over things before we walk up to Camp Canda for another training walk.  Then the next day we climb Mt Bonet, followed by a rest day and then we start our 3 day assualt on the mountain.

|There has only realy been on incident sinec we've been on the moutntain which was a Japenese climber that had to be carried down from Nido to basecamp and then evacuated out.  He had come down with a severe case of odema and it was a bit touch ad go there for a while but the last we heard he was ok back in Mendoza.

Well I should really sign off and head back to start drinking some more water, water water water, it's all we drink up here, anywhere between 4 and 5 litres.  I'll let you work out what that does to your sleeping patterns!!

And for those who are interested my oxygeniaton levels at Confluencia wa 94 and my test this moning came back 81.  Should be better by our next rest day.  Blood presure is up around 150/90 which is relatively normal for this altitude.

Anyway its time for me to go.

Will email again before we launch our summit bid.

cach you all on the flipside