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Adventures International Aconcagua Expedition
February 1st, 2003
Hood River, Oregon
January 22nd, 2003 Hood River, Oregon
Watch here for reports on Chris Kerrick and John Rust's February 1st Aconcagua trip. Live from the mountain via Satellite phone connection. Right now the guides are getting the food and equipment ready for the later season on Aconcagua. Chris has been guiding for over 4 years now with Adventures International and is currently one of our top guides. He also leads expeditions on McKinley during the spring. John Rust will be going to Lhotse this spring, joining Scott Woolums for the twin Lhotse/Everest expedition. John is our guide for the European Alps trip. They have a full trip of 6! A busy year! Follow their expedition here in only a week from now!
Upper Vacas Route
January 30, 2003 Mendoza, Argentina
Chris arrived in Mendoza yesterday, and says they are suffering from the heat, "41 degrees celsius today, phwwuu!" He is currently finalizing preparations for the Feb. 1st departure. Our guides are super busy prior to any departure: they have to re-confirm that all the logistics are in place prior to your arrival in country, inspect all the group camping and climbing gear, and pack all the food they haul with them from the states. It can be quite a production depending on the number of folks in the group.
We have six climbers on this expedition: Derek Hartshorn, Pam Christie, and Mark Hitchcock are traveling from Papua New Guinea to join us; plus Sam Kay, Russell Lamb, and Mark Robson hail from the UK. We wish them all the best on this expedition!
The team will head to our staging area at Penitentes on Saturday and hit the trailhead Sunday. So check back in a few days to see how they are progressing...
Upper Vacas Route
February 4, 2003 Plaza Fondo
We received an email from Fernando Grajales, our outfitter in Penitentes, who was able to relay radio communication from Chris' team. Fernando confirms that our group has reached
base camp at Plaza Fondo, right on schedule, and everyone is doing well! However, they are having technical problems with the satellite phone and have been unable to send us their progress reports. Guess that brings us back to an era when mountaineering truly meant being remote.
We also use VHF radios on the mountain in addition to the sat phones. So we are hoping for more reports via the VHF radio although these are not as reliable as they have to be relayed through other people.
AI has another expedition party going into the Upper Vacas Valley on the 13th; they should be able to relay reports via a second satellite phone. Until then we will just have to send them good thoughts. The team's first opportunity for a summit bid will be Friday, Feb. 15!
Upper Vacas Route
February 16th, 2003 Plaza De Mules
News is just in that the team
summated with 6 people reaching the top this trip. We'll have more details shortly. Chris had the group wait out one day at high camp in some very severe winds. They also ended up spending an extra day at Camp 3 in fairy bad weather. Good perseverance waiting it our up high. Still a windy day up top but the team was successful. Good job Chris and John. Now Johns heading back to Hood River to get ready for his Lhotse trip and Chris will be getting set for McKinley. A busy season with 5 trips on the mountain!