Vern

Hear Vern's Call from Aconcagua

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Buenas días Mountain Zone. This is Vernon Tejas with Team Omega and we're descending Mount Aconcagua. The day before yesterday we were very fortunate. The mountain shined on us and allowed us to stand on the summit. But yesterday, coming down, whoo-wee, she showed a different face. We got knocked down by at least 60 mile-an-hour gusts, several times we were tumbled onto the talus and down the snowslopes. However, now that we've dropped 6,000ft — we're below our Base Camp, we've picked up our cache and we're camping on the Relinchos peak — life is much better. Both Bob and I are…[Transmission Fails]

Now that we're below 13,000ft, we're really enjoying the warmth and the oxygen in the air and the birds signing. One of the most impressive things was being able to sleep a full night through without having to get up and pee every two hours, or so. It's really nice to be down here and sleeping well, feeling well, being able to have our appetites come back, it's really improved our whole outlook on life.

Our critical numbers for today are September the 25th at 7:25, we're at an altitude of 12,900ft, we're at latitude 32 degrees south, 38 minutes .331. And longitude 69 degrees west 55.247. The temperature was 20 degrees and the wind is out of the east at 8.3 miles-an-hour. Bob's oxygen saturation is 90 and his pulse is 58. Vern's is 92 and pulse 48.

We look forward to moving on down to the Vacas Valley today and picking up our cache and heading down the Vacas. That's all from here, we'll talk to you guys later. Ciao.

—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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