Vern

Hear Vern's Call from Aconcagua

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Buenas días Mountain Zone. This is Team Omega in Argentina.

Boy, howdy, spring has come to the Andes! As we've descended Aconcagua, we've noticed that all the snow that was here on our way in has now gone and it's turned to water and it's running down the creeks and rivers. Speaking of creeks and rivers, Bob was literally walking on thin ice yesterday. He was on some ice that was along the shore of the Vacas. It was formed by the overflow and it projected out, maybe, 10-12 feet over the water, three inches thick, and he was able to actually jump off that ledge, across onto a big boulder on the other side — never got his feet wet. Amazing. Anyway, it made for a much easier crossing than we had ever anticipated.

Later on, because of the lack of snow, we certainly had to stop dragging our bags and loaded them on to our shoulders. So again, 80-pound packs, hiking down the Vacas Valley and in the evening we crossed again, the Vacas, and this time we had no ice left so we ended up having to wade it — it was only thigh deep and it was quite refreshing. Got our feet smelling much better than they have for the last three weeks.

We've been collecting data the whole trip and we want to say that there's going to be more posted after we get finished. So, stay tuned to Mountain Zone because we'll be posting the climatological data that we've collected, along with the bio-data and the results of our psychological testing that is being performed by the University of Alaska. So, stay tuned for that information.

Today we look forward to heading down the last seven miles, past all the quanacos along the trail, to the highway and we'll be giving you our following report hopefully from Santiago, if everything works out well.

Our critical numbers for today on the 27th of September at 7:03 in the morning at Camp XIII: we're at 9,640ft and our latitude is 32 degrees south, 45 minutes .094 and it's longitude 69 degrees west, 48 minutes .377. Thirty-two degrees and with a very mellow 3.2 mile-an-hour wind out of the north. Bob's oxygen saturation of his blood was 91% and he had a pulse of 51 this morning and myself, I was 94% with a pulse of 44. Ciao for now, see you tomorrow.

—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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