Aconcagua Polish Traverse Expedition wrap up report!

Hel­lo Moun­tain Mad­ness blog read­ers! Pablo here, we apol­o­gize for the over­due post­ing, we were hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties with our satel­lite phone con­nec­tion. Here is a recap of our sum­mit day on Aconcagua!

After wait­ing for clear weath­er, we gave the sum­mit a go on Feb­ru­ary 15^th. We sum­mit­ted with two groups; one leav­ing at 5 am and one leav­ing at 4 am. Ossy led the 4 am group, which includ­ed Kari, Susan and Lorne. The rest of the group went up at 5 am with Pablo and Ale­jo. Both groups met before the Inde­pen­den­cia hut. 

Pablo stayed here at the hut with Susan, while the rest of the group began the final push up. Lorne made it to the cave, while the rest of the group made the sum­mit! Lorne and Ossy descend­ed to the cave, where Lorne wait­ed for the group to fin­ish the sum­mit. Ossy returned to the group and every­one else sum­mit­ted around 3 pm. 

Ossy and Ale­jo picked up Lorne and returned down. Pablo and Susan, after rest­ing awhile at the cave, began the climb and sum­mit­ted at 4 pm. Ossy radioed Pablo to tell him there was an upcom­ing ​‘bien­to blan­co’, white winds. The white winds buried all the tracks on our descent to third camp! But we made it down to camp after a long day fight­ing the winds down the moun­tain. Chris decid­ed to remain at third camp, and not attempt the summit. 

We began our decent down the moun­tain on the 16^th mak­ing our way down to third and sec­ond camps. On the 17^th we hiked out 7 – 8 hours to the park entrance. Then we trans­ferred to Pen­i­tentes, where we picked up our gear. From there it was off to Mendoza!

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the tea mem­bers who sum­mit­ted and those who put forth their best effort! It was a plea­sure climb­ing this group. Ciao!