Dispatch#39 January 29th, 2002.  Aconcagua Base Camp, Argentina.  Team IV Hi this is Ellie calling from Aconcagua Base Camp for January 29th.  First item of interest is that we're having technical difficulties keeping the Sat Phone charged.  For today Team IV led by Willi Prittie and Eric Remza spent yesterday January 28th, resting at Camp II at 19,200 feet, where Willi treated them to a scrambled egg breakfast with sliced oranges on the side, brought up by Lhakpa a couple of days ago.  They also spent their "rest" day by dropping down to Camp II to pick up the rest of their gear and then return to Camp III in time to build up their energy with a hearty lentil dinner.  Good thing for them because today the team is moving up to Camp IV which puts them in position for a summit attempt tomorrow.

The weather here has been a little bit mixed, it will be clear in the morning, breezy in the afternoon, and last night we had some of the snow flurries again, so our fingers are crossed that they will at least have a day of good weather tomorrow and not too much wind to help them on their way to the summit.  This team has also said goodbye to several of their members over the last several days.  I think we already reported that Nick was taken down with a sinus problem and was joined a day later by Colin and Stuart who both were healthy but opted to drop out of the climbing party.  A couple of days ago Tom came down with Pulmonary Edema, but by the time he hit base camp he was much better and pretty much looked better than the whole rest of the trip.  But he will be going down since that is a problem to keep going up with that kind of a problem.  And with him going down, Jackie, who was also in good health, opted to go down as well.  Both of them joined Allen's team for the hike down from base Camp.  So all of those folks we wish them well.  So that leaves Will, Don, Bill, Mark and Adrien with Willi and Eric up there on the mountain. That's it from Aconcagua Base Camp.