Dispatch#5 December 25th, 2001.  Aconcagua Base Camp, Argentina. Hello this is Ellie Henke reporting Willi's Christmas Day report from Aconcagua group I from Camp I.  Willi reports: "The entire team would like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas.  We had excellent weather moving up yesterday.  Everybody did very well, we were moving very strongly and arrived in several hours less time than our previous carry two days ago.  We joined another team from Michigan and a French-Canadian team up here at Camp I and enjoyed the beautiful conditions.  A few quick personal messages:

From Matthew, "Merry Christmas to Linda, Sarah and Andrew.  Love you much."
From Guy, "Sherry, miss you and love you, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas Debby and Christmas love."
From Chad, "Merry Christmas Mom and Dad and Caroline"
From Scott, "Merry Christmas Mom, Dad, Chris, cousins and friends."

Willi, continues his report, "today we are going to take advantage of beautiful weather conditions and everyone's feeling good.  We still have windless and sunny conditions here at Camp I.  We will be doing our first carry up to Camp II at 17,600 feet, the oxygen gets thinner.  

Here at Base Camp, the Argentinean tradition is to welcome in Christmas with a big party and fireworks at midnight, I was lucky this year that no exploding gas canisters came near my tent as it did previous years.  

Another Christmas message from Ellie: "Merry Christmas to all of my too numerous to name family and friends.  And so Willi doesn't get killed when he gets home he also sends love and Merry Christmas to Susan, Mike and Kim.  So we're all enjoying a wonderful Christmas Day here on Aconcagua.  We're expecting the arrival of Dave and Dave with Brian and Kim this evening, and Pat's Aconcagua group II tomorrow.  So we're preparing and ready to welcome them in, so that's all from Christmas Day on Aconcagua.