Dispatch#7  December 27th, 2001.  Aconcagua Base Camp, Argentina. Team I, Team II Hi this is Ellie calling in from Aconcagua Base Camp reporting for Team I.  Willi and the group spent last night up at Amagino Col, which is Camp II.  They arrived in their carry up to Camp II from Camp I in about three hours, only to discover that the previous night's snow had completely snowed in their campsite. So not only did they have the work of getting up to the camp, they also spent several hours digging out snow and leveling tent sites and building up the rock wall to dig in their camp.  Once they got situated they had a beautiful evening up there, very little wind and Willi reports that they had a delicious curry dinner which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.  

Today on the 27th, they're heading up, doing the carry up to Camp III, at 19,200 feet which will be an altitude record for most of the folks.  They're planning on taking up some gear and spending some time this afternoon digging out tent sites up there at 19.2 and then returning to Amagino Col at Camp II this evening to spend another night there, and tomorrow moving on up to Camp III.  So in the meantime, today there was beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky, the sun is shining there's a light breeze, Willi reports that everyone is healthy and doing very well, so we're crossing our fingers for them and rooting for them as they head higher on the mountain.

Yesterday, the 26th, Team II got into Base Camp and we'll have a separate report from them later on.  This is Ellie signing off from Base Camp.