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Dispatch#9
December 28th, 2001. Aconcagua Base Camp,
Argentina. Team I Hi
this is Ellie Henke calling from Aconcagua Base
Camp, reporting in for Team I which today is up at
Camp III, they moved up, it took them about three
hours to get from Camp II up to Camp III, which as
you remember they previously had prepared their tent
sites so they were able to just move right in.
Willi reports that they had a delicious mashed
potato, vegetable and ham dinner. However
there was great sadness in their camp up there,
because apparently they had finished off their
supply of Tabasco Sauce, so I guess that they'll
have to make do until they get back to Base Camp,
the other groups were not close enough behind them
to take them an extra bottle, so too bad for them.
Willi reports
that there were several other groups that have made
the summit the last several days, and these folks
have reported that wind conditions have been fairly
calm, which is good, but also that things have been
very cold up there with temperatures ranging from 10
to 20 below zero at just before sunrise, though
Willi said he would rather deal with the cold than
the wind any day, the winds can be very ferocious up
there, so it's definitely something we're hoping to
avoid.
December 29th
is rest and acclimation day for the folks at Camp
III and they have a running chess tournament going
on all the way up the mountain, so I'm sure that
they will be taking advantage of their rest day to
continue the chess battle up there. How well
they'll be doing at the 19,200 foot altitude remains
to be seen. Willi also has an editorial
comment, it seems that they have encountered folks
up there who are going downhill in the uphill tracks
which when folks go downhill in them it destroys the
hard earned up tracks, it takes quite a bit of
energy to put these in, so Willi has asked all
mountaineers out there to please respect the uphill
tracks that have already been put in and please move
aside and come down next to those tracks and don't
just straightaway on your way down. So that's
the message from Aconcagua Camp III today, and we'll
soon be hearing from Team II which is at Base Camp,
so that's all for now and we'll be getting back to
you soon.
 Dispatches
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