Day 6 - First push to camp 1

Tim called from base camp at 21.30 our time last night, (I believe 18:30 local time), they were just back from the climb up to camp 1, on 5000M altitude. After another movie and a very good night of sleep, they started the climb in cold and windy conditions. Tim estimates the temperature between -10°C and -15°C, but with the windfactor it is actually much colder. But they've were "dressed for the occasion", well prepared and not cold! Unfortunately an old wound in Tim's heel (the tendon), the "achilles pees" in dutch, started to hurt due to the rented hard boots, which hampers the possibility to roll your feet back and fourth while walking. The pain was finally so bad that he ended up swapping shoes with the guide and borrowed his soft shoes, and that helped. They did the climb in 5 hrs, which is really fast, normally they estimate 6-8 hrs.... wow, the Uuden-Mul couple is moving fast! They consumed between 3-4l of water on their way but on the last part they had to stop after every 10 steps to catch their breath. One guy from Chile actually took the time and brewed some tea on 5000m, that's a laugh... talking about High Tea!!!!! I bet that cup of tea felt really good...
It was a tough but fantastic climb, crossing the glacier, "breathtaking" in it's very sense! Pant, pant, pant... with their tongues out drooling over the ice. hahahaha

Back home in base camp, multo bene mama mia papa pia "spagetti" time!! Bram and Tim are extremely satisfied and impressed with the logistics and organisation of this expedition, so well recommended should any of you feel tempted to "conquer" the Aconcagua.

I was totally under the impression there were one guide and one assistant guide, but in Tim's phonecalls he's always been referring to "the guide". So Brigitte asked, and there is indeed only one guide!! That means that if anything goes wrong, well then they'll have to descend together. Sounds like a bummer to me. But I suppose they're not alone on the mountain, God knows there might be other possibilities to hook up with another group, maybe making a second attempt if the first one fails etc... Well find out, won't we???

Today is another restday, Tim's tending to his tendon (Brigitte put half her cupboard of homeopathic drugs in his rugsack). Maybe Tim should try Bram's "survival package". No homeopathic drugs there... only the "real" stuff!! Anti inflammatories, antibiotics, painkillers etc. We have a very good friend who works at a pharmacy, and her boss got so enthusiastic about this trip to Aconcagua, that he put together a kit without prescription. But don't worry... he didn't include any morfine or other "illegal" drugs. Thank you Patricia!!
So I hope that Tim's heel will heal... on soft boots you'll not make it to the top. Too cold. But actually during the phone conversation one of the assistants showed up with another pair of hard boots, only 2 sizes too big. But with extra socks, this might just work! Good luck.
Tim will call a little bit earlier today, hopefully with a better connection, yesterday the phone call was cut off 4 times. Those are costly calls... (I wonder what the €/min rate is.. i know from experience that those satellite phonecalls are awfully expensive. When Bram sailed from Corsica to the Cap Verde islands, I called him once in a while on the oats satellite phone. I'll never forget that bill.)

Bram had a strong day of climbing, no troubles with the shoes, no headaches and he feels in great shape. The athmosphere in the group is super, apparently really nice guys. They have a lot of fun, and that can only add to the succes of this expedition. Well camp 2 is on 6000m, so it'll be very exciting to see how they perform on higher altitude. Maybe climbing higher with only a light pack on your back will put less strain on Tim's heel.

Sorry for being late with yesterday's story! We came home late last night, and I actually fell asleep. Woke up at night with a bad conscious for not posting... but thought: - to hell with it, I'll keep the suspension up until tomorrow morning. And then I fell asleep again. Sorry guys!! ;-)

Tim & Bram, keep it up!
lot's of love, Jenny & Bok