I recieved an email from Vicky Wiswell this morning. For those of you who didn't know Vicky and her Husband Ken Puhn are climbing mountains in South America. I'll let Vicky tell the rest...

Greetings Friends!

I hope this message finds you all well and enjoying the holidays! Ken and I have great news ... on the afternoon of December 26, we summited Aconcagua! At 22,841 ft (6962 m), Aconcagua stands as the highest mountain outside of Asia. Although we took the Normal Route to the top, which is a walkup, it was probably the most physically and mentally challenging thing Ive ever done in my life. And, after fourteen days on the mountain, we were pretty ready to be finished.

A little about the climb... The trailhead, Horcones, is at 9350 ft (2850 m). We set off for low camp the first day and spent two nights there and then proceded to base camp. (In the meantime, a mule had carried half of our 80 kg load to base camp.) At 14,000 ft (4265 m), base camp is almost as high as the summit of Rainier. We spent four nights there and Ken was very sick for two full days. Fortunately, whatever he was suffering from (probably AMS) subsided, so we were able to go higher. We made a carry (carried half of our equipment) to Camp I and moved camp (carried the other half of our equipment) the following day. We spent two nights at Camp I at an elevation of 16,1000 ft (4910 m) and were feeling great, so during that time, we made a carry to Camp II and moved camp the next day. Our Camp II was Nido de Condores at 17,650 ft (5380 m). After the first night there, we were feeling great, so I suggested going for the summit the next day. This diverged drastically from our original plan of more acclimatization at Nido, then making a Camp III at Plaza Berlin, the place most people use as their high camp. We had also planned on doing some acclimatization hikes above Berlin. At 19,000 ft (5780 m), Berlin makes for a good camp from which to summit. However, by the time we arrived at Nido, we had been on the mountain for nine days and I was getting a little restless for some reason. Ken (somewhat reluctantly) agreed to the proposed summit attempt and said that if we didnt make it, we could at least use it as an acclimatization hike (since we had done none from Nido as of yet). So, on Wednesday, December 26, we got up at 4am and got ready for the attempt. We were out of camp by 5:30am and used our headlamps to locate the route. The sun rose shortly thereafter and we climbed and climbed. The wind was really strong and a little scary on the steep slopes. However, we both felt really strong and neither of us had even a slight headache so we continued. At Independencia at 20,900 ft (6370 m), we strapped on our crampons and kept them for the remainder of the climb, which consisted of mixed snow, ice, and scree. It was really, really difficult. The last 1300 ft of the climb are in a horrible scree shute which takes about 2 hours to top. But we did, and at 1:30pm after 8 hours and 5200 ft since high camp, we summited. From talking to rangers and other climbers, this is an incredibly fast summit time, especially from Nido de Condores, a seldomly used high camp. We were pretty psyched to be on top!

Going down was much harder (for me at least) than going up because the lack of oxygen was having a strange impact on the muscles. My quads were quivering really badly and I was sure my legs would give out as I negotiated the scree and snow with my crampons. But, after 4.5 hours, we got down safely and collapsed in our tent at Nido. The next day, we hauled our 10 extra days of food and fuel back down to basecamp ... we had no idea we would summit so early in the climb! And the following day, we hiked the entire 25 miles out to the road where we got a ride back to Penitentes and a shower ... finally! So thats the short version of our 14 days on Aconcagua. It was an incredible experience and we look forward to sharing our photos and stories with you soon. Ken and I both feel a great sense of accomplishment!

For now, we plan to head south in Argentina, cross over into Chile eventually, and then head north. In mid to late January, we hope to fly from Santiago (or wherever) to Quito to visit our friends Sarah and Rick for 2 or 3 weeks and bag some volcanoes up there.

Again, I hope you are all well! Feliz Navidad y Aņo Nuevo!

Much love, Vicky