Team III : 12/26/2008
Hello everyone this is Dave Gruss with Team III.  We are currently sitting at Camp I at 15,500 feet, we just finished our first load up the mountain, everyone seems to be doing fantastic, feels good to be finally shuffling up the mountain.  Yesterday, by some miracle, Kevin here from Calgary, Canada, has joined us.  He made it in here yesterday on Christmas Day and we had a fantastic dinner with him and it is good to have him join the team., a couple of days late, but he seems to be doing great.  The rest of the team is in good spirits and we will be heading back down to base camp and spending one more night and we will be heading back up to Camp I tomorrow.  Hope all is well, stay tuned for more, ciao.

Team III : 12/25/2008
Feliz Navidad everyone, this is Dave Gruss calling in from base camp for Team III on Aconcagua.  What a great day, pretty festive mood here, we had a rest day and everyone was enjoying it.  Candy canes around camp, we had a fantastic dinner tonight cooked by the Grajales crew, and we’re just kind of tucking ourselves in to bed.  Looking forward to moving higher on the mountain tomorrow and getting a cache put in at Camp I.  I just wanted to give some holiday greetings to everyone out there who is checking in on us.  Merry Christmas, we’ll talk to you soon, ciao.

Team II : 12/24/2008
Hey everyone, this is Team II on Aconcagua.  A happy holidays is in order for all the family members and friends of Team II.  Today we went up to Camp III, 19,200 feet, did a little acclimatization, brought a few odds and ends up there and came back down – everyone did a really great job.  I’m really proud of everyone, and everyone is very healthy, so it makes my job pretty easy.  We had a little Christmas ham already, so we are now going to work on the second course, a little beef stew and celebrate the holidays here.  We wish we were back home with everyone, but we all would like to say hi to everyone back there.  And tomorrow, the plan is to move up to Camp III, 19,200 feet and then of course, the following day, take a rest day, which will be well-deserved.   Again, Happy Holidays and we will talk with you in another day, ciao.

Team III : 12/24/2008
Greetings everyone, this is Dave Gruss calling in for Aconcagua Team III.   It is the 24th of December, Christmas Eve here.  We just arrived at base camp and we are just getting settled in and hydrating.  We Spent  a long hot dusty day yesterday hiking up to Casa de Peidra, a long 14 miles, but it’s great to be at base camp.  We are just checking in, but we just wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas Eve out there.  We’ve got a little tree by our tents here and we’ll be checking in tomorrow for Christmas, everyone out there have a great evening, ciao for now.

Team II : 12/23/2008
Alpine Ascents, this is Team II, Jeffrey James calling in.  We are now officially at Camp II on Aconcagua, that’s at Amagino Col and it’s at roughly 17,500 feet.  It’s one of the longer days on the expedition but the team did a really good job carrying some heavy loads up to the camp.  So we already made soup, keeping them hydrated and healthy.  Tomorrow the plan is to go to Camp III, 19,200 feet, drop some gear.  We actually already dropped some there already, but we need to acclimatize to that altitude, but boy everybody is doing really well but they sure are tired after the long day.  So we’re going to keep feeding them hots, and tonight is pizza for dinner, and tomorrow we will call back and let you know how the carry went, but the weather here is absolutely beautiful, so please knock on wood, say a prayer, keep us in your thoughts, for the good weather to continue and we could sure use it for the next five days, so we’ll talk to you again soon, ciao from Argentina.

Team III : 12/22/2008
Greetings everyone this is Dave Gruss with Alpine Ascents Team III on Aconcagua.  We are currently at Pampa de Lena, and we just had an incredible asado steak dinner cooked for us by our local arrieros, the gentlemen who are taking all of our gear up to base camp.  We are actually all just tucking into bed, looking forward to an early morning tomorrow and a longer day, looks like we are going to have about a 7 or 8 hour hike up to Casa de Peidra.  Everyone’s doing great so far and in great spirits and we are all looking forward to spending Christmas at base camp.  Hope all is well with everyone out there, and we will talk to you all soon.  Ciao for now.

Team II : 12/22/2008
Hello everyone, this is Jeffrey James Justman calling in for Team II, sitting here at Camp I, at about 15,700 feet.  Today is a rest day for the team, a well-deserved rest day.  Yesterday we carried of course up to Camp II, and it was a good hard effort, it’s one of the longer days of the trip.  But of course as you may know, we make four camps on this mountain.  Typically there are two camps, but the reason we make four is we are going to make sure everyone is acclimatized, feeling good, feeling strong and so we’ll take a rest day here.  We are actually going to help the team out today, Lakpa Gelu Sherpa and myself are going to run back down to Base Camp because we’ve accumulated quite a bit of garbage and some other items  that are in need of disposing, so rather than carrying that with us, we are going to run down and drop that off.

I have a surprise for them, I’m going to make a filet mignon dinner for them all and bring that back up here to them at 15.7.  We are eating good, today was hash browns, sausage, real eggs, so we are eating very well which is important, keeping everyone strong and in good spirits.  Tomorrow we will be moving up to Camp II, that’s above 17,500 feet and moving on to the next stage.  The weather here has been absolutely beautiful, which is kind of scary, because it can only last so long, but knock on wood everyone and let’s hope the weather continues to be good, but at the very least everyone is having a good time.  So with that we will talk to you another day, ciao.  
[Transmission Ends]

Hi this is Ron Filler from Team II, Today is the 22nd of December, wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday.  This is my first Alpine Ascents trip and I’m passing along to the next team member.

Hit this Dmitry Nikitin of Moscow, New York, Singapore.  This is my second trip with Alpine Ascents, the previous one was last summer’s Ecuador.  We are doing great here at 4700 meters and are looking forward to going up to the second camp tomorrow and everybody is doing great.  My very best to friends and loved ones.

Hi this is [Transmission Ends].  having a great time, enjoying the rest day, I wanted to say hi to friends and family. Especially Mischa and Sophia, we have a nice rest before our big day tomorrow.
Brendan O’Connor calling from Team II at camp I, feeling great, my fourth Alpine Ascents trip, hello to my friends and family in Chicago and to Team Texas.  The weather has been fantastic, we are all feeling good and I will pass off to the next member…

From Team II, [Transmission Ends]  Washington State, checking in.  This is my second Alpine Ascents tip and I’m Feeling good, I want to say hello to friends and family, I hope you are taking care of my dog.  Bye for now.

Team III: 12/21/2008
Hello everyone out there, this is Dave Gruss calling in for Aconcagua Team III.  It’s a quiet Sunday here  in Mendoza and we had a few logistical issues to deal with, but by a miracle, Allen’s luggage arrived on the morning flight today and we are only an hour or two behind, but we are actually leaving for Penitentes, we will get there tonight, have some dinner and be heading there tomorrow.  We had a fantastic steak dinner last night at a local restaurant and we will be in touch over the next couple of days.  Keep checking in on our progress, ciao for now.

Team II : 12/20/2008
Hello this is a report from Team II.  We have now made it to Camp I on Aconcagua.  The weather is fantastic and the team is in similar spirits.  We just had a fantastic lunch, cooked by chef JJ, ably assisted by Ben and Lakpa.  The team continues to be in fine spirits looking forward to the arduous carry up to Camp II tomorrow.  Hope everyone at home is doing well, we are having a great time.  (English Accent)

Team II : 12/19/2008
Hello this is Team II, JJ’s team on Aconcagua, we are at basecamp today and it is Friday, December 19th. I am reporting in about what we did today, mostly we went up to camp I which is around 14,500 feet, everybody did really well. It has been really interesting watching the cohesion of the team and watching the interactions with the local Brits and the American contingent (…transmission garbled...). In any event we are all in good condition, everyone is doing well, acclimation has been very successful. My name by the way is Ron, I am the oldest climber of the group so it is interesting watching these young little puppies trying to out do each other getting up the mountain :). In any event it was a great day and tomorrow we go up to camp I and then hopefully keep on going. So hopefully the next cybercast we call in, will be successful, everyone will be safe, no injuries and we will all come down the same way we went up.

Team II : 12/18/2008
Hey everyone this is Jeffery James Justman with Team II on Aconcagua. We are at base camp having a relaxing day, getting prepared for our carry and moving gear up higher on the mountain, starting tomorrow; so a little bit of organization this morning and this afternoon the team relaxed, just taking it easy. Everyone is doing really well which is always nice, everyone is acclimatizing, the minor headache this morning but now everyone is back to normal so that is a good sign. Tomorrow we will do a carry up to camp I and then we will return down here to base camp and have another great meal that Fernando Grajales has been making for us. We will be checking in tomorrow with you but that is the plan, carrying up to camp I, we will let you know how it goes tomorrow. The team is doing great and we will talk to you soon.

Team II : 12/17/2008
Team II checking in, we made it to base camp we are at 14,000 ft. We started off the day crossing a river with some mules. The weather has been nice and everyone is in good health. Tomorrow we have a rest day and then a climb up to camp I. We just sat down and had some hot drinks, we are going to be eating dinner here in a few, not sure what is for dinner but it should be good. Everyone is doing good, we saw our first view of the mountain today, it looks spectacular and that is it, Team II out.

Team II : 12/16/2008
Hello this is Brendan calling in from Team II we are in Casa de Piedra about to sit down to a chicken dinner. We had a great hike today on day 2, we got to see Aconcagua, the mountain for the first time. We are going to be using some mules to cross the river tomorrow. It is very windy out today, everyone is in great health and having a good time. A special shout out to my friends and family in Chicago and Team Texas, everyone is in great spirits, drinking plenty of water and staying healthy. We will check in with you tomorrow after we reach base camp, ciao.

Team II : 12/15/2008
Hi this is Lee calling from Lenas on our way to the top of Aconcagua, part of Team II. JJ is our guide and we have Brendan, Warren, Dmitry, Shane, Ron, two James and Fiona all up here. We are going to have a nice barbeque dinner tonight. Everyone says hello and we had a wonderful day today, a lot of sun and we are looking forward to our nice sleep and rest tonight and another day of good hiking tomorrow. Take care and talk to you soon.

Team I : 12/15/2008
Hi this is Garrett Madison calling in for Alpine Ascents Aconcagua Expedition number one. Today is Monday, December 15th, we have just all arrived at Plaza de Mulas base camp and we are having a nice afternoon snack and we will have a nice dinner before heading to bed. We will be hiking out the Horcones Valley tomorrow back to Penitenties. Everybody did great and we had an excellent expedition, this will conclude our cybercasts for Aconcagua, Team I.

Team I : 12/14/2008
Hi this is Garrett Madison and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa calling in for Aconcagua Team I on December 14th, Sunday. Today we reached the summit, it was a really nice day and really warm, no wind which was a bit change from the last few days. We are going to head down to Plaza de Mulas base camp tomorrow. Check in with you soon, bye.

Team I : 12/13/2008
Hi this is Garrett Madison and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa calling in from camp IV on Aconcagua. We just arrived at camp IV in a little bit of a snow storm but thank fully the temperature is warmer now and all of our climbers on the team are at camp IV with us. We just had a little bit of Lhakpa’s special soup and we are getting ready to have dinner and go to bed early in preparation for an early alpine start tomorrow on the summit, pending good weather. We will call in tomorrow (…transmission garbled…)

Team I : 12/12/2008
Hi this is Garrett and Lhakpa calling in from camp III on Aconcagua. We made our push yesterday from camp II up to camp III and now we are taking a rest day at camp III. Everybody is doing fine, we are in a little bit of a storm system so everybody is hunkered down in the tents sipping hot beverages and we are waiting out the storm. We are hoping that tomorrow will be nicer so that we can move up to our camp IV. We will keep you posted tomorrow, thanks for checking in.

Hi this is Aconcagua Expedition I both Lhakpa and Garrett calling in on December 11th , Thursday. Currently we are in the process of moving up to camp III (...transmission break...).

Hi this is Alpine Ascents Aconcagua Team One, Garrett and Lhakpa calling in on December 9th . We are at camp I, preparing to move up to camp II today and everybody on the team is doing great. It is a little windy on the mountain but we are going to make our way and should be in the camp in a few hours and then we will settle in and do a carry to camp III the following day. Again, everybody is doing great and we look forward to checking in tomorrow. Cheers.

Hello this is the Alpine Ascents Aconcagua, Team One, calling in. We are at camp I, today is December 8th. Yesterday we made our carry up to camp II and cached some equipment and food and fuel. Today we are taking a rest day in camp I, we just enjoyed a long breakfast and now we will review some crampon skills before making our move tomorrow up to camp II. The weather is great, everyone is doing well. Cheers.

Hi this is Garrett and Lhakpa calling in from Plaza Argentina base camp. Today we made a carry to our camp 1 and are now back at base camp relaxing, this is our last night at base camp before we move up for the duration of the trip. Everybody is doing well.

Greetings this is Garrett and Lhakpa calling in from Plaza Argentina, we arrived here late this afternoon and have set up camp and settled into our tents. We are getting ready for dinner at camp. We walked through a snow storm most of the day but now it looks like the weather is getting better for us. Everybody is doing well, cheers.

Hi this is Garrett and Lhakpa calling in from our second night on the trek. We are now at Casa de Piedra camp. We just had a hamburger dinner and we are tucking into our tents.

Hi this is Team 1, Aconcagua with Garrett Madison and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa and we are at our first camp, Pampa de Las Leñas, on the hike in. We just had a nice steak barbeque dinner, everybody did great today and now we are all going to tuck into our sleeping bags and get a good nights rest. All is well here on Aconcagua, ciao.