Acclimatizing to Plaza Francia (4228m/13,871ft)

Our Aconcagua team continued their acclimatization today by hiking up to Plaza Francia below the mountain’s south face.  Expedition leader Garrett Madison has this expedition dispatch via sat phone:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Aconcagua expedition.  Today is February 1st.

We had a great day here in the Horcones Valley.  We woke up, had breakfast, and then started our acclimatization day trekking up to Plaza Francia (4228m/13,871ft) at the base of the south face of Aconcagua.  It was a nice hike.  We had a little bit of shade and some nice views of the south face.

We returned in the early afternoon to camp, had a little rest, and then had a nice barbeque here Argentinian-style asado in the Confluencia Camp.  We had some beef, chicken, some chorizo sausage, veggies to go along with it, and little bit of red wine.  A very traditional, pleasant evening here in Argentina.  We are looking forward to hiking up to Plaza de Mules tomorrow.

All’s well here on Aconcagua!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1