Tag Archive for: Argentina

Acclimatizing on Cerro Doña Inés

Today the team acclimatized by hiking Cerro Doña Inés.  Garrett Madison provides the details via satellite phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Ojos del Salado team in Chile – in the Atacama region.  We had a great day today!  We arrived yesterday, all together, in the Copiapó airport and drove out to our first camp here at the [Pedernales] Salt Flats.

Today we went for an acclimatization hike.  We climbed the nearby peak, Doña Inés – about 16,700 ft. (5095m) at the summit.  About a 2,000 ft. elevation gain, amazing that we could drive up to over 14,500 ft. to start our hike which is higher than Mt. Rainier, the highest peak in Washington state (USA).

Everyone’s doing great!  It’s sunny here, a little windy in the afternoon, and we’re looking forward to nice dinner tonight.  Then tomorrow we’re going to drive all the way to Laguna Verde, the green lake, and hopefully get to check out the hot springs, as well.  We’ll be there for a few nights.

So, all’s well here in Chile.  We’re having a great time and looking forward to getting closer to Ojos!

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Team Arrives Copiapó, Chile and Heads Off The Grid

Team in Copiapó and ready to head out to the mountains!

As the Ojos del Salado team arrives Copiapó and heads off the grid today, expedition leader Garrett Madison makes use of the last bit of Internet connectivity to provide this expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Ojos del Salado expedition team.  Myself and Jenn, Chase, Ted, Ryan, and Krisli are all here in Copiapó.  Some of us arrived last night, some today and we’re headed off towards our first camp on Ojos del Salado at about 11,000 ft. (3,353m) today.

We will be without Internet likely for the next 10-11 days, as there is no cell signal and no Wi-Fi up on the mountain.  So, we’ll be communicating with our Garmin inReach and looking forward to some great weather, some amazing views, and watching the partial eclipse on December 14th.

We are excited to be heading off shortly here to the salt flat camp and working our way higher on the mountain and returning in about 10 days.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Ojos del Salado Kicks-Off!

Our team members prepare to board their flights to arrive in Santiago, Chile tomorrow to kick-off the Ojos del Salado expedition – the world’s highest active volcano and second only to Aconcagua as South America’s highest peak.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, has the details in this kick-off expedition dispatch.  Be sure to follow along for daily updates and see below for details on other fun ways to track the team’s progress.

Hello!  This is Garrett Madison calling in for the Ojos del Salado climbing expedition.  Today we are departing the U.S. and heading to Chile, arriving in Chile tomorrow and flying to Copiapó to meet our team that is providing the ground transportation for us to drive out to the Atacama and begin our expedition on Ojos del Salado.

We’re very excited to be heading off to Chile to start this expediton climb.  This is my first trip to Ojos del Salado, so I’m personally very excited.  It looks like good weather – it’s going to be warm and sunny down in Chile because it’s their summertime.  We look forward to posting some pictures and making updates as the expedition progresses.

Here we go!

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Climb Conclusion Celebration

Aconcagua team celebrates at Plaza de Mulas base camp

Our team of climbers, cameramen and Argentina support staff after our climb and celebratory ‘asado’ (barbecue) in base camp. We had a wonderful expedition on Aconcagua, everyone is safely off the mountain, and now beginning the trek out from base camp. We are looking forward to arriving in Mendoza tonight and enjoying some warm weather!

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Team safely down to base camp

Base camp, everyone down safe! Great expedition, stay tuned for the TV show and what happened in the summit push!

With all of the Aconcagua team safely down to base camp, expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides today’s expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We are all back down in Plaza de Mulas base camp – 14,000 ft. on the normal route of Aconcagua.  We had a great time on our expedition.

Yesterday our team went for the summit and we don’t want to reveal what happened on our summit attempt because we want to save it for TV show which is forecoming.  But we’re all back down safe and the weather’s great.  It’s been a fantastic team, great expedition.  Just a wonderful experence here on Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres.  Wonderful time in Argentina.

And our plan tomorrow is to trek out and head back to Mendoza.  We’ll probaby get in late to Mendoza after an 18 mile trek out and 3 hour drive back to Mendoza.  All’s well here on Aconcagua.  We’ll check-in soon!

Sid Pattison, the barbecue chief!

Sid Pattison, the barbecue chief!

Cacho, our Argentinian guide who leads our climbs exclusively and reached the summit of Aconcagua for his 50th time!

Cacho, our Argentinian guide who leads our climbs exclusively and reached the summit of Aconcagua for his 50th time!

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Did they summit??

High camp 3 on Aconcagua, new MHW Trango 3 tents in action! Served us well!

With drama and suspense worthy of a TV show, expedition leader Garrett Madison provides a recap of summit day on Aconcagua:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  Today we went for our summit push and we had good weather, but we’re not going to tell what happened because we want you to watch the show when it comes out.

Everyone’s back down safe, which is the most important thing, and doing well.  The team is in high camp 3 – Cholera Camp, tonight and will be heading down to base camp tomorrow.  And then heading out the following day back to Mendoza.

So everyone’s doing well, lots of great filming, and exciting times here on Aconcagua and we’re looking forward to the final production of the show.

(photo:  earlier this week at base camp)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Going for the summit tomorrow

The evening's glow on Aconcagua

Hi, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We’re up at high camp, Camp 3 on the normal route – Cholera Camp (5945m/19,504ft).  And everyone’s doing really well.  The weather seems to be improving so we are looking forward to potentially a nice summit day.  But there’s only one way to find out.  So, we are going to wake up early at 4:00am and start climbing by 6:00am and hopefully have some good luck up there and have a great climb.  We’ll check-in soon.  Thanks!

(photo:  earlier this week at base camp)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Up to Aconcagua Camp 3 tomorrow

Sunset from Aconcagua Camp 1 (5052m/16,575ft)

The plan is to move up to Camp 3 tomorrow after waiting out the winds hitting the upper mountain.  Here’s expedition leader, Garrett Madison, with the details:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team up here at Camp 2 on the normal route – Nido de Cóndores.  We took another rest day today as we are watching the winds up high.  It looks like the strong winds have been persistent for a couple of days but they should be dying down.  So our plan is to head up to Camp 3 tomorrow and go for the summit the following day.  Fingers crossed for good weather.  The team’s doing great up here.  Everyone’s in good spirits and we are looking forward to moving up the mountain soon!  All’s well here on Aconcagua.  We’ll check-in soon!

 

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Rest Day at Camp 2

The view from Camp 2 on Aconcagua

Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, reports in from Camp 2 on Aconcagua:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We’re up here at Camp 2.  We had a great rest day in Nido de Condores camp.  Nice day – not too windy and not as warm as yesterday but still not too cold.

We are going to see how the weather is tomorrow.  Sounds like there’s some high winds coming in by the forecast but we haven’t seen them yet – haven’t felt the high winds so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Either we’ll move up to Camp 3 or we’ll take another rest day here at Camp 2.

Everyone’s doing well here on Aconcagua.  Check-in soon!

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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Carry to Camp 3

The view from Aconcagua Camp 2

The Aconcagua team made a carry up to Camp 3 – Cholera Camp (5974m/19,600ft.) today and are back at Camp 2.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, phoned in today’s dispatch via satellite phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We are at Camp 2 on Aconcagua.  We had a great day today.  We carried up to Camp 3 – Cholera Camp at about 19,600 ft., cached some of our equipment and came back down to Camp 2 here at Nido de Cóndores – about 18,200 ft.

We are going to rest here tomorrow.  It looks like there are some strong winds coming in tonight for a couple of days.  Climbers have come down off the upper mountain from the high camps, including some of the rangers here on the mountain, just to get out of the way of the winds.  So we will probably rest for a one day if not two depending on the high winds here.  When it clears, we will head up to Camp 3 and move forward with our plan for a summit attempt.

Everyone’s doing great here.  We’ve had good weather – high pressure […garbled…] not too cold.  The team’s doing well and we’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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 Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

– Instagram:

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