Rob’s voicemail today sounds like they’ve been solid trucking. They left Base Camp at Plaza Argentina at 9:30am through the Vacas Valley to a camp called Pampa de Lenas by about 5:30pm. 8 hours straight, snowing the whole way, and cold winds a’blowin’. Others are coming down, too… dozens of summit attempts spoiled by the storm. He hopes that everyone is warmer than he is right now.

Here’s this morning’s view from Plaza Argentina… click to see the snow/wind storm set in at 18k’..

Day 17: Summit Day on Aconcagua! Making an early alpine start, we climb out of camp to join the Ruta Normal. A gradual traverse along the mountain’s northwest flank takes us past the abandoned Refugio Independencia and to the base of the Canaleta, a 1,000′ high couloir leading to the summit ridge. Upon reaching the top of the Canaleta, a straightforward traverse leads to the summit. After celebrating on the summit, we descend to High Camp for the night.* Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides

Rob just called from Plaza Argentina (aka Base Camp). He said he slept *very well last night after a long haul down from Camp 2 with all of their gear. They are waiting for mules to arrive to carry their gear down the rest of the way. He reports that snow is falling and the wind is blowing and its pretty cold, but they are all glad to be avoiding this “whale” of a storm that’s blowing through. Rob has already made his travel arrangements and will be back in Texas by Saturday. Godspeed, Rob!

here’s a live pic from 1:15pm est today at Plaza Argentina… click the image to see all the images of the day and possibly spot Rob!

Day 16: Move to Camp 3. We climb to our High Camp, setting up camp and preparing for our push to the summit.* Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides

Rob just left two messages from Camp 1. Today they stashed gear up at Camp 2 (18k’). He said the climb was quite steep. He said they had to navigate through more skree and penitentes (see the image below). And then they went up to 18,5k’ to sneak a peek at Camp 3. Tomorrow is a rest day, then they’ll move up to Camp 2. It was below freezing last night and constantly windy. And even though his camelbak froze, he seems cheerful!

The last few seconds of this is lost to sat phone distortion.

here is a picture of some random dude walking thru penitentes… they are kinda like upside down glacier-cycles…

Day 11: Carry to Camp 2 (Guanacos Camp at 18,000’). Today we get our first view to the north across the expansive scree fields above the Guanacos Valley. The snow covered peaks of the central Andes spread out in the distance.* Thursday, December 13th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides

Rob just left another voicemail. He says that today’s 4.5 hour climb up to Camp 1 was “a heckuva climb”. Very windy with lots of scree and rain. He says everyone’s feeling well. They rest tonight and tomorrow.

and here is JJ Justman’s blog entry on December 10th. He is the lead guide with support from Geoff Schellens.

He says, “I know I sound like a broken record but our Aconcagua team is both rocking and rolling! Today we woke up early and laced up our mountaineering boots. With hefty packs in hand we slowly made our way up to Camp 1 at 16,360 feet…officially.

For Geoff and I today gave us an opportunity to visibly see how each climber is doing. And it was obvious that everyone has climbed before. And climbed well. The team was in sync with breaks, rest stepping, good footwork and most importantly everyone was having fun.

We spent a half an hour at Camp 1 and we left quite a bit of gear that we will need for the upper mountain. So we are now officially ready to move up the mountain. But first we will take another rest day here at base camp. There’s no need to rush. The tortoise always wins the race.”

Day 8: Carry to Camp 1 (16,200’). Our trek ends and the climb begins with our first carry of the expedition. We climb to Camp 1, caching a portion of our supplies and equipment. We descend to Base Camp to sleep.* Monday, December 10th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides

Rob says things are going good. The team met with doctors to get their bio-stats and everyone passed with flying colors. Tomorrow they travel up to 16.2′ to set up their cache for camp 1. He says everyone’s getting along. Its windy, clear, and chilly (not chile, har!). Dad-humor intact!

So here’s something kind of amazing… the website Aconcagua Now has a live webcam at Plaza Argentina (Base Camp) so you can see the whole day in three minute increments if you go to their “history pictures” section. So here’s 221 images from today’s live feed at base camp (click the image)! And if you spot Rob, leave a comment with the timecode that’s posted in the top right of the photo.

Day 7: Rest and acclimatization at Base Camp. We relax and adjust to the new altitudes while we focus on packing and organizing our gear for the mountain.* Sunday, December 9th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides

After three days of hiking, Rob is happy and healthy at the base camp (aka Plaza Argentina). He says one of the highlights of the day was crossing an ice cold river on a mule for $5.

Day 6: We complete the approach to Base Camp by following the Relinchos Valley to Plaza Argentina. Base Camp (13,800′) is on a glacial moraine overlooking the river valleys of our approach. We unpack our climbing gear carried by the mules and establish camp. * Saturday, December 8th, 2012

* Itinerary summary from RMI Guides