Plaza de Mulas

Josh got some reception as they moved up the mountain. I was able to text with him Friday and Saturday. I haven't heard from them since Sunday morning when they were moving up to Camp Canada at 16,076 feet. Today should be a rest day and a day to acclimatize to the thinner mountain air. This is the highest either have them been, the second being Rainer at 14,409 elevation gain.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) they will climb to Camp Berlin-19,685 feet, come back down and sleep at the lower elevation and carry back to Berlin on Thursday. They will rest Friday and the plan is to summit Saturday.

Kaiden was sick on the way up from the park entrance to their first camp. He had a bad headache and had forgotten to pack his warm clothes before giving his gear to the muleteers. It was snowy and very cold so Josh gave him his warm gear and wore a paper thin jacket. It was 8 hours or so through these conditions and climbing on top of it. The guides told them Kaiden probably got sick from the water and the previous camp Confluencia and that he would recover quickly. Now the boys are relying on their own water supply and purification.

Plaza de Mulas. Expedition Team Provided Meals and Tents

That day (Friday) and Saturday was 65 MPH winds but they got to hide out and rest in the expedition tents. Sunday morning when Josh text he said it was great weather and that they were both feeling great.

It's in the low 20's where they are now but with the chill factor it feels about 5 degrees. On summit day according to the weather it will be about 1 degree with a chill factor of -24 degrees but no storms. They were anticipating -40 degrees so it looks like they will have a warm summit...JK. They are fully prepared with all of the right gear so they should be relatively comfortable.

I will probably not hear about the summit day until they return back down to Plaza de Mulas at 13,943 feet which is the the last time I heard from them. Which will probably be Monday. I'll let you know when I hear.