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Argentina 2010Rest Day at La Vitrola Camp . . . January 15, 2010
Every trip to South America is the same . . . we score a weather window and want to climb . . . but we long ago learned that you simply have to bide your time at altitude to acclimatize or you will pay the price. We awoke to a beautiful blue sky day at La Vitrola Camp and there was that summit, just a few thousand feet higher than us, or so it seemed. But we knew the rule and today was going to be a rest day for the body to build a few new red blood cells before we pushed to the next higher camp on the following morning.
As the day passed so did the sun as bank of clouds appeared on the far side of La Mesa and swept across the summit of Mercedario, obscuring its 22,000 foot heights in a wall of white. Anibal had told us that clouds to the east were nothing to worry about but when they come in from the west, then that is a sure sign of bad weather to come. He noted that the bad weather usually will last a day or so but if the weather comes from the west be ready for rain or snow, depending upon your altitude. The Our sunny day was soon gone, the warm temperature was gone and the gray wall soon obscured the summit of La Mesa and then La Ramada above us. Then it was not only the summit that was lost to cloud as the white started pushing down toward our elevation . . . Soon we got a flake or two of snow, then more snow and before long we abandoned the outside to take refuge in the Mid. The Mid offered a warm stove, hot mate and the promise of more room than the sleeping tents ever could. We put up with the snow, tapping the walls of the Mid on a regular basis to knock the fluffy white stuff to the ground so there was room to sit without the tent draping across one's back. We got through dinner and another hour to two of I think we were all curious as to how much snow we would get and what effect it would have on our plan to climb the next morning at least to the Torres Rosadas camp, 1800 feet higher on the mountain . . . We would just ahve to wait and see.
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