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Expedition Team IIISummit Achieved on January 4th, 2009 *December 19, 2008 – January 11, 2009 (10 Climber Team) Arrive Mendoza 12/20. Depart 1/10.Note from Office: All cybercasts called in over the holiday/weekend will be posted on Monday, January 5th. Thanks for following along. Click Image to see larger map.

Current Status - Expedition Itinerary Interactive Route Map

Mark has returned to his home in Denver, CO and is enjoying his own bed and feels blessed with his accomplishment. Slide show of Climb

Weather Forecast for Current location.

Expedition Updates

01/06/2009Hey everyone out there this is Dave Gruss calling in for Team III, it is the 6th of January. We had a great night in base camp, a long descent down there but had a fantastic night celebrating our success and everyone making it. We are going to head down to Penitentes spend the night there tonight and keep the celebration rolling. We will be in Mendoza tomorrow and (…transmission garbled…). Thanks everyone for checking in and we will be in touch with you tomorrow, take care.

01/04/2009Greetings all this is Dave Gruss calling in from the top of South America, we have all eleven team members accounted for up here. It is a beautiful day, I couldn’t believe it, everybody did great, man what a day. We suffered through some bad weather the last few days and dished up an incredible summit day. We just want to wish our love to everyone out there, we will be talk to you in a day or two when we get down to Plaza de Mulas, I hope that all is good out there and we will chat with you soon. Ciao.

01/03/2009Hey everyone out there this is Dave, John and Lhakpa calling in from high camp at 20,600 feet. We just arrived here this afternoon and have been kind of sitting out a little weather and everybody is in good form. We are going to try to attempt the summit tomorrow, weather permitting so hopefully the next call you will be getting from us will be from the top. Keep checking in and we will be in touch tomorrow, ciao.

01/02/2009Greetings everyone this is Dave calling in for Team III, we want to wish everybody a happy new year. We have moved up to camp III and everybody still seems to be doing great. We have got a strong team and we are riding out some rough weather, we are getting some sidewise snow, pretty high winds, big gusts but I am sure that late this evening it will abate. We just want to wish all of our loved ones a happy holidays and a shout out from everybody on the team, I hope that everyone out there is doing well and had a great holiday season. Keep checking in we will be taking a rest day and then moving up to high camp tomorrow. Hope all is well out there and keep checking in, ciao.

12/29/2008Hey everybody this is Dave Gruss calling in for Team III on Aconcagua. It is the 29th of December and we have just finished a masterful day of leisure at camp I here and the MVP goes to Lewis who completely dominated the day in lounging. Its great, we have all actually caught up on some sleep, we are acclimating well and tomorrow we plan on moving up to camp II. We will give you a call from up there tomorrow evening if the weather holds and all is well. Take care out there.

12/28/2008Hey everyone out there this is Dave Gruss calling in for Alpine Ascents Aconcagua Team III. It is Sunday the 28th of December and it is evening here and we are just tucking it into bed for the night. We had a great carry today up from camp I up to camp II, the Ameghino Col. Had a little weather yesterday, we woke up to about four or five inches of fresh snow which actually made for some great step kicking today up to camp II. We are looking at a well need rest today here at camp I tomorrow, a little lounging with the troops. Everyone seems to doing well, Mo calls it the acclimate and dominate program we are on, so we will see how that works out for us. Hope that all is well out there for everyone. Keep checking in, ciao.

12/25/2008Feliz Navidad everyone, this is Dave Gruss calling in from base camp for Team III on Aconcagua. What a great day, pretty festive mood here, we had a rest day and everyone was enjoying it. Candy canes around camp, we had a fantastic dinner tonight cooked by the Grajales crew, and we’re just kind of tucking ourselves in to bed. Looking forward to moving higher on the mountain tomorrow and getting a cache put in at Camp I. I just wanted to give some holiday greetings to everyone out there who is checking in on us. Merry Christmas, we’ll talk to you soon, ciao.

12/24/2008Greetings everyone, this is Dave Gruss calling in for Aconcagua Team III. It is the 24th of December, Christmas Eve here. We just arrived at base camp and we are just getting settled in and hydrating. We Spent a long hot dusty day yesterday hiking up to Casa de Peidra, a long 14 miles, but it’s great to be at base camp. We are just checking in, but we just wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas Eve out there. We’ve got a little tree by our tents here and we’ll be checking in tomorrow for Christmas, everyone out there have a great evening, ciao for now.

12/22/2008 Greetings everyone this is Dave Gruss with Alpine Ascents Team III on Aconcagua. We are currently at Pampa de Lena, and we just had an incredible asado steak dinner cooked for us by our local arrieros, the gentlemen who are taking all of our gear up to base camp. We are actually all just tucking into bed, looking forward to an early morning tomorrow and a longer day, looks like we are going to have about a 7 or 8 hour hike up to Casa de Peidra. Everyone’s doing great so far and in great spirits and we are all looking forward to spending Christmas at base camp. Hope all is well with everyone out there, and we will talk to you all soon. Ciao for now.

12/21/2008Hello everyone out there, this is Dave Gruss calling in for Aconcagua Team III. It’s a quiet Sunday here in Mendoza and we had a few logistical issues to deal with, but by a miracle, Allen’s luggage arrived on the morning flight today and we are only an hour or two behind, but we are actually leaving for Penitentes, we will get there tonight, have some dinner and be heading there tomorrow. We had a fantastic steak dinner last night at a local restaurant and we will be in touch over the next couple of days. Keep checking in on our progress, ciao for now.

12/19/2008 - Team Assigned

Team 3 has been assigned and they are departing.

Departing 12/19/08 - TEAM III

Kevin Harris - climber

Mark Hathaway - climber

Sara Koffarnus - climber

Louis Mariorenzi - climber

Ellen Rowe -climber

Malhar Saraiya- climber

Pieter Swart - climber

David Turner - climber

David Gruss - guide

John Prudhomme - guide

Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa - high camp guide

12/17/2008 - 1 Day Before Departure to Argentina

If you are interested in following our climb, we will be taking a satellite phone with us and plan to post a cybercast dispatch every 2 or 3 days.

You can follow our progress at http://www.alpineascents.com/aconcagua-cybercast.asp

I believe that we will be Team 3 with the dispatches beginning around December 22 or 23.

Preparation for Aconcagua

To prepare for the hike, Mark hiked with a 50 lb pack and would hike at least 3,000 vertical feet and 3,000 feet down. Most of his training climbs were about 7 miles with 3.5 miles up and 3.5 miles down.

Mark's pack weight for his trip weighs 64 lbs and does not currently include the group gear yet.

When climbing the team will double climb each section, for example they will climb from base camp to camp 1 with half their gear, then climb down to based camp and sleep. Then climb again to camp 1 with the other half of their gear.