Vern

Hear Vern's Call from Aconcagua

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We've been able to use our skis for the last day which has been a real treat. We haven't had to carry them which makes it real nice. There's quite a large storm that came in about three to four days ago and left a fresh foot of snow, and we've been crossing the avalanche path of that ever since. That fresh snow has finally set up enough so that we're now riding on the crust, on the surface of it, and that makes life so much better.

We're still slugging it out; we have heavy loads and slow going — the skis certainly have helped quite a bit so we're not punching through to our knees. The weather has been rather warm recently, after that storm it's warmed up, pushing about freezing during the night, which is good — that means the snow is going to stick around for a while.

And we're looking at new clouds moving in from the north, which means that we could get a little more cold stuff. As I look north right now I see a condor circling over the ridge that we're getting ready to head up to.

We're going to cross the Vacas River this morning, and that should mean clean feet, which we are looking forward to! Stay tuned, we'll talk to you later. Good-bye for now.

—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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