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Inchworming up the Vacas Valley
Monday, September 13, 1999
 Vern | |
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Well, we finally got some of that cold weather that we've been looking forward to do some training in. We had a rather violent storm come in yesterday and nail us with 30 mile-an-hour winds — first from the north and then, switching 180°, coming out of the south.
We ended up finding our cache and making camp in — oh, it must have been a complete whiteout at that point — howling winds...set up tents. We're all very happy to be here. And this morning, fortunately, dawning beautiful. So we're very happy about that.
Now, you're probably wondering what we've been doing for the past few days. Each day we've been moving our gear about three, four hours in front of us, and then skiing back and picking up our tent and our campsite and moving it up to where our food and fuel have been cached. And we're just sort of inchworming our way up the Vacas Valley.
Yesterday we had to cross it, which was very interesting, seeing how it's very icy, cold and wet. We ended up getting our boots wet on a couple occasions, so we had a little bit of a drying out challenge last night. The whole place got pretty steamed up. It was remarkable, but if you've got enough gasoline you can dry almost anything, is my theory.
Anyway, we'll keep you informed on what's happening, drop in again and visit us here in the Rio de Vacas Valley in Argentina. Team Omega signing off.
—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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