Vern

Hear Vern's Call from Aconcagua

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We're checking in this morning to tell you that we're changing our mode of operation. We decided that in light of our rapid movement through this valley that we needed to lighten our load a little bit, so yesterday was lightening day. We are going to drop probably a good 20% of our weight here. Instead of double-carrying up the valley now, we're hopeful that we can actually do a single carry and maybe get twice the mileage, which would be very good because as each day goes by, we're bringing up our food and fuel and of course we're going to need enough to get back out as well, so.

We're planning on being a little more rapid up the Vacas Valley and hopefully we're going to still be able to climb Aconcagua by the regular route — we're going to drop a lot of our extraneous climbing gear.

Today we're camped at 10,240ft in the Vacas Valley, and for those who are technically inclined, we're at 32° south, 41 minutes and .00933. And we're also at 69° west, 49.654. Temperature outside at 8:00 in the morning is 25° — a warm front came in — we've got about a 5.7 mile-an-hour wind coming out of the north.

We've been taking our blood-oxygen saturation levels while we're here, as well as our pulse rates. And Bob, apparently he's got an O₂ sat. of 91 and a pulse rate of 58 upon raising this morning. Myself, I'm also at 91 and my pulse has worked its way down to 39. We've noticed that the pulse rates have actually dropped as we're working on this. And the oxygen saturation has also dropped as we're going to a higher elevation. We'll keep you abreast of further developments, this is Team Omega signing off.

—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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