Here we go…

I know I said in my last post I’d be writing about my gear for Aconcagua but that’ll have to wait till after I summit. I landed this morning in Santiago, Chile and got my first glimpse of Aconcagua during our descent.

It looks massive way out there standing above the rest of the Andes. I’m really excited for the challenge that lies ahead of me. I’ve trained hard and now all that’s left to do is trust myself and get this next summit.

I have a few days until I start and will be spending them exploring Santiago before heading to Mendoza, Argentina where I begin the trek. Here in Santiago I’m staying in a cool and funky hostel called The Rado. It’s got a lot of cool Rock n Roll inspired art all over the place.

I met another one of my teammates Mike Tancer who also lives in San Francisco. We grabbed some beers and started getting excited for the climb.

Once I’m on the mountain I’ll be out of reach so there won’t be any updates and as I’ve told my family and friends “no news is good news”. I plan to bring my journal up with me to write something everyday which I will then post once I’m back. I’m also going to take a selfie every morning to accompany my journal entries so you can see what 20-ish days on the mountain looks like. I think it will be entertaining to see how haggard I end up looking over the course of the expedition.

Once I’m in Mendoza I hope to write one last post about meeting my team and about all our prep before we head out.