Day 6 - Campo Morrena

Our guide Willie woke me up early today to let me know that Matthew hadn't been feeling well. He was showing classic symptoms of altitude sickness and was feeling pretty poorly. So we gave him a little diamox and let him rest for a bit. Juan was also not feeling very well. The rest of us had another great breakfast of fresh fruit and yogurt prepared by our cooks. Afterwards we loaded our packs and waited for guides and the porters to arrive.

They eventually rolled up in a huge truck and began loading all of the food and equipment and heading up hill. Sam the guide joined us again and we met Mitcher and Alejo our other two guides along with Jamie Monks, another Brit joining us for the course. We had our introductions and went over how to prepare your pack for mountaineering. Eventually we said goodbye to Willie and head up the trail.

And what a trail it was, extremely rough, muddy and steep. But slowly we wound our way up and out of the Llaca valley. Over the course of the hike we slowly split into two groups. I was in the first group with Oscar the Danish Dynamo, the two British Jamies and Dylan. The others were lagging a bit behind.

We finally made it to the Campo Morrena at over 16,000 ft. We shed our packs and rested for a bit while Mitcher went back to check on the other group. He soon returned and let us know that Juan was not doing well and would be heading down with Alejo. Mitcher then went a little higher to contact the basecamp and set the evacuation in motion.  Alejo soon arrived, had a little tea and a bite to eat then headed back down to walk Juan out.

After some time the rest of the team members arrived and we had a hot drink and a snack then launched into setting up our tents. Once the tents were set we began the first lesson covering gear and knots that we would be using. This ran all the way until dinner, which started with another round of spicy soup (only one bowl this time) and some cooked beef,plantains, popas fritas, rice and a fried egg.  The beef was a little overcooked for me but the rest of the dinner was delicious. We finished with jello and hot tea before bed.  Matthew was having trouble keeping food down, so he skipped dinner tonight. I hope he feels better tomorrow. Tomorrow we head up to the glacier!