Summit! Summit! Summit!

Here's the news that everyone has been waiting all day for: Wes and Dan have summited Aconcagua at 22,841 feet!!!!!! Wes just called at 1:30 am Argentina time. They didn't leave camp this morning until about 7:00 a.m. They had pretty good weather up to the summit. It started out clear but got really windy and there was a lot of snow blowing off the ridges. They summited at 3:30 p.m. It took about eight and half hours to get there. Wes said it was a really tough climb. The hardest section was the Canaleta (a long gully full of scree, talus and boulders). At the summit, normally the climbers take a left to get on top but there was a guide waiting that advised them to go right instead. The reason for this was that the English climber was still up there and the guide didn't want them to see him. Also, there was another climber up there collecting the English climber's belongings. The guys spent a few minutes on the summit and took some pictures and then it was time to head down. A dangerous part was still to come - the descent. Since Wes and Dan got to the summit so late there were a lot of clouds that came in and made it a whiteout condition in some parts. They had to use the GPS to do some trail tracking to get back to camp. Currently they are at "Camp Cholera." They made it back to camp at about 8:00 p.m. They immediately drank a lot of water and crawled into their tent and went to sleep. Wes said they are both extremely tired but feeling good. They will spend the rest of the night at this camp at 19,600 feet. Tomorrow they plan to hike down to base camp, Plaza de Mulas, at about 14,110 feet. CONGRATULATIONS TO WES AND DAN!