Earlier:
Fourth dispatch from Aconcagua:
Hello everybody,
Just letting you know everything is good. Rob and Brianna are doing great,
the father-daughter team. They're experiencing every day, setting a new height
record for themselves - they've never been above 14,000 ft and we're sleeping
right now at 16,600 ft which is roughly around 5,100 meters and we're getting
there...
We're at Camp I... did really well up here. Yesterday we pushed a great
carry up to Camp II, which is 5,800 meters, so a big jump and everybody did
really well. Rob's knee is coming around* and a little bit of sinus drip in
the back of his throat and persistent coughing (...) sleeping with a scarf on
his face as well as climbing with a scarf around his face to get a bit of
warmth going into him instead of the cold air. And Brianna is just cruising
along at altitude, what more can I say... she's doing great and her attitude
is positive and she's enjoying the adventure and just the excitement of being
on a big mountain. And it's great to see a father-daughter team working
together, great lively conversations in the tent. We're all sleeping in the
Macpac Hemisphere tent and loving it... a lot of room since Rob is 6'6"...
he's a big tall basketball player and he's fitting nicely in the tent.
So today was a good rest day, it makes us stronger and prepared...
* Daan says: I now realize that I made a mistake in the last dispatch. Some
parts were very hard to understand because of a dodgy connection and I wrote
'... Rob and me were a little bit hurting...' At the time I was surprised
because, as you know, Marty is a machine. After hearing this message I realize
he said '...Rob's knee was a little bit hurting...' Apologies!
---
Fifth dispatch from Aconcagua:
Hello everyone following us,
This is a dispatch from our high camp at 5,900 meters, roughly 19,300 ft
... about 300 ft below Kilimanjaro and about 700 ft above Mount Elbrus in
Russia, so just to give you an idea. So Rob and Bri are doing fantastic,
they're weathering it out at this altitude... never been up here before, so
it's a record for them. They're doing great, no headaches and (...) having
strength.
We went out today, out into a storm and tried to get up as high as we could
just to acclimate and the storm knocked us back. We're in the tent right now
and it's storming away and I guess it's like pulling the top away from your
dining table and putting a sheet over the top and sitting underneath it for 48
hours, 50 hours and preparing to then go for a 7,000 meter mountain. It gives
you an idea and that's what we're doing right now and everyone is coping well.
We're just waiting for the weather to break and hopefully try summit day
tomorrow, which would be the 10th and if the 10th doesn't work, we'll try the
11th and if the 11th doesn't work we'll try the 12th. So that's our game plan.
So if you don't hear from us for a couple of days, it's because we're sitting
still waiting for the summit and when you do hear from us hopefully we're on
the summit giving everyone a big hello from the top of Aconcagua.