Following breakfast the next day, we were packed up and ready to roll by 10am.
Our travels will take us from Mendoza to Puente de Inca, about 3 hours away up into the Andes.
Our first stop was in Uspallata for lunch and tiramisu (which turned into a constant craving for several of us during this entire expedition).
The next stop was made at an Inka staging area where we separated our gear into 4 designated bags.
Distribution of Gear
- The first bag to prepare was for high altitude gear, which would be loaded on a mule and not be seen until we arrived at base camp, three days from now… this bag included stuff like climbing boots, crampons, helmet, expedition parka/pants, heavy gloves, extra layers, thick wool socks, etc. For this, I used a Hyperlite 140L Expedition Duffle.
- A second bag was to be packed with every day gear, which was also carried by mule but would follow us along the way to base camp: containing our sleeping bag, sleeping pad, food, etc. My second bag was a Gregory Denali 100 backpack that I would later use to carry my own stuff up from base to camp 3.
- Our third bag would be a daypack that each of us would carry with whatever we felt was needed along the trail to base camp: water bottles, snacks, electrolytes, sunglasses, sun screen, sun hoodie and the like. Here I used my Hyperlite Prism 40. This may be been more than I needed but the Prism is lite, packs small and offered some flexibility if I needed to switch things around.
- Any other travel luggage would be locked up and left behind at this staging area until the expedition was over. Packed in this bag were casual clothes, neck pillow for travel, laptop and whatever extra items we brought that were deemed unnecessary for this expedition.
Everything was bagged and tagged in a very organized manner.
When that task was done, we made our way to Portezuelo del Viento in time to settle in before dinner.
Not far from the Chilean border along RN7, this mountain lodge offers a comfortable atmosphere…
…and clean accommodations.
It’s a nice place to stay before the real part of our adventure begins!
