Safe Arrival at Base Camp, mule included

I just got a call from Scott about an hour ago, and he is at base camp and feeling good. His muleteer and mule met him there with a large portion of his gear. Tomorrow he will make a trip up to Camp II with a load of supplies to stash behind some rocks for him to use when he reaches that point. He'll spend another night down at Base Camp as part of the acclimatization process (so his body gets used to the altitude).

Though there are several other climbing parties there, the language barrier is a factor, so he will be climbing the Normal Route rather than traversing the Polish Glacier.

We figured out that he is 5 hours ahead of Pacific Time in the region of Argentina where he is located. I should get another call from him in about 5-6 days after he has successfully reached the summit and makes it safely back to Base Camp.

In the meantime, he is using the Spot tracker to send me "okay" messages every day so that I know he's alright. He also has a "help" message programmed in that he can send me if I needed to contact the ranger with his exact coordinates, but let's hope I don't ever get to see that message. I copied a link to this post that shows his last coordinates, so you can see where he's at on Google maps if you're interested. (just click on the title of this post) Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts!

Aconcagua Expedition - '08/'09

Merry Christmas Eve! Scott leaves tomorrow afternoon for Argentina, where he will embark on a climbing expedition to the highest point in South America. Aconcagua stands tall at 22,841 ft. in the midst of the Andes mountain range, where there are eight other major peaks over 22K. Aconcagua is the highest point in the Western Hemisphere, and it is located in western Argentina near the border of Chile.

Here are some pictures of Scott and I at the highest point in Costa Rica during our vacation this Thanksgiving. Reportedly you can see both the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans from the top of Mt. Chirripo (12,530 ft.), but unfortunately it was much too rainy and cloudy for us to get a view, but all 3 of us made it safely to the top - Scott, Dana and Bambino!

Team Shasta/Core Concepts at the finish line

Photos by Shan Weatherbee, Support Crew Lead

Congratulations on a 19th place finish!

Congratulations Team Shasta/Core Concepts!

Photo compliments of the PQ website:

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/pq/

(photographer unspecified)

Woohoo! They have crossed the finish line - great job, team! It should be a Top 20 finish, which is just amazing. Congratulations and we're very proud of you: Chad, Mark, Scott and Tracey!

Thank you again to the dedicated support crew for their undying efforts. Great job!

Team Shasta/Core Concepts #16 (http://team16.ecoprimalquest.com/):

Chad Markle - Salt Lake City, UT

Mark Henderson - Reno, NV

Tracey Robertson - Carmel, NY (native of Scotland)

Scott Wazny - Portland, OR

Support Crew:

Shan Weatherbee - Portland, OR

Jim Wazny - Selmer, TN

Andy Garza- Bozeman, MT

Bring 'em home!

Well, the race to the finish is ON! They are cruising on this final bike leg and have even passed a team who had a headstart on them by skipping the ropes section, and now they're closing the gap on another team in that situation. You can tell they are motivated to cross that finish line.

Thanks for all your support of the team. I know it means a lot to them, and they'll be reading the blog and all your comments once they are back home and well-rested.

We are all proud of them for finishing such a grueling race course together - what an accomplishment! It will be interesting to hear all the war stories when they get home.

Compliments of the PQ website - here's Team Shasta trekking along with the Dirty Avocados II
(photos by Mike Hedge)

On the Road Again

Team Shasta/Core Concepts left the final Transition Area at Ennis Lake at ~7am MT, so they are now biking their way to the finish line on the final 27-mile leg of the race.

Almost there now - can you feel it?!

Check out this picture of Tracey in the Gallatin River from the PQ website - she's buoyant as always! You'll have to ask her later why she's sporting another team's # on her PFD. I'm sure there's a good story behind it.

(photo by Wouter Kingma)

Have a Coke and a smile!

Looks like Mark found some refreshment!

(photo by Wouter Kingma - PQ website:)

Update on Team #16: no official word yet but it looks like they are at Lake Ennis getting ready to mount their bikes and ride 'em on home.

The PQ Leaderboard is still incorrect - they should be in 20th place just behind Dancing Pandas (#78).