July 11, 2007

Guide Joey Elton called today at noon with a dispatch from Team Mabunga. He said that the team woke at 3:30am to climb Pequeno Alpamayo, but unfortunately when they opened their tents they found lots of snow on the ground and fairly high winds - thus, no summit attempt. They instead went for a day hike in the valley up towards the Condoriri Glacier. They are hoping for the weather will clear soon so they can go for the summit of Pequeno Alpamayo tomorrow.

Joey said that the group has also had a very cool cultural experience in that they have been socializing with the local Aymara people, who live down the valley. The Aymara are indigenous to the area and speak mostly Aymara, but they also speak broken Spanish so the team can communicate with them using their own broken Spanish.

Other than that, Joey said the team is doing well and everyone has a healthy attitude about the weather.