Yes, the whole team and our companion Erik at 5000 masl at Camp Canada, also known as Camp 1. We leave our duffle bag's at a suitable camping ground that Mattias had found the day before, a kind of unofficial way of "reserving" it for the next night. We are just on our way to eat lunch...Mmmmm, a casserole with pod. It taste great and everything you need is to pour some hot water in it and wait 5 minutes. But the thought of that we are going to have the same casserole with pod the remaining days creates a certain...unhappy feeling.

Since we have dragged our heavy bodies all the way up here, why not try to go even higher? We continue to walk upwards to maximize the acclimatization and aim for Camp Alaska (about 5300 masl). The picture shows the view from the edge at Camp Alaska. You can see Canada at the rocks in the middle of the picture, in the valley you can see Plaza de Mulas on this side of the lake, Hotel Mulas and the mountain Bonete at the top at the right corner (I know, a lot of talk about Bonete, but is it not a nice summit!?).

Another nice view from Alaska, à la panorama. But life here is of course not easy, the circumstances can any time change for the worse. We also meet the Norwegian team of Hvitserk again who we have met earlier. They look brisk and happy as Norwegian usually does. Marco and Robert thought that the altitude for today were high enough and stayed at Camp Alaska to feel the thin air and relax a bit. Olof and Mattias felt more inspired and their aim was to reach up to Nido de Condores, about 200 m higher. Keep on struggling...

As we have mentioned earlier the circumstances on the mountain can sometimes be merciless. The tent at the picture has been destroyed by high winds the night before and the person who owned the tent had to walk down again, sad ending on a expedition. We have heard many stories about people who have blown away ten metres when they have lied in their tents up here, it must be an exciting experience.

Here we can see two happy guys in Nido de Condores, a personal record for both Mattias and Olof to have reached this high altitude. The place of the guards up here is widely known since it is a rather ugly and old orange caravan from the seventies. How did it get there? Maybe it was a confused Norwegian guy on holiday that toke a wrong turn?! No, we guess it was a superhelicopter that had taken the caravan up to the mountain. They also meet one of our Romanian friends who had planned a more aggressive timetable to reach the summit. He has walked down from Camp Berlin to fetch their tent. They had planned to sleep in wind shelters that are available at Camp Berlin but these were occupied by some commercial expeditions... This extra trip (and bad acclimatization) cost him the summit, only one of those three reached all the way up the day after.

As the picture shows, the area between Plaza de Mulas and Camp Alaska is one long and steep hill with gravel. The fastest and most efficient way (but not the easiest) to walk down is to slide or glide in every step with a constant pace. It reminds quite much of skiing with considerations to balance and rhythm. It is fun but it takes the life out of your tired leg muscles. Olof shows off to the photographer.

Everyone in the team got together during the evening for a last night at Plaza de Mulas, that has to be celebrated. We were weak in our minds for a few seconds. We could simply not resist a delicious hamburger made of some wild animal (probably a mule) at one of the "bars" that you can find at Plaza de Mulas. Mattias Axelsson, a guy who we have recently become friends with had already been at the summit with his girlfriend, accompanied us. At the beginning of the climbing she had a blood count at 96 % (one of the highest recorded that season in Plaza de Mulas!). Despite this Maria got lung oedema and was forced to be evacuated down acute on a mule...afterwards we got to know that everything went well, we came across them at the hotel down in Mendoza about a week after the climbing.