Jan 12th, Piedra Grande campground

Piedra Grande is a campground that can be reached in about 2 to 2.5 hours from the ski lodge, and is situated at 3500m. This was the next step in the acclimatization process. I did not leave for this campground until the late afternoon. It is light here until 21h anyway. So I spent the day at the lodge, chatting away with all the incredible and adventurous people on their way up or down.


The heavy fog as I made my way up, with lots of determined, hardy plant life.

Gerardo was staying at the lodge again, but we agreed that, tomorrow, he would leave at 7h30, pick me up at the campground around 9h30, and we would go together to El Salto, a campground at 4200m and the base camp for surrounding summit attempts. He is very nice company, and our rhythms are very similar, making trekking together perfect. He comes to these mountains often on vacation, but usually ends up doing it alone; his wife and grown kids are more beach people than mountain people.

Where I set up my tent. I had not seen that the other tents were about 200m away and thought I was alone.

An hour later, it cleared up.


This is what it looked like in the morning. Pretty spectacular difference!