Vallecito

Today we had planned to do a hike to the first base camp on Aconcagua. It is a realatively easy hike at elevation. Unfortunately, they don't let children under the age of 14 into the national park! It is a little hard to understand when it is perfectly fine for kids to drive to 10,000 feet and hike straight up to 15,000 in Vallecito. But with no option in the park we took this route. Vallecito is a tiny one chair ski resort at the base of a beautiful cirque of mountains. As we approached the ski area we saw there was a DH mountain bike race going on! The course was fast and steep. For the shuttle, the riders piled into a dump truck and some were towed on their bikes. Xander was wishing he could join them, but we headed up the trail instead.

The distance was short, but the elevation gain was fast. No switchbacks, just straight up we climbed the moraine. Everyone was feeling the altitude since we have been at sea level for awhile now.

We stopped for a huge lunch. We can't seem to feed Xander fast enough these days. It looks like he has grown a couple of inches this month since he is clearly taller than his mom now.

After several hours of climbing the moraine we got to about 14,000 feet. It was late in the afternoon and the clouds were closing in more. There wouldn't be more to see so it was time to turn around.

The descent was fast. The sun started peeking through as sunset approached. When we arrived at the first camp, we looked back and it appeared as though the clouds were going to lift. We watched for awhile and sure enough we caught a glimpse of the peak.