Leaving the city, getting closer

If you've been following our position transmitted by the Spot GPS, you'll have noticed that we are now about 80km south of Mendoza at the foothills of the Andes. Its great to be away from the busy city.

Here there is just a free running river, mules, goats, condors and 5
reprobates that stand out like sore thumbs from the locals. We had an
amazing evening flight after a short siesta at a local camp site at
6000ft. Its now time for soup before we turn in for the evening and
look forward to a hike and fly tomorrow.

Blog update by Jerry Mason

Last few on our way!

We are the last of 13 to depart to Mendoza Argentina.   We'll be converging  as a team Sunday Dec 20 and then officially on the trail Monday with 3 days until we reach Basecamp at 14,000 ft .

On behalf of the team I would like to wish everyone Happy holidays.

Brad Henry

Ken Hurley - the Eagle has landed in Mendoza...

Hi All,

After 26.5 hours, no hassle flight, no hassle with customs, long but smooth flight, I arrived in Mendoza. The Andes look smaller than I expected, however it may well be a lack of sleep prevented me from seeing to clearly.

My two duffels were slightly above the 50LB limit, however UA checked them all the way through from YVR to MDZ, no extra charges incurred. By the time I came through Immigration in MDZ, the bags were being thrown on the carosel, I picked them up, then sailed through the last checkpoint without a hitch, meals and all...
Get at least 100 to 200 Argentine Pesos in YVR to have so you can pay taxi in MDZ, and maybe buy yourself a cold drink at this end. Although US$ accepted in SCL Starbucks, and I negotiated a US$ taxi rate of $7 from airport to Hotel, and the Hotel exchanged a few US$ so I could tip the bellhop, otherwise bartering in US$ is much like it was in the Philippines when I lived there. In fact MDZ looks a lot like Manila, just a different side of the world.

Anyway, look forward to seeing one and all here

Ken Hurley

Advance Party Arrives in Mendoza

Late today Mendoza time (Okanagan Valley +5), Edmond, John, Jerry, Glenn and Don arrived in a balmy 34C in Mendoza, Argentina. The rest of the team will arrive by 20th December. Travelling down to Mendoza can be via various routes, these guys arrived via Vancouver, Mexico and Santiago , a mixture of JAL and Lan Chile airlines. The bagage limit for the route was 2 x 23kg for each passenger, everyone left with exactly 46kg! Not a gram to spare.
But we're safely here and planning some paragliding tomorrow as a treat, right by the city. Here's hoping you're all enjoying shovelling the snow, we're just off for an ice cream!

Blog Update via Sat Phone

The picture shows just some of the technology off to Argentina this Sunday with the advance party from the Climb for Prostate Team. I've been busy testing and tweeking all the equipment which will be
supporting the team.


Radios, laptops, satellite phones and camera batteries will all be recharged by the solar panel in the picture throughout their time on the mountain. The orange device is the Spot GPS which will automatically update our position every 10 minutes once on the mountain and post it on the map on this blog page, it's accurate to within a couple of meters, so if whoever has it clipped to their belt decides to go for a pee in the middle of the night, you'll see it happen live!


As a test, this blog entry and picture were uploaded via the satellite phone you see in the picture. I've just got to find out who's picking up the phone bill!


Blog entry by Jerry Mason

Climb For Prostate Training Video

While this was done in August of this year, it has taken me this long to find the video and post it to our blog.

There is a great interview of Brad, John, Kieth and Ken at the Liesure Centre.

Eight more days and I am off to Aconcagua... See u all there...

Link to Picassa Training Video.... Paste into your browser

http://picasaweb.google.com/kwthurley/Downloads?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2cnu20tta0cQ&feat=email#slideshow/5412925906961263442

Biff and Brad Do Flora Swiftly

Brad and Kevin recently acquired new paragliders for their climb of Mt. Aconcagua. Within a week, they tested their new wings high up in the Chilliwack Lake Valley. See the video here.