I would not be surprised if they summit by March 5th, based on Frodo's speedy ascent of Denali in May 2004. I reached the summit of Aconcagua on our 10th day on the mountain via the Horcones valley (normal) route last February 21st, on the second try from our 17,600 camp (5300 ft summit day). On our return to the 14,400 basecamp the next day, most of the huge tents set up by the guides (literally a tent city, with dozens of porti-johns, etc.) were being dismantled and very few people were heading up (season essentially over). So, Frodo, Arm, and MountainGirl hould have a fairly uncrowded ascent, I think, especially on the Polish glacier side. We had two sources for Internet access at the Plaza de Mulas basecamp, the one in the hotel quite reasonably priced (i.e., cheaper than Kinkos!). Believe it or not, Aconcagua is probably the cheapest of the Seven Summits, when one includes round-trip airfare from the States and goes self-guided.
Stay tuned.
