WACONIA-A pair of Clearwater Middle School teachers from Waconia will spend their Christmas break climbing the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere. Their journey will be somewhat interactive as they will use a daily satellite ping to alert e-mailers that have expressed interest in tracking their progress up Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. The 22,800 foot tall mountain is considered one of the most challenging climbs in the world.

You can also follow along Dec. 22-Jan. 1 as we bring you daily coordinate updates of their progress. Those latitude and longitude coordinates, "We hope it goes as planned," said teacher Christian Gilbert, can then be plugged into the popular Google Earth program which will then map their progress.

If you do not have Google Earth, it can be downloaded for free at earth.google.com.

Gilbert is a geography teacher, while his climbing mate Brian Honkomp is an earth science teacher. Both have made climbs of 14,000 feet, but none of this magnitude.

For the complete story, please see the print version of The Waconia Patriot Dec. 25.

The coordinates to follow the climbers are:

Day 1

Latitude:-32.8083

Longitude:-69.9417

Day 2

Latitude:-32.6874

Longitude:-69.9647

Nearest Location: Puente del Inca, Argentina

Distance: 15 km(s)

Time:12/22/2008 15:55:20 (GMT)

Day 3

Latitude:-32.7595

Longitude:-69.9677

Nearest Location: Puente del Inca, Argentina

Distance: 8 km(s)

Time:12/22/2008 20:55:05 (GMT)

Check this link for exact location

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-32.7595,-69.9677&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Day 4

Latitude:-32.6481

Longitude:-70.0584

Nearest Location: Caracoles, Chile

Distance: 17 km(s)

Time:12/23/2008 19:59:19 (GMT)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-32.6481,-70.0584&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Day 5

Latitude:-32.654

Longitude:-70.0638

Nearest Location: Caracoles, Chile

Distance: 17 km(s)

Time:12/24/2008 15:47:12 (GMT)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-32.654,-70.0638&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Day 6

Latitude:-32.6453

Longitude:-70.0433

Nearest Location: Caracoles, Chile

Distance: 18 km(s)

Time:12/25/2008 15:29:20 (GMT)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-32.6453,-70.0433&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1-Sun Patriot Newspapers