| Mt. Aconcagua |
| As the highest mountain in both the western and southern hemisphere's, climbing Mt. Aconcagua can be both an adventurous and a rewarding experience. At 22,841 feet or 6962 meters, Aconcagua is also the highest mountain in the world outside of Asia. It is located on the border of Chile in western Argentina, and is famous for its dry environment and powerful winds. There are several routes leading to the summit of Mt. Aconcagua, some such as the extreme south face or polish glacier route are technical, while others such as the northwest or vacas valley route do not involve ice climbing and roped travel. I climbed Aconcagua via the northwest route, also called the normal route. If you are interested in climbing Aconcagua, click here for details on my training program, gear list and for climbing tips. |
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| Aconcagua Links |
| Just about everyone who climbs Mt. Aconcagua will first make a stop here in the city of Mendoza. If you read my Argentina page then you'll know it's a pretty big city and you can find anything here, including all the gear you would need to climb a high peak in the Andes. Mendoza is only located at 800 meters or 2700 feet, so its not high enough to get any acclimatizing done, but usually you're bus or flight will arrive here where you'll make the final preparations before heading out. On the left is a photo of all the climbing gear I took on the mountain which totaled about 45lbs. On the right is a photo of Mendoza's shops, the last days of the city life so you'd better enjoy them! |
| After a few days in Mendoza we drove about 3 hours to the ski resort of Penitentes. From Mendoza itself, its difficult to see many snow covered peaks, but on the drive you'll pass by several such as the one to the left. The photo to the right shows Penitentes during the summer where its mostly empty except for climbers and people driving between Chile and Argentina stopping by for food and gas. Penitentes has a few hotels and hostels, restaurants, internet and places to buy snacks. This was my last night in civilization until I returned back from the climb. |
| After a night in Penitentes followed by a short drive, we arrive at the entrance to Aconcagua Park. Many people here enjoy just hiking and camping in the Andes, and the majority who enter are not actually climbers. Above are two photos of the entrance of the park, you can see it is located at 2850 meters, or 9350 feet above sea level. |
| At the park entrance I saw a helicopter land which is used to ferry supplies back and forth from base camp as well as rescue injured and sick climbers. On the right is a photo of a man's bike and a dog who rode all the way from Sao Paulo Brazil! The dog he found in the streets of Buenos Aires, and since traveled with him as he heads to the coast. |
| After checking in with the rangers and squaring away our permits, we finally started on foot to base camp. On the left is a photo of a sign warning you to have your permit before crossing the bridge. On the right is a friend I made during the climb, who is trekking through the hornocos valley towards Camp Confluencia. |
| Our first day's goal is to Camp Confluencia seen above. On the right is a close up of the Confluencia summit which is located above our camp; more amazing during the sunset. At this point we haven't even reached base camp yet, but at 3,400 meters or 11,500 feet, we are already close to the same height as the top of Japan's Mt. Fuji, shy by only a few hundred meters. |
| After the first day in Camp Confluencia, it is important to rest and acclimatize before moving higher. We take hikes to over 4,000 meters to help our bodies get used to the altitude. On the left is a photo of a large mountain where an Inca mummy was recently discovered. On the right is a view of Aconcagua's south face, by the far the most difficult, dangerous, and challenging route up the mountain. Only a handful of climbers attempt it each year. |
| After a couple days in Confluencia its finally time to move on to base camp! The trek to base camp is long but the terrain is mostly flat until the last hour. Fortunately we use mules to carry our gear to base camp, so the only thing on our back is a small pack with lunch, camera, and water. On the left are mules crossing a river carrying food and supplies to base camp, on the right is a dead mule found in the middle of the valley. |
| The main part of the hike to base camp is extremely boring since there is not much of a change in scenery. After a few hours we have lunch at el dedo, seen to the left. This also marks the halfway point to base camp from Confluencia, so its a perfect place to stop. On the right is a view looking back on the valley after we have made it all the way to camp. |
| On the left is a photo of base camp, also called plaza de mulas. The photo was taken high above, and as you can see it is mostly dry but still cold. Plaza de mulas means mule place in Spanish, and on the right are a pack who have arrived to base camp with their gear. Apparently the mules work 1 day and then get a mandatory 2 days off, so they don't have such a bad life! |
| Once in base camp we try to relax and acclimatize some more. Plaza de mulas is located at 4,300 meters or 14,500 feet. On the left is a photo of some tents, the green one is mine, with clouds rolling in on the background. On the right are some satellite dishes and solar power panels used for electricity and even internet in base camp. |
| Like Camp Confluencia, in base camp we also have to do local hikes to help acclimatize and stay in shape before moving up. On the left is a memorial of the first known climber of Aconcagua who summitted in 1897. On the right is another large mountain surrounding base camp, this one is in the 5,000 meter range. |
| On day two in base camp, one of our fellow climber's body hadn't acclimatized and only had 60% oxygen in his blood. He also had his lungs begin to fill with fluid as a result of the high altitude, and had to be evacuated by helicopter, otherwise he would have died! For the rest of us, we could only continue to acclimatize before moving on and hope the same bad luck wouldn't happen to us. On another day of acclimatizing, I explored an ice formation known as penitentes, where the ski resort we went to earlier is named after. The tall spikes of ice on the left are about the same height as a human, and are pretty impressive. On the right is some type of weather recording device that I randomly came across while doing local hiking with a friend. |
| For the most part base camp hadn't been too cold, because in the Argentina summer warm temperatures can reach high elevations. The best time to climb Aconcagua is in December and January, I went on the last guided expedition in late February where conditions are still supposed to be dry and relatively warm up to 15,000 feet. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, and after only a few days in base camp we had a large snow storm and cold weather. |
| When I first arrived to base camp I didn't think life was that bad. We had good food and services such as internet and showers even though most people don't use them because of the price, but still they were available. At the end of the night though, you still get back into your dirty tent and sleep in freezing temperatures in your sleeping bag. After a while you certainly are ready to move on, and finally after a week we moved to Camp 1. Even though conditions are harder in Camp 1 compared to base camp, making progress really uplifts everyone's spirits. |
| We spent one night in Camp 1 which was at 16,200 feet and then moved on directly to Camp 2. The reason we did not spend time acclimatizing at Camp 1 is because as the body gets closer to 5,000 meters it takes an extremely long time to acclimatize, and beyond 5,500 meters the body begins to get weaker over time, regardless of how much you eat or sleep. Above are photos of Camp 2 at 5,400 meters or 17,500 feet. On the left is the normal Camp 2, but we stayed a few meters higher to enjoy the cleaner environment and less crowded camp. |
| On the trek to Camp 1 and 2 we experienced more heavy snows. Once in Camp 2 it continued to snow again which caused us to have to spend an extra day at 5,400 meters, not part of the plan! Above is an extra food bag and a photo of our dinner which was reserved in case bad weather kept us on the mountain. |
| Finally even though the weather didn't completely clear up, it was good and promising enough to move to Camp 3 at over 5,900 meters, or only a few hundred feet short of 20,000. Even though the day before the bad weather was only in the afternoon, we weren't able to move to Camp 3 since it had received over 3 feet of snow which would make it extremely difficult to travel through and tiring to set up the high camps, nothing you want to try at 20,000 feet. |
| The weather report for the next day wasn't in our favor. We had spent forever on this mountain it seemed but the guide came to our tent and recommended we hold off attempting to summit for another day. I was so desperate to get it over with I asked if I could summit solo with a guide. He explained the weather the next day would only be bad in the morning, but the following day it would be excellent for summitting. Reluctantly I agreed and spent a second day at 20,000 feet feeling miserable with everyone else. On the upper left is another photo I took from Camp 3, looking over a cliff while being above the clouds. On the right is a photo looking up from our camp, with the large rock on the left being in the summit area. It looks so close, but its at least a days trek from our camp. |
| Like our guide had said, two days later the weather was perfect. We left Camp 3 at 7am in the dark and headed for the summit. The day was very long and split up into certain sections. The first was reaching Camp Indepencia at 6300 meters which wasn't too bad. After that, we had a traverse through deep snow to the famous Canaleta at 6,500 meters. The Canaleta is a steep section from 6,500 meters going to 6,700 meters full of rock and sand which can be extremely difficult. For us, the deep snow made the traverse twice as hard as the Canaleta, as it took longer and was much windier. |
| If you can pass the Canaleta than you can summit the mountain, the remaining 200 meters is still very difficult, but knowing you are so close is all the motivation you'll need. Unfortunately when I did reach the summit, the lack of oxygen made me feel a bit drunk and I was stumbling around! But still I was sober enough to appreciate the challenge I over came and enjoyed being on top of South America and conquering another one of the 7 summits. The only higher mountains in the world are the Himalayans in Asia, and since I was the last person to come down from the summit and the fact that climbers don't begin reaching 7,000 or 8,000 meters in Asia until May or June, it is safe to assume I was standing taller than any other human in the world! |
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