Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Aconcagua

Any one done Aconcagua? I've done Kili and Everest Base Camp and want to step it up a notch. I'd like to do it in January or February of 2008. Any advice?

I did Aconcagua this December/January. Left for Mendoza Dec. 23 and summited via the false Polish Glacier traverse on Jan. 6th. If you don't like crowded mountains (or mule poops everywhere), I highly recommend doing it early: Leave for Mendoza before Christmas. By leaving on the 23rd, we were a couple of days ahead of the rush and had a pleasant climb up. But on the way down, it was a zoo. And this was on the Polish Glacier side. The Normal Route has 4 times as many people.

Rick Kent posted an awesome trip report with photos last year of his climb of Aconcagua...

http://www.rickkent.net/aconcagua/

Super stuff...

Chris

late Feb (late austral summer) will result in a lot fewer people at Plaza de Mulas, the 14,000 ft base camp for the standard route.

Still, we had subzero deg F nights at 16,000 ("Camp" Canada 16,000, Camp Alaska 17,000, and Camp Berlin 19,500 and a few nights at each level acclimatizing or waiting for weather.

Acclimatization is an even bigger problem on Aconcagua compared to Whitney. If you are doing the grunt work yourself by carrying loads up and down and above the end of the mule line (14,000)
then three weeks door to door is in my opinion necessary to take all this into account. Two of us did it that way ,athough if you go with a guided group, they may plan for a faster itinerary.

Harvey

PS: Picture is of famous lenticular cloud "Viento Blanco" (white wind). We had a lot of that. Pretty much a hurricane on the top nearly every afternoon. Start early.

If you want to see pictures of the route muddeer talks about, go here. The trip writeup is here.

If you can, consider the Guanacos Valley route - just a couple of outfitters do it. It is longer, but amazingly beautiful and clean (still). I did it in 2005 & until we got to high camp at Piedras Blancas we had it to ourselves. We got blown off the top by a bad storm that killed 7 people. This is a serious mountain that is underestimated by many. Season is mid December through February - earlier has a better chance for snowfields and fewer of the famous penitentes.

Don't even bother with the Normal Route - crowded, dirty, and a huge scree climb. We traversed from the Guanacos and came down the NR & that is a mega fine route. Pizza and beer at base camp city on the way out was way better than can be imagined!

Go for it - it is amazing, i'd head back in a minute! Bust your butt getting ready - heavy packs, as much altitude as you can get, and a lot of intervals...

I have a few images on my website, many more in my files. Dan Holmes Photo