Trip Reports

Aconcagua - 21 Jan to 14 Feb '10

Written by Leader Terry Moore, February 2010

Having arrived in Mendoza in a sweltering 35 degrees it was time to relax by the hotel pool before preparing our baggage for a series of moves up to our base camp at Plaza de Mulas (4365m). After a long drive and overnight stop at Los Penitentes we arrived at the Aconcagua Provincial Park entrance to start our walk in.

Eleven excited Brits and Gianni, our local guide, we set off up the dry dusty valley wearing mostly shorts and sun hats for the 4 hour trek. With a cloudless sky we trekked to our acclimatization camp at Confluencia (3395m), where we stayed for two nights. We met Jeremy Windsor with his successful group of Jagged Globe summiteers on their return trek to the park entrance. Surrounded by some amazing rock scenery and stripped of any soil the mountains gave a raw appearance showing the many faults and folds of the mountains. A geologists dream perhaps, but not a place for botanists or tree huggers – what trees! On inspecting the South face of Aconcagua from a safe distance the following day we felt ready to tackle the long walk into base camp. Another hot day and weighed down with water we all arrived at Paza de Mulas surprised by the number of tents and buildings in place. This is a sprawling village with a variety of facilities, from bars, restaurants, and even an art gallery (highest in the world!). There were even hot showers! Our acclimatization walk up Bonete Peak at 5004 metres was climbed on 29 January in prefect weather. We could now see the profile of Aconcagua and observe the various camps and routes to the summit and hope that the settled weather would last. A new dump of snow a few days earlier signalled a change in conditions on the higher slopes, which we hoped would burn off before climbing higher up the mountain.

Entertained and well fed at base camp we started our series of walks towards the higher camps climbing steeply up to camp 2 at Nido de Condores (5559m). “Young” Barry had difficulty acclimatizing to C1, though after a rest he rejoined us all at C2 in time for the major assault on the mountain. It was here that the forecast of strong winds was announced by our local guides Gianni, Gordo and Leo. Remember those lenticular shaped clouds over the summits that signal strong winds. Well it’s true, so we dropped our communal eating tent and storm lashed our sleeping tents in anticipation for a battering. After two nights of deafening wind we had hoped for some improvement in the weather to ascend to our assault camp at C3, known as Berlin Huts (5933m). Unfortunately the winds were forecast to continue until 8 February. During this period “Young” Barry, Gordon and Dave had had enough of a battering and descended to base camp with Leo. The remainder sat through two more ferocious nights of wind before “Old” Barry, Greg and Al threw the towel in and descended to base camp.

With promise in the air of settled weather on 9th February Caroline, James, Richard, Phil, Gianni, Gordo and myself prepared for a long day to the summit from camp 2. This was our last opportunity and involved setting off early and ascending past the Berlin Huts before first light. We set off in fresh winds at 0420am making slow but good progress. At the ruined Independencia Hut at 6377m we rested before pulling over the “Windy Corner” and onto the long traverse towards the large gully of the Canaleta. The snow conditions were excellent for our crampons and the weather was vastly improving too. Caroline became exhausted at around 6500 metres and descended back to camp 2 with Gordo. A great effort. The remainder of us continued on to the summit passing other struggling climbers in the Canaleta. What a view from the top! Celebrating but tired, we now had to get down before dark.

The long descent with Phil complaining of knee pains and James from general tiredness we all returned safely at Camp 2 after a 15 hour day! This was Richard’s second attempt on Aconcagua(6962m) and he hasn’t stopped smiling since summiting!

After a celebratory pizza, steak, red wine and champagne at base camp it was time to walk out and drive to Mendoza. With flights on time we completed our South American experience with some excellent Malbec wine and steak in Buenos Aires. It even rained in the night and stormy skies heralded yet another returning storm to the Andean mountains.

Terry Moore, Expedition Leader « Previous report | Next report »

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