Aconcagua - Summit of the Americas

Well, our Aconcagua expedition was both fast and slow at the same time.  We began our trip with as a small group of four people; our guide, Herman (working for Fernando Grajales Expeditions), a great Polish woman named Ewa, Kate, and myself.   In total we spent 13 nights on the shoulders of Aconcagua, and the first half of our time was spent acclimating to a "mere" 4,300 meters (14,300 ft.) before we made our four- day push to the summit. 

Acclimatization hike up Cerro Bonete

Summit of Cerro Bonete (5000m)

Scree skiing down C. Bonete

Plaza de Mulas - Basecamp

Sunset on the west face of Aconcagua

Aconcagua, towering above things

Our summit push consisted of three high camps; Campamento Canada (Camp 1 at around 5,000 m), Campamento Nido de Condors (Camp 2, at around 5,600 m), and Campamento Colera (Camp 3 at around 6,000 m).

Our intrepid group

Camp 1 - Canada

Hamburgers hand-delivered @5000m

View from the open-air privy @ Camp 1

Camp 2 - Nido De Condores

In a sad turn of events, Ewa began to feel really dizzy on the way to Camp 2, and so she decided to turn back and seek lower altitudes. Things got real quiet after Ewa left; with our limited Spanish, Herman's limited English and the limited oxygen at 18k ft, conversations were about food and the mountain, and not much else. We missed her incredibly and hope to visit her at her home in the Canary Islands sometime.

Rest day at Nido.

The "lake" where we mined water at Camp 2

We were feeling a bit exhausted and hypoxic after our climb up to camp 2, and Herman decided it would be best if we took an extra rest day at 18,000 ft  to recuperate before our hike to Camp 3, and then the summit.  This also aligned our summit day with that of another Grajales group of six climbers who were approaching from the Vacas Valle on the East side of the mountain.  We had met this group back at the hotel in Mendoza, and they were all extremely friendly, so we were excited to meet up with them again and to share the experience with a larger group of like-minded souls. 

Our hike up to Camp 3 (yes, it is really called Campamento Colera - Kate can attest to the origins of the name, but we'll spare you those details) was quick and we spent the rest of the day relaxing and mingling with the other group before going to bed early for the big day.

On our way Camp 2->Camp 3

Jeff's 'tea face'. Poor guy was forced to drink so much tea!

Camp 3 - Cholera

Looking up toward the summit from Camp 3

Sunset from Camp 3

The wake up call rang at 3:30 am and we were eased awake and upright.  After a leisurely breakfast of pound cake and dry granola we were out of the tents and ready to start going at 5:30.  Summit day consisted of a long steady push up the final 1,000 m (~3,000 ft.) to a final altitude of 6,960 m (22,837 ft.).  A lot can be said for this day, and there were many times when we almost turned back, but to keep this from getting too long: Kate and I were able to summit!!!

Near la cueva on the final push

We were pretty exhausted

Jeff, Matt (Utah), Luko (guide), and Walter (Germany)

The south summit from the true summit

We reached the top with Herman, two other members of the other expedition (Matt-the-machine and Walter, age 75 (!)), and their guide, Luko.  We  completely lucked-out on the weather. Usually one of the biggest obstacles (besides the altitude) is the wind, but we barely had enough to blow a flag around.  We quickly took pictures and made our way back down from the summit after only about 20 minutes up top.

Astonishingly, while we took ten days to get to Camp 3, we hiked out in a mere two, and were back in Mendoza enjoying the comforts of civilization in short order.

Packing up for our final departure from Plaza De Mulas

Victory parilla with both teams at La Patio De Jesus Maria