Blogs from Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina, South America

Finally got around to posting and annotating photos from December's trip to Argentina. A synopsis of the Aconcagua climb is provided in case anyone is wondering about the details. Note: $1 = 1 ARG peso and at the time of the trip $US1 ≈ 3.9-4.0 pesos. Day -2, 12/9/2010 - Spent the day in Atlanta after a red-eye from Seattle. Slept in the terminal for about 3 hours til 9 am before grabbing some breakfast and heading downtown for the CNN tour which was kind of lame. The long, uneventful flight to Bs As left around 8 pm. Sadly no upgrade since it was a frequent flier ticket but that did not preclude me from asking. At least I had an exit row for the 10 hour flight. Day -1 - Arrived on time in Bs ... read more

Aconcagua Tales - Feb 2010 The climbing season for Aconcagua is short. The only potential window to reach the top of this mountain is between the months of December and February. During this time the snows retreat, the winds subside a little, the temperatures at the summit become bearable, and visibility during night and day are clear. Though the sun may scorch down from a cloudless dark blue sky, the high UV in the thin air requiring full protective sunglasses, this is the brief space when mountain climbers from across the world make their way to Mendoza in Argentina to make their attempt on scaling the summit. I was fortunate to be part of an entirely international expedition. As I read the correspondence sent to me in the Mendoza internet cafe, I realised that no two ... read more

Nous en sommes a nos dernieres journees en Argentine. Ce fut un voyage superbe ou nous avons eu la chance de rencontrer des gens exceptionnels et ou nous avons du accepter nos limites physiques. L ascension de l Aconcaga jusqu a la plaza de Mulas nous a fait realiser qu nous n avions plus vingt ans. Cependant les panoramas exceptionnels nous ont vite fait oublier nos bobos. Plusieurs personnes ont fait que ce periple fut encore plus enrichissant. Il y a eu Alex ,ce jeune pompier de St-Jean qui a passe quelques jours avec nous et qui a manque de peu le sommet de l Aconcaga, puis Meredith ,cette Londonienne originaire de Sidney Australie qui s est rendu a la plaza de Mulas avec nous,il y a eu aussi ce photographe du National Geographic Michael Lewis ... read more

Road to Aconcagua National Park Ruta 40 heads south out of the winegrowing region of Mendoza towards Bariloche. This is the main Andean carriageway of Argentina, stretching from the Bolivian border in the north, 5100km down to the southern most part of Patagonia in the south. It forms part of the Pan American, a road which, apart from a few miles between Colombia and Panama, forms a continuous highway into northern Alaska. 20km or so beyond Mendoza, Ruta 7 turns west, towards to Chilean border, Aconcagua National Park, and the route across the Andes. The skyline is marked also by the metal towers and gas burning flame of a petrochemical station, and a steady flow of tankers heads to and from the plant. As this is the region close to the border, police checkpoints are common ... read more

Sept 29, 2009 Now experts on the Santiago International Airport, we quickly obtained some more Chilean Pesos and found the cheap Centropuerto bus that goes downtown near the hotels/hostels. We decided to look around for a place to stay different from our previous hostel. The cheap price and proximity to the bus station drew us back to our original hostel. Because it was late, we were exhausted, we were ravished, and there wasn’t much open, we ate chicken at Burger King! We definitely prefer the local cheap chicken places. Afterwards we enjoyed some street vendor bread with carmel sauce - very common there. Sept 30, 2009 The next morning we had limited time before our first “long” bus ride to Mendoza, Argentina. We decided to use that time to run to Santa Lucia, a famous place ... read more

Getting a bit citied out so we escape into the Andes for two days of trekking. Meet up with a couple of doctors from London, our guide Roderick and his trusty dog Mork (named after our alien friend, yep it seems Mork & Mindy made it as far as South America). Day 1 we summit to what must be the windiest place on earth, only about 1km vertical rise but enough to get the heart pumping when you start at 2500m. Then retire to a refuge in the mountains for red wine by the fire and poker by candlelight. Waking on day 2 we´re in for a surprise as they´ve had about 6 inches of snow overnight (from a base of zero). Today´s trek is a bit more of an endurance test given the continuing snowfall ... read more

Parque Provincial Aconcagua - ... ueber gewonnene Erfahrungen beim (Hoehen)Bergsteigen am Cerro Aconcagua Tag 1 - Heute ist Samstag, der 21.02.2009 Ich befinde mich auf dem Weg zum Busbahnhof. Mit der Fahrt von Mendoza nach Puente del Inca beginnt das bisher groesste Abenteuer dieser Reise und meiner noch nahezu jungfraeulichen Bergsteigerlaufbahn. Ohne bisher selbst die 4.000er Grenze ueberschritten zu haben, liegt vor mir nun, zumindest theoretisch, die Besteigung des 6.962 m hohen Cerro Aconcagua. Ca. 180 km westlich von Mendoza liegt unweit der chilenischen Grenze an der Ruta Nacional 7 mit dem Cerro Aconcagua nicht nur der hoechste Berg beider Amerikas, sondern gleichzeitig der hoechste Berg ausserhalb Asiens. Dessen Erstbesteigung ueber die heutige sogenannte Normalroute vom 14.01.1897 geht auf ein Team von Kletterern unter der Leitung von E.FitzGerald und den Schweizer M.... read more