Aconcagua (South America)
Aconcagua (South America)
Date: February 2-15, 2025
Days: 14
Age: 23
Elevation: 6962m
Location: Andes Mountains, Argentina, South America
Route: South Route (Normal)
Summit: 2/7
Day 1:
The climbing group
Mendoza
Travel to Mendoza and meet with the group to organise gear and supplies for the mountain. I am climbing with a group of 4 other climbers. Sleeping at 760m.
Day 2:
Packing gear
Penitentes
Travel to Penitentes to spend a night. Pack gear for mule transport to Base Camp. Sleeping at 2700m.
Day 3:
Camp Confluenzia
Horcones Valley
Begin trekking through Horcones Valley. We trekked for 4 hours before arriving at Camp Confluencia. Sleeping at 3390m.
Day 4:
South Wall of Aconcagua
Trekking to Plaza Francia
We went for an acclimatisation hike up to Plaza Francia viewpoint, where we got a view of the Aconcagua South Wall. The trek took about 5 hours up to 4000m.
Day 5:
Horcones Valley
Base Camp
Mules
Moving up to Base Camp (Plaza de Mulas). We trekked for about 8 hours across Playa Ancha. Base Camp altitude at 4300m. Sleeping at 4300m.
Day 6:
Base camp storm
Making a plan
Rest day at Plaza de Mulas. I spent most of the day sleeping and eating as much as possible. Sleeping at 4300m.
Day 7:
Camp 1 (Camp Canada)
Hauling gear to Camp 1
We carried a load of gear to Camp 1 (Camp Canada) to acclimate and assist with our upcoming summit push. Wind conditions are a big reason for the low summit rate on Aconcagua. Wind conditions were averaging 100km/h on our summit days so we had to come up with some backup plans to maximise our summit success. The new plan skips over some necessary acclimatisation rotations and skips straight to this: Day 8: Camp 1, Day 9: Camp 2, Day 10: Rest day, Day 11: Camp 3, Day 12: Summit push. The summit push is now 4-5 days early. Sleeping at 4300m.
Day 8:
Moving to Camp 1
Camp 1
We are moving to Camp 1 (Camp Canada) for the night with all of our gear. Gained over 1000m of elevation. This is the first of the high camps, in which we originally should have been spending two nights or one more acclimatisation rotation. Sleeping at 5050m.
Day 9:
Arrival at Camp 2 (Nido de Condores)
We are moving to Camp 2 (Nido de Condores) for 2 nights, including a rest day tomorrow. This camp is located in a high pass at 5550m so we gained about 500m of elevation. The symptoms of high elevation are beginning to affect most of the group. I am noticing a loss of appetite and trouble sleeping. Otherwise, I am feeling strong and ready for a summit push in 3 days. Sleeping at 5550m.
Day 10:
Rest day at Camp 2
High and dangerous wind conditions are making it impossible to move to Camp 3 and summit on the proposed day. A change of plans results in a decision to attempt a summit push from Camp 2 tomorrow night. Although this reduces our chances of summit success drastically, the group agrees that it is our one and only shot. Sleeping at 5550m.
Day 11:
The only photo I got this day, looking tired.
Rest day at Camp 2 before the summit push tonight. I focused on sleeping as much as possible and eating as much as possible. I also prepared my gear to make it simple and quick to gear up tonight.
Night 11/ Day 12:
The Northwest Ridge Traverse
North Ridge
The summit
We left for the summit push from Camp 2 around 2am. With the original plan (normal for this route) we would have made the summit push from Camp 3, gaining just under 1000m of elevation. With the new plan, we would gain over 1400m in a single push.
We made it to Camp 3 around 5 am, covering 420m of elevation in 3 hours. Unfortunately, one member of the group turned back at this point, leaving just 4 of us. We left Camp 3 after a 30 minute break.
We continued on to climb the North Ridge to Independencia Refuge during which two more members of the group had to turn around due to cold, exhaustion and symptoms of high altitude sickness. This left just me and one other member of the group when we began the Northwest Ridge traverse. During this section of the climb, this member also decided to turn back due to extreme hunger.
After approx. 3 hours of climbing La Canaleta and Filo del Guanaco, I successfully reached the summit at 1:45pm on February 13, 2025.
The return back to Camp 2 took 4 hours, arriving back at about 6pm to join my group. I slept for the next 15 hours. Sleeping at 5550m.
Day 13:
Going down, down, down
We packed up all of our gear and descended back to Base Camp, where we rested and gathered our gear to descend the mountain. Sleeping at 4300m.
Day 14:
Last look at Aconcagua
Descending
We left Base Camp and trekked to Confluencia, where we had a brief break before trekking down to the gateway to Horcones Valley where we exited the park and departed to Mendoza.