Aconcagua

When Douglas Beall and myself reached the summit of Kilimanjaro, we immediately started making plans to climb Aconcagua. After a preparation climb on Mont Blanc we figured we were ready for a bigger challenge. In February 2002, we traveled together to Mendoza. There, we were going to meet the guides of Fernando Grajales Expeditions.

In Mendoza, we also met the rest of the team. The team consisted, amongst others of Dave and Samantha Larson: father and daughter from California. Since then, there are a part of our climbing team as well.

After 4 days, we arrived in Aconcagua basecamp. From there on, we made two more acclimatization trips: one to camp Canada at 4800 meter and another one to Camp Nido de Condores at 5400 meter.

In our final summit attempt, everything went smooth until the 2nd camp. We received the message that the weather higher up the mountain was really bad so we decided to stay in camp 2 for another day. The next day, we managed to push through to camp 3.

Then, again, the wind was too strong to continue to the summit. The best option was to stay put in camp 3 at 5900 meter and wait for better weather. When we woke up on the 3rd day in camp 3, the weather had totally changed: clear sky and no wind at all. At 7 am, we left for the summit. We reached the summit at 3 pm and returned to basecamp on the same day.

Information:

• Name: Aconcagua

• Altitude: 6956 m

• Location: Argentina

• Coordinates: 32° 39’ 20’’ S, 70° 00’ 57’’ W

• Summit reached: March, 2002