RRC Archives

In just 13 days, I head to Argentina to climb Aconcagua. Can't wait! Away from work for 30 days straight.

Aconcagua is a great mountain. What route are you planning on? Though you didn't ask, I'll offer a couple of tips. The greatest hazard on Aconcagua, in my opinion, is that it's easy to gain altitude very quickly. Because of this, pulmonary and cerebral edema are pretty common. There were two bodies at the 19,000 ft. camp on the Polish Glacier Route when I was there. Resist the temptation to race up the mountain. Nothing like sleeping with dead people laying outside your tent to remind one that it's a serious place. If you're chosen route means you must wade the river, and it's high, be careful where you cross. We had to search for a long time to find a safe enough spot. Finally, there's the wind. El Viente Blanco is a cold mother. On summit day my head was covered with a polypro balaclava, a goretex/ pile bomber hat, a Scottish wool balaclava over that, and finally, the hood of my down parka. Still, my windward ear felt like an icy draft was blowing into it all day, and my water bottle froze inside it's insulated cover in my pack. I was never that cold on Denali. The day before, when we moved up to 21,000 ft., it had been nice and warm, and dead calm.

It's been a long time since I was there, but El Lomo Loco in Mendoza was a great place to have a big steak dinner and Andes beer after the climb.

Damn. My life has been boring!

Thanks for the info. I'm never one to turn away advise! I'm doing the Polish Traverse route and am planning on being on the mountain for a total of 21 days. It's nice and slow going up with a quick descent afterward. The common concern I've heard about is the wind and you are echoing it. I'm hoping that what I'm bringing will be enough.

I'll be sure to keep El Lomo Loco in mind. I'm sure I'll be looking forward to a nice steak and cold beer!

Thanks again.

I like when Larry talks about climbing and not politics.

I think that's the same route we did. We went up to do the Polish Glacier, but a party ahead of us proved to my satisfaction that the wind had created unsafe conditions on the Polish Route when they rode an avalanche for about 600 feet. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but we decided to traverse over to the Normal Route from our camp at 19,000 ft. after that. We spent a week at 19 waiting for conditions that would allow us to move up. During the day it would actually be pretty nice at, but it was easy to see that from about 21 on up the mountain was engulfed in absolutely roaring wind. At night the winds would descend to at least our level and blow like crazy. I was glad that I'd taken the time to construct really bomber anchors for our tents.

It was a pretty boring week that we waited, but I just fell into the routine of melting snow, cooking, reading, and sleeping. Our patience paid off when the winds suddenly stopped one morning. We packed and moved up to the little "hut" at 21. It really was just an oversized dog house kind of thing with half the roof blown off. But I'm glad we used it as the walls at least served as a windbreak. Like I said, it was a beautiful warm day, and people from the Normal Route had summited and were now coming down with their parkas unzipped and with huge smiles on their faces.

We spent a perfectly calm night in the dog house, then got up in the dark and prepared to leave for the summit. Then the winds started back up and we crawled back in our bags, fully dressed, boots still on, and waited for the sun. At sunrise we got up and went to the summit in marginal but not suicidal conditions, then returned all the way back down to 19 that day.

sounds pretty cool day

how many gwg's does it take to do a polish traverse? 100001 1 to traverse, the rest to turn the mountain