Climbing Aconcagua

On January 14, 1897 Matthias Zurbriggen from Switzerland reached the summit of Mount Aconcagua. Today the mountain sees more than 3500 attempts per year.

Aconcagua is one of the Seven Summits (the highest point on each of the seven continents). Aconcagua is very popular to climb because the mountain offers many straightforward routes to such a high summit. With these issues it has become one of the deadliest mountains in the world, as people tend to try to climb the mountain too quickly with no understanding of the elevation gain or the rapid severe weather changes. The key to climbing Aconcagua is to respect these issues, take your time and you should never climb it alone.

The main climbing season for all routes on Aconcagua is from December to February. During this time up to 3500 climbers attempt to reach the summit and approximately 65% reach the top. Most people attempt to climb via the "Normal Route" which follows the northwest ridge. Other more popular non-technical routes are the Polish Traverse and the Upper Vacas route. The Upper Vacas is still uncrowded but it is getting more and more popular every year. None of these routes require any technical climbing and ice axe and crampons are used minimally. The most popular technical route is the Polish Glacier.

More to Come...
In following posts I will have articles on the essentials of climbing, route descriptions, trip reports and more so please visit often.
Chau.
Mike