Aconcagua Jan '14

[fallatj]

Is anyone else from Colorado traveling down to Argentina to give Aconcagua a shot? My wife and I are and were just curious if anyone else would be down there in the mid-Jan to early Feb timeframe.

[shearmodulus]

The Summit for Soldiers crew is headed there now.

[fallatj]

Best of luck to them! Maybe we'll see you guys at base camp after your successful summit as we're on our way up.

[rkalsbeek]

Kushrocks is down there now! Him and his Team should be getting to the mountain today/tomorrow I believe.

[fallatj]

Great! I guess we're leaving a little later than other Colorado hikers. We're going to try to use this cold weather to test our gear and wills some more before we head down there. I hope there are some trip reports from these groups when they get back, I'm sure a lot of people could benefit from them.

[SteveBonowski]

January and February are the prime climbing months on Aconcagua. Of course, being high season, the fee for climbing permits is also at its highest.

[herdbull]

If you have any specific questions or want to talk about the trip give me a shout. I just got back home to the states from a successful solo ascent on 1/5/14. I'll do my best to fill you in on this years route, conditions and camps.

Thanks.

[MountainHiker]

If you have any specific questions or want to talk about the trip give me a shout. I just got back home to the states from a successful solo ascent on 1/5/14. I'll do my best to fill you in on this years route, conditions and camps.

Thanks.

Congratulations

Can we look forward a trip report?

[herdbull]

Thank you. Ahhhh..errr.... trip report. Yeah, but it's going to take awhile. I'm kind of detailed oriented so my trip reports tend to be long and kind of in depth. See last January's report to Orizaba. So I need to set aside a morning some weekend and just get to it. I thought I could maybe still help people out yet this season that want to get down there.

For example..... I'd absolutely take a water filter of some sort to Canada. After that it's all snow melt. I left mine in BC against my own judgement after talking with some other climbers. I also stayed at Berlin versus Colera. Not much snow in Colera and it's packed tight. Everyone seems to want to be there. Berlin was "dirtier" but had good clean snow very close by and you could easily grab the one hut that was snow free.

Also don't bother with crampons at Independencia like everyone else does. They aren't needed for at least another hour or until La Cueva. I followed suit like every other climber and put mine on too early. And I'm sure everyone else asked themselves over and over why they still had them on - lol.

I also paid for 1 night full board at BC with INKA. I thought the meal and sleeping arrangements would be a good idea the first night. I was right, they were. After that I would pay the $15/night to stay in INKA's bunkhouse. tons of room and a nice area to sleep along with a mattress of some sort. For the price I wouldn't bother setting up my own tent for a few nights while you acclimate.

Also if traveling from the states I didn't bring some things like mixed nuts, beef jerky, peanut butter, things like that, that I was afraid wouldn't make it through customs. Another climber from the states had all of the above and no issues with customs what so ever. They don't know what jerky is down there and PB was really hard to find.

Again if anyone wanting to go has specific questions please feel free to hit me up and I'll do my best to help.

Thanks.

[fallatj]

Thanks for the info, and congratulations on making the summit! That's really impressive solo, I couldn't imagine trying to do all the logistics without a guide. You already answered a couple questions I have, but I'll shoot you an e-mail later today with a few others.

[climbing_rob]

Thanks for the info, herdbull, and a hearty congratulations! Did you perhaps run into a couple pals of mine from CO, Bill, Sam and his son? they travelled from CO on Jan. 5th, probably got to the t/h maybe about the time you were leaving.

Anyway, I cannot believe I'm doing this, but I'm heading back this December for a 2nd climb of this big bad-boy, why not, my wife and friends want to climb it. Last time we just summited directly from Nido, which I thought was great, but this trip we're doing the Polish traverse, so not sure yet how that will work. Looking forward to your report and more info, as I'm sure things have changed from when we climbed it 10 years ago.

[MountainHiker]

We had our driver take us to a SuperWalmart in Mendosa. So we were able to buy all the super market items we wanted. If there is a particular trail snack you want, it would be best to pack it.