Aconcagua 2015/16

[Traveler]

On 13 January 2016 at 12:30 PM I stood atop Cerro Aconcagua. Mrwaffles989 was atop earlier.

Congratulations to both of you! Sounds like it was a tough year to summit.

[Fisching]

I get into Mendoza on Wednesday and will hopefully be getting on the trail on Thursday (barring any logistical holdups). Anyone else going to be - or know someone who will be - on the mountain at the same time?

[herdbull]

Good luck, be safe but most importantly HAVE FUN!

[srranch1]

I get into Mendoza on Wednesday and will hopefully be getting on the trail on Thursday (barring any logistical holdups). Anyone else going to be - or know someone who will be - on the mountain at the same time?

I have a friend in Mendoza, today. Heading up today or tomorrow to base camp. His name is Terry, from Arizona. Good luck to you guys.

[I Man]

Peter (Derferenced) reached the summit this morning. For unknown reasons (so far), he chose the standard route. Forecast last night showed 20mph winds at the summit, but the Rangers forecast on site claimed 50mph. That might have played into his decision. Anyway, he still has another week there, so we will see if he goes for it again. Nice work peter! I think this is a altitude PR for him.

[mtn_nut]

Peter (Derferenced) reached the summit this morning. For unknown reasons (so far), he chose the standard route. Forecast last night showed 20mph winds at the summit, but the Rangers forecast on site claimed 50mph. That might have played into his decision. Anyway, he still has another week there, so we will see if he goes for it again. Nice work peter! I think this is a altitude PR for him.

He told me he went for the standard route.

"Did the standard approach instead of polish because it was a lot cheaper this way, maybe $650 less. Its a little crowded but that's nice, meeting folk from around the world. There's still a way to traverse over to polish route if I feel ambitious enough"

[Mrwaffles989]

^Oh that would be a fun circuit around the mountain. Problem is, he would have to go to around 20k before he descended to make the loop. With all his gear, that's no easy feet. And unless he carried his camping equipment up to the summit and descended back to Plaza Mulas, he would have to carry all that gear out from Plaza Argentine w/o mules.

I hope he makes it, on either route. The wind and snow have been brutal this season.

[mtn_nut]

I hope he makes it, on either route. The wind and snow have been brutal this season.

He made it solo yesterday from Matt's report. Yesterday has been looking the best so far since the 9th, but it looks like there might be another weather window on Saturday/Sunday.

[I Man]

I hope he makes it, on either route. The wind and snow have been brutal this season.

He made it solo yesterday from Matt's report. Yesterday has been looking the best so far since the 9th, but it looks like there might be another weather window on Saturday/Sunday.

Ah, I don't think we are all talking about the same thing here. My fault, though, as I don't really know anything about Aconcagua since it doesn't interest me.
Yes, he took Standard approach to mountain but had intended to traverse to the Polish Route. Sounds like he got a bit off route in the dark early morning hours and had to retrace his steps back to camp. After that he chose to go up the standard route to the top.

Doesn't sound like he is going to go for it again. With 2 other much more difficult expeditions coming up in the next few months, he is going to call it for this trip.

Well done, sir.

[dereferenced]

^Oh that would be a fun circuit around the mountain. Problem is, he would have to go to around 20k before he descended to make the loop. With all his gear, that's no easy feet. And unless he carried his camping equipment up to the summit and descended back to Plaza Mulas, he would have to carry all that gear out from Plaza Argentine w/o mules.

There's a few ways to traverse over, check the maps in secor's guidebook if you've got it (p98 in my copy). I scouted the one from Nido to the polish glacier, that took about 2 hours, so you could camp at Nido, traverse in the morning, climb the glacier, descend standard route to camp. Or you could do something similar from berlin/colera for a shorter loop.

The traverse trail is very faint, though, I failed to follow it again in the dark, so I ended up back at Nido at 8 am, and then just daytripped the standard route from there. Kinda accidental, but it actually worked out well, I was overheating near the top in the afternoon. I think it might be better to climb that mountain without an alpine start.

I think February worked out better than January this year, there were at least 4 days that people summitted in the 2 weeks I was there. It was windy in between those days, but there was no snow at all.

Greg (fisching) is still up there, I think he's trying to summit this weekend.

[snowypeaks]

Interesting story...

http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/sto ... rd-breaker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[herdbull]

Congrats on the summit! Looks like the weather the last few weeks has broke so it should be great for summit attempts.

Richardo Pena was down there when the women set the record. He was on the mtn near the summit when they crossed paths. Similar to Jornet's record "run" in '14 they don't actually run the whole way to the summit. Their pace is actually quite normal on the upper end of this climb. Richardo had a nice write up on his FB page.

http://adventureblog.nationalgeographic ... aconcagua/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;