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Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic Evolution^SM

Cerro Aconcagua (Parque Provincial Aconcagua - Mendoza, Argentina)   At 22,841 feet* (6,962 metres), Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside of Asia. Located in western Argentina, near the Chilean border, Aconcagua is one of the "7 Summits" - the highest mountains on each continent and thus highly sought after by the world's climbers...

Click Here for additional pix and info on my trips to Argentina!

January, 2004:

Although I did not summit, I had a fantastic time in South America! As an individual, I was treated really well by the people of Argentina, even when I made such demands as "Soy vegetariano" (I am a vegetarian) - in beef country no less! Also, there was some South American hostility over America's recent invasion of Iraq with the Spanish Los Agresores ("The Agressors") used at times. Nevertheless, as individuals, the Argentinian people treated me, and the rest of our group, really well!

As far as the climb itself went, that too was extremely interesting. Eight of the 11 in our party made it to the summit from our high camp at Nido de Cóndores ("Nest of Condors," 18,000 feet*). This was an elevation gain of over 4,600 feet, a commendable feat (feet!) for the eight in our group who made it!

I, myself, went slightly above Independencia Hut, nearing the traverse, so this gave me a personal record of over 6,400+ metres (21,100+ feet*). It was here that a few days of sickness (mostly from food) really caught up with me so I made a u-turn and went down to high camp where I vomited and slept for 12 hours!

Here's Jeff Kunkle's great site covering our entire trip!

Here's for Bob Dawson 's Climber.Org report about our trip.

Here's Tom Jagger's account of our trip...

*It seems like every elevation on Aconcagua, including the summit, is in dispute. The figures I use, throughout this page, are the most accurate measurements I could come up with through the use of books, maps, altimeters and GPS. Sometimes three or four of us would be gathered, with our GPS or altimeter in hand, only to find that our current elevation differed as much as 500 feet between all of us! And, of course, Alex's altimeter malfunctioned so badly one morning it suggested the 11 of us were having breakfast a few thousand feet higher than Everest...

Click on any of these thumbnail images for a larger view:

Park Office in Mendoza	Me feeling smug at 14,400'	Tired mules...	Steve & Tom at the 14,400' Refugio Hotel
Another fun day at 18,200'	Jeff Kunkle finds us water!	Independencia Hut 20,997'	Stream Crossing
Bridge Crossing	Helping with the duffels...	Home sweet home...	30 kg maximum per bag
*All eleven of us!	Penitente ice formations	Penitente resting	Alex's finger and the rest of us...

Trip Tidbits:
(Things that happened while I was there)

• Although I didn't see the body, park rangers advised us a guy died about 500 feet down from where I was at Independencia. It wasn't confirmed but the rangers speculated Pulmonary Edema (fluids in and around the lungs and heart due to altitude). This was the first dealth on Aconcaugua for 2004. It was rumored a second person died, while we were there, but there was no confirmation...
• We watched two Asian guys being taken down from base camp, via mules, with serious head injuries from a fall they had taken.
• Above base camp (14,400 feet) there were "free range restooms," in every direction, that gave me plenty of stimulus to vomit.
• The restrooms at base camp made me vomit (especially when direct sunlight heated 'em up later in the day...).
• The altitude made me vomit (I did not take Diamox or any other altitude or headache medications).
• I vomited after watching another guy in camp vomit.
• At both 14,400 and 16,000 feet I experienced Cheyne-Stokes breathing, while sleeping, but it went away at our 18,000 foot high camp!
• One member of our team (not me!), on summit day, coughed up blood.
• One member of our team (not me!), on summit day, had to be revived with steroids...
• On our summit day a guy took his dog to the top in a full doggie mountaineering suit with booties (I wasn't fast enough to catch it with my camera).
• On our summit day a guy (from England, I believe) took an ironing board and iron to the top for an "extreme ironing" spot in Guiness World Records.
• On our summit day an entire Russian team made it to the summit - using oxygen...
• On January 23rd, the day before our departure, Susan and I visited the City of Mendoza's zoo.
• Our happy little group drove through (twice) Uspallatta - the small town between Mendoza and Puenta del Inca where Brad Pitt filmed the movie Seven Years in Tibet. I believe our driver had met Brad Pitt and seemed quite proud of it!
• Susan taught me the dice game Rat's Ass - I enjoyed it immensely!

Click Here for the 2002 MIT and University of Washington report on Water Quality and Fecal Contamination on Mt. Aconcagua...

Training:

Most of our team, except for possibly me (!),
undertook "tons" of personal training in preparation
for this trip. In addition to our individual efforts,
leader Bonowski also created a half dozen mandatroy
group training climbs of which the following was one:

Leader Steve Bonowski
These two photos were taken by Rich McAdams from our September 28th, 2003 training climb up Colorado's highest - Mt. Elbert (14,433 feet).	Tom, Laurie, Greg and Me (Sorry, we couldn't get the entire group together as it was like herding cats!)

Aconcagua -
The Name and History:

"The Ayamará Indians, living in today's Province of Mendoza, named the mountain Kon-Kawa, or Snowy Mountains, while the Chilean Indians, the Araucanos, named the river on the western side of the Andean crest Aconca-Hue, or "It comes from the other side." The Inca empire eventually reached the central Andes, where they called the mountain Ancocahuac made up of the Quechua words aco (white) and cahuac. There is no definitive proof that the Incas actually climbed to the summit of the White Sentinel, but there is considerable evidence that the ancient Incas climbed very high on the mountain."
- R.J. Secor, in his book, Aconcagua, a climbing guide (second edition, p. 15)

Who was first? Matthias Zurbriggen arrived on the summit, alone, on January 14, 1897. Zurbriggen was part of Englishman Edward FitzGerald's expedition, a trek Fitzgerald wrote about in his book The Highest Andes. The Fitzgerald expedition had to lay siege to Aconcagua over a five week period. It was only by the sixth attempt did Zurbriggen actually summit. Other members of the party were able to summit, over the following month, but Fitzgerald himself was held back by reoccurring bouts of altitude sickness...

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