Mountaineering and Winter Trips

Mountaineering and Winter Trips - Aconcagua - Itinerary

  • About the Trip: International climbing & travel, culture, and a climb up the highest mountain in the Western hemisphere and highest outside of Asia. Aconcagua is also one of the famous "7 summits."
  • Group Size: 4-8 climbers with 2 guides.
  • Grade: Strenuous hiking on scree, snow, and possible ice. Extreme altitude adjustments, however route in very straightforward. We'll be attempting the "Normal Route." You can also expect extreme weather and winds at times.
  • Equipment: All groups climbing equipment is furnished by the guides: tents, cook tent in lower basecamps, ropes, protection, and hardware. You are responsible for the items on the gear list which will be supplied to you. This includes harness with locking carabiner, climbing boots, crampons that have been pre-fitted to your boots, ice-ax, and helmet.
  • Cost of the Trip: $3395.00 per person with 8 ppl. $3695.00 per person with 6-7 ppl. $3995.00 per person with 4-5 ppl
  • Your Cost Includes: All accommodations on proposed itinerary (2 total hotel nights in Santiago, 1 night Mendoza hotel, 1 night Puente del Inca in hostel, camping), group climbing equipment, tents, meals on the mountain, transportation and transfers once in South America, 2 guides: 1 American and 1 native Mexican Guide as lead climber and translator, 4-days of porter service on mountain, mules to and from Plaza de Mulas, and climbing permit fees.
  • Not Included: Meals in the cities, personal gear, alcoholic beverages, tips for guides (10-20% of trip fee per person suggested), airline tickets, airport taxes. Any extra hotel stays off planned itinerary. Optional trip cancellation and/or foreign emergency evacuation insurance.
  • Meals: Meals on the mountain are included in the trip cost. When we eat at restaurants in the city, meals are paid for by each person on the trip (the guide pays for him/herself also). Wonderful local cuisine is very inexpensive. Argentinean beef and inexpensive red wine are two of the specialties.
  • Preparation: This trip requires participants to be in excellent physical condition. Participants need to be familiar with roped travel, ice ax self arrest, as well as hiking in crampons. We recommend a vigorous training program prior to the trip, focusing on aerobic activity. It is extremely important that you feel comfortable with your use of the ice ax, and practice walking "off trail" both up and down steep rocky slopes and snow/ice. You must have prior high altitude climbing experience over 14,000', preferably in such places as Mexico, Ecuador or Peru. Although the itinerary is designed with acclimatization, safety, and convenient travel in mind, remember that what you do prior to the trip will have the greatest effect upon what level of success you attain.
  • Day 1: Jan. 11 Depart USA, take overnight flight to Santiago, Chile.
  • Day 2: Jan 12 Arrive in Santiago, Chile (1,800'). A guide or driver will meet you at the airport to take the group to a local Hotel for the night. Please note: if your flight isn't an overnight flight from the US, you'll be departing on January 13th, versus, January 12th.
  • Day 3: Transfer by bus from Santiago Chile to the town of Mendoza (2,400'), across the border in Argentina, 6 hours. We'll shop for provisions and enjoy the local culture, secure our climbing permits at the Tourism office (300.00$ per person included in price). Night in Mendoza.
  • Day 4: A pre-arrange shuttle will take us up to Puente Del Inca (8,924'), where we will start our approach onto Aconcagua with a slow 3 1/2 hour day hike to our first camp through the Horcones Valley at Confluencia (10,982). We will be carrying our packs with 1 night's camp supplies and provisions and leave the rest of our gear with the mule drivers for the main base camp approach the following day. We will have the help of a porter ( or possibly a mule) for the day's short hike.
  • Day 5: Today, we'll continue our acclimatization by hiking a long and strenuous day to our Base Camp at Plaza de Mulas (14,000'). Mules will carry our supplies to this Base Camp, so we'll just carry a small lightweight day pack.
  • Day 6: We'll need a rest and acclimatization day at Base Camp, to prepare us for the making of high camps toward the summit.
  • Day 7: Today's hike takes us another 4 hours higher with an elevation gain of just over 2000' to Plaza Canada at 16,000'. We'll sleep here. We'll have an extra porter here also to help carry group gear and food to first high camp.
  • Day 8: From Plaza Canada, we'll start the process of putting 2 high camps for our summit attempt. The first one is to Nido de Condores, which is a 4-hour hike up to 17,500'. We'll leave extra gear and food here and return back to sleep at Plaza Canada.
  • Day 9: We'll then take the remaining gear and food back to the high camp and sleep at Nido de Condores 17,500'.
  • Day 10: We'll then repeat the process of "climb high and sleep low" to our next camp at Camp Berlin (18, 963'), making a carry up to camp Berlin, about 3 hours hiking with another 1,400' in elevation, returning to Nido de Condores to sleep.
  • Day 11: Take the remaining supplies back up to our 2nd and final high camp, Camp Berlin, to sleep (18, 963').
  • Day 12: From Berlin, we can make the summit in a long round trip day, which is 3,875' in elevation gain back to Berlin to sleep.
  • Day 13: From Berlin, we can hike back to all the way down to Plaza de Mulas, this way it gives us some leeway with extra weather days if necessary. Porter support for the way back down to base camp from this last high camp.
  • Day 14: Plaza de Mulas rest day, depending how we are doing on time and energy and weather on summit days etc. This plan also gives us an extra day for weather if need be. That we can make up if taken as an extra summit day.
  • Day 15: Plaza de Mulas back to Confluencia (or even all the way back Puente de Inca to the Hostel if needed for earlier extra weather day for summit).
  • Day 16: Puente de Inca to Santiago for the night.
  • Day 17: Jan 27 Sightsee in Santiago for the day and fly home to USA that night.
  • Day 18: Jan 28 Arrive home from overnight flight.

Please note that this itinerary is merely a guideline and that conditions etc may affect the final destinations.

Back to Aconcagua (22,841): Mountaineering in Argentina