The easiest route on Aconcagua expedition or Aconcagua climb is the normal route that we follow. This high but attainable summit can be reached by walking along the good trails and scree slopes (sometimes with snow). The ascent becomes further enjoyable when we approach through the beautiful Horcones valley on the lower part of the mountain.
Most members will fly to the lovely Argentinian wine growing town of Mendoza, stay in a nice hotel for at least a day, shopping for snacks, renting their gear, and getting their permits. Mendoza is known for beef steaks, red wine, and healthy people.
After everything is in order and the permits are in order, we will drive to Penitentes and load our mules, then begin our hike to basecamp next day. We will break the hike into 3 days, acclimatizing along the way, so that when we do reach basecamp, we feel acclimatized to the altitude.
We won’t be carrying heavy rucksacks on the walk to basecamp, because mules carry everything and we want to be adjusted to the altitude and if we are exerting too much, we won’t adjust to the new heights properly.In fact, throughout our climb, we take acclimatization hikes up to higher camps to get used to the high altitude, and let our bodies adapt. We often follow the mantra of “carry high – sleep low” which allows us to get used to the new heights in small cautious amounts.
Speaking of carrying, if you don’t want to carry your own stuff from basecamp up to the higher camps, it is easy to hire porters and they charge per 10 or 20 kilos load.
Now that we are talking about basecamp, let’s mention that we have a very comfortable basecamp, with individual sleeping tents, a very nice group dining tent and an excellent cook. The food is very tasty, toilets are clean, there are hot showers and laundry. Both Everest base camp trek and Aconcagua trips are offered during December and January by SummitClimb. Everest climbing cost/ Everest expedition cost differs from company to company so choose it wisely.
