Los Andes: Part 2

PART TWO: ACONCAGUA BASE CAMP

Aconcagua (pronounced with a silent “g” as in: a-kon-ka-wa) – 6961 m, and the highest mountain in the western and southern hemispheres. And, lucky for us and the rest of humanity, conveniently located right off the highway about 190 kms from Mendoza. From Cordon del Plata (see last post) we returned to civilization, and the lovely little town of Uspallata, for a couple nights to regroup, shower, stock up on food, and enjoy a chilled bottle of Chardonnay in the afternoon. Then it was back on the bus and west towards the Chilean border and the drop-off for Aconcagua.

The plan was rather simple. With no intention to actually climb Aconcagua – a task that requires a full-on and expensive “expedition” along with very expensive permits and long-term planning, not to mention gear that we obviously do not have with us (see last post) – our plan was a simple 3-day hike to the bottom of the south-face base-camp location. Interestingly however, regardless of climbing or just hiking, Argentina imposes relatively large fees for just “being there”. Our 3-day hike, even in the cheaper off-season, still costed us 90 bucks each just for the permits. But hey, it is the biggest mountain in the Americas and kind of a must-do situation.

The mission went off without a hitch. No snow this time, just lots of cold wind and physical exertion. Despite the wind, the MEC Volt A/C 2 came through with flying colours. For a tent that was never designed to be used for what we are using it for, it did us well. Although, it was hard to look at others’ 4-season tents, with their fully enclosed windless interiors and triple-ply flies, without envy.

The hike into “Confluencia”, the first camp at 3400 m, and intersection of the trails leading to the north or south face, was stunningly beautiful and relatively uneventful (i.e., perfect). Aconcagua is visible from the highway, and then looms large over the valley for the entire hike. The usual route to the summit taken by the vast majority of climbers is the north face – which is a relatively “easier” non-technical route that can be performed without ropes and other climbing gear. However, given the elevation and weather issues associated with a 7000-m mountain, every year people die trying to summit. Overall success rate is about 60%.

Confluencia is an interesting place complete with pumped-in water, a public toilet, a ranger station, and a doctor. The park authorities are very strict with permitting and require check-ins at each point along the way. In Confluencia a check-in with the resident doctor is mandatory to determine if you are OK to continue (i.e., altitude-related issues), and includes all the standard tests like pulse and blood pressure. We were a bit nervous that our 1-litre tetra-pak of vino tinto (perfect for camping!, and only 1 dollar!) that we just enjoyed might throw off our vitals. But whew, we both passed the physical with flying colours. All systems were go for tomorrow’s hike up to base camp.

The south face, or pared sur, is a much gnarlier intense route to the summit, and only attempted a few times a year. It’s a challenging technical route that is a whole different ball game than the north face. For us, the hike to the bottom of the south face is much shorter (and much cheaper) than to the base of the north face (3 days versus 7 days), and much more spectacular, so we opted for the south face base camp, otherwise known as “Plaza Francia”.

The hike to Plaza Francia, follows alongside a glaciated iceflow right to the base of the south wall. Despite the wind and cold, it’s a spectacular mind-blowing hike. It’s a massive world of rock and ice – the kind of place that makes you feel like you could get squashed at any second, and no one would know or care. At times the landscape is surreal and looks like the images of Mars we see on the news. As we got closer to Aconcagua, things just got bigger and bigger. The south face of Aconcagua is enormous and impressive, and nothing short of incredible. Plaza Francia is a moonscape devoid of life. At 4200 m, the south wall of Aconcagua extends vertically almost another 3000 m upwards. While there is evidence that humans have been to Plaza Francia before, no one or nothing was there. Sitting there enjoying our cheese and crackers, and staring up at this gigantic glaciated face, the thought of climbing up never crossed our minds. In fact, why anyone would be drawn to attempting the south face is beyond us. It is truly a gigantic, cold, gnarly, dangerous place.

Upon finishing off our cheese, we wrapped things up and headed back down the valley to our camp at Confluencia.  Again, everything went smoothly, other than cold wind and exhaustion, which is to be expected. Nothing is really that comfortable at 4000 m and surrounded by ice. Back at camp the wind was still howling and it blew all night, but the mighty MEC Volt A/C 2 stood firm and didn’t give an inch. We are proud of our little tent!

Next morning we hiked to the highway and caught the first bus going east towards Mendoza, and back to our base hostel, which now feels like home. Within minutes of arriving we were showered and sipping on a chilled Cafayate Torrontes (our new favourite white) in the sun. What a difference a day makes!

So the plan from here is to chill for a few days at our hostel. Dry out the gear, organize a few things, eat some steak, then launch into the other big thing to do around here: wineries! Our plan is to load up the bikes and head south of Mendoza to a couple of nearby wine towns, and, well, drink some wine (you know...the “tasting” thing). Cycle wine touring -- should be good. As always, more on that soon. Chau!