 | At 22, 841 feet tall, Cerro Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas. Located in western Argentina on the border with Chile, Aconcagua forms the backbone of the formidable Andes Mountains.
On this website you can virtually participate in the climb by utilizing the two links on the left-hand side of the page. First, you can join the expedition by participating in the Mission of the Month at the Children, Youth and Families Education Network. The ArcGIS link will take you to an online GIS map of Aconcagua. The Spot Real Time Location Map is connected to a GPS beacon that will update our coordinates every 10 minutes while climbing. Come join us on our adventure! |
Expedition Itinerary
December 1-2: Travel from Palmer, Alaska to Mendoza, Argentina.
December 3: Travel to Puente del Inca (8,900 ft) and the starting point of our expedition.
December 4-6: Using mules to carry our equipment and food, we will follow the Horcones River to camp at Conflencia (11,000 ft). We will spend 3 nights at Confluencia acclimating to the altitude.
December 7: We will climb to our Basecamp location at Plaza de Mulas (14,000 ft).
December 8: This will be a rest and acclimatization day. Properly adjusting to the altitude is the key to a successful and safe high altitude mountaineering expedition.
December 9: We will climb to 16,000 feet and set up Camp I at an area known as Camp Canada. We will cache gear and food here and return to Basecamp to sleep. This is known as "climbing high and sleeping low".
December 10: Another rest and acclimatization day at Basecamp.
December 11: Leave Basecamp for Camp I. We will spend the next 2 nights at Camp I.
December 12: Today we complete another carry of food and gear to Camp II to an area known as Nido de Condores (17,500 ft).
December 13: We will move the remaining gear and spend the night at Camp II.
December 14: We will follow the Northwest Ridge and establish Camp III at an area called Camp Berlin (19,500 ft). We will cache equipment and food and return to Camp II.
December 15: We will move to Camp III which will be our high camp on Aconcagua. If all is according to schedule, we will spend the afternoon resting and getting ready for our summit attempt(s).
December 16, 17, 18: These are all potential summit days (22, 841 ft). Roundtrip from Camp III to the summit will take about 12 hours of steady climbing.
December 18: Return to Basecamp.
December 19: Return to Puenta del Inca.
December 20-21: Return to Mendoza and the flight back to Alaska...and hopefully Christmas with my wife!
